A Few Products for the Road

Occasionally companies send me their products to try in hopes they'll get a mention on my website. Here are a few that I've tried recently:

That Gunk on Your Car was a funny reference book that I enjoyed on a recent road trip. It's a field guide to insects that have likely splatted against your windshield. It was a cute book for older children or adults. I especially enjoyed the color photos of the splats to help identify some of the insects. It was divided into chapters regarding each of the more common insects. It's not something you would necessarily read straight through, but made a great reference guide.

Along with that book, I tried a product to help me remove those sticky bugs from my car windshield. It was Prestone Bug Wash windshield washer fluid. I poured it into my windshield washer reservoir and hit the road. It actually did a great job removing bugs after I slammed into them, mile after mile. It did such a good job that I had my teenager clean the front of the minivan with it when we got home.

Finally, I tried the Energizer 15 minute battery charger for AA and AAA rechargeable batteries. It really worked in only 15 minutes, although it was a little louder than I expected it to be because of the fan that runs while it is working. It's a very small unit, but the plug adapter is as big as the unit its self. It did come with two pairs of batteries to get you started, and also a car adapter plug so you can use it on the road to keep those video game remotes charged and working. After a few uses, this unit would pay for its self, although it's a little bit of an investment for starters. You can't beat the 15 minutes to charge though!

Flair for the Road

I recently tried a new product called Glam Bags. These reusable travel bags claim that they will add a little bit of glamor and style to your life while you travel. Now, I am not normally a super fashion-conscious traveler, but I have to admit that I did feel a little bit more luxurious with my precious pretties in these designer bags than I did carrying them around in those old sandwich bags.

The pretty-factor makes me want to reuse them as much as I can too. They are convenient and attractive and that little bit of flair that they add to your trip really makes them worth it! I'll definitely be taking these along on all my trips from now on.

Printable Bingo Cards - Reuse them!

A MomsMinivan reader, Barbie, posted a picture (above) on her blog Mamaology showing how to re-use the printable bingo cards from the printable car games page on Momsminivan.com.

She wrote, "I made some games from a website called... momsminivan.com. The Bingo game above is from there. You can print it out for free, place it in a ziplock bag and use dry erase markers to check off the items you find, then erase it and use it again. I plan to give lollipops to the winner of the games."

These bingo cards are the perfect size to fit into a quart sized freezer bag. The dry erase markers work perfectly on them. Fantastic! Thanks for sharing, Barbie. I hope you had a great trip with all of your adorable girls.

Virtual Hide and Seek

One of my readers recently sent me this game that her family plays. They call it "Virtual Hide and Seek". It's a great game for the car that only requires your imagination.

Pick a place inside your house to hide, and imagine you are there. You can be any size, so you can hide in the silverware drawer, inside the toilet, in the dryer, wherever you can imagine! The others ask yes/no questions only, such as "are you in the kitchen" until they narrow it down to the room, area and then....find you! Kids love this game because it's so fun to hide in places you'd not really fit into.

You may have to clarify no hiding between walls and in plumbing! (Submitted by reader, Beth K. Thanks!)

Ultimate Printable Car Games!

Someone finally put all the fun printable car activities into one big fat ginormous printable book. It's the Ultimate Road Trip Games book, that you can download and print. I love it!

It's over 140 pages of stuff to do in the car. Print just the pages you want, and as many as you need for all your kids, and print more for your next trip.

A few activities are similar to the printable car games that I have available on MomsMinivan, but they have taken them to a whole new level, and included many many more, in an easy printable format.

We're excited about the "secret mission" game. This one sounds just right for my school age children, and we can't wait to play it on our next trip. None of the activities require any extra materials other than a pencil and the printed sheets. Use it over and over for every trip you take.

Overall, I think it's terrific! It's definitely worth the purchase price, and I feel really good about recommending it to my readers. You can find it on their website at Ultimate Road Trip Games!

Meanwhile, make sure you stock up on printer ink! Here's a place I love to get mine - use the coupon I found for a discount! 15% Off Compatible Inkjet Cartridges - use Coupon TAK658W
(Expires 09.30.09)

Happy travels!

Join MomsMinivan.com at PBS Parents.org

Last summer I had the pleasure of appearing as a featured "expert" at the PBS Parents website to talk about keeping kids entertained on the road. This week I have been invited back!

We are discussing ways to save money when traveling with your kids on the road, and creative ways to keep the kids entertained in the car without emptying your wallet.

Please click over and join in the Q & A discussion!

update: link has been updated to reflect archived story

Multimedia message - Bonnaroo Bound!

Moms' weekend getaway with friends. In the car line for Bonnaroo! 40 license plates so far!