5+5+5......

We are going to visit Charlie's grandparents in Florida tomorrow. The fact that we are getting on a 3 hour flight with our very active 15 month son has been the source of some apprehension in this Mama's heart.

For the last couple weeks I've been on the look out for things I can put together for a little activity bag for the plane. Additions to the bag need to capture Charlie's attention for at least five minutes (his attention span is very short) and have to be free or very inexpensive (our budget for such things is small). I ended up spending $7.50 at the dollar store and feel pretty good about what I have so far:

From left to right:
1. Coloring book (free) and crayons (1$)--5-10 minutes
2. skinny balloons with pump (1$) --5-10 min
3. play dough (1$)--hoping for 5 min, he's never used it before
4. sunglasses (1$)--5 min
5. popsicle stick bottle (1$)--10min, I cut a slit in the cap for Charlie to slide the popsicle sticks through...he gets fascinated with that sort of thing.

5. windup car (free)--5 min
6. bag of plastic animals (1$)--5 min
7. wrench with hole in it that can be swung around finger like a helicopter blade (free)--5 min if combined with dad's helicopter sound effects and creativity
8. plastic caps which fit inside one plastic Easter egg (free)--5 min
9. bag of small cars and trucks (free)--10-15 min in combination with dad's creativity and sound effects
10. pom poms (1$)--5 min
11. 5 books (already owned and from library)--25 min
12. flash cards (no cost)--10min
13. M n M's--5 min (and our get out of jail free card for a true emergency. The Snickers are for us, just in case we need some emergency encouragement)
Total entertainment is 1 hour and 45 min on the low side, 2 hours on the high side. And, it only weighs 3 pounds and fits in my backpack! (Am I way to anal for calculating that?)

Here it is all ready to go.

Now you know in exact detail what we will be doing between 4pm and 7pm tomorrow!