Twin Mom Runs: Traveling with Toddlers. . .ALONE!

I didn't take my first plane trip until I was 12 years old. I actually flew by myself to California to stay with my Uncle and do DisneyLand and SeaWorld! The twins on the other hand are just over 3 years old and veteran air travelers. If I'm counting right they have already done 8 round trip air trips. This trip was going to be different, they were traveling with just me - no Daddy, no Nana or Grandpa to help! Hubby was driving us to the Buffalo airport (WAY less expensive to fly out of than Toronto), but we had to leave the house by 6 a.m. to make our 9:00 flight. I have never in all the boys 40 months of life purposefully woke them up at 5:30 in the morning! They were so excited to go to Minnesota they popped right out of bed!

Since we've done this so many times before I have packing, passports, tickets, etc. all figured out. The other thing different about this trip is that the boys are potty trained. They do really good with letting me know when they have to pee, but they have only been out of diapers since January so they still don't give a lot of lead time before the pee just comes - and we all know how small the airplane bathrooms are!

Waiting to board the plane!

I packed the usual books, iPad, DVD player, blankies and snacks. This time I wanted to pack a couple of games that may be able to pass the time on take off and landing when the iPad and movies aren't allowed. Then there's the teacher in me that had to make them educational as well!

My good little travelers!

Pinterest is again a wonderful place for getting ideas for educational toddler games. I came across this idea of Busy Bags. I put together three different activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler and specifically from her free printables for preschoolers. Really fantastic stuff!

I made 3 of everything for the boys' friend down the block who just became a big brother. I thought his Mommy would appreciate something to grab to keep him busy when she's taking care of a newborn.

The first one I put together was a number matching wheel. I had a bit of fun with my new laminator! I printed out the wheels, cut them out and laminated them. I got the clothes pins from the dollar store so it was a pretty inexpensive project. This will be a good activity to grow with the boys. This time around they matched the colors. Since we were playing it on the plane during landing I didn't push it too much. It will be a good one to have around for future learning!

Clothes Pin Number Match by Confessions of a Homeschooler

The next one I did was a letter match up. We already had the magnet, plastic letters so all I had to do was print out and laminate. This one was a little trickier on the plane because I didn't have anything magnetic for the letters to stick to, but it was a good one to have on our trip to pull out when I needed the boys to be occupied with something.

Alphabet/Number Review Cards

I did similar letter match up, but this one was meant to focus more on letter sounds.

A-Z Beginning Sounds

The last one was their favorite. Pictures of things they love (Superman, Batman, Hockey, Footballs, etc.) and a glue stick = lots of fun (and a bit of education as well)!