What do a cow, a horse, a red barn, an airplane and a police car have in common? Give up? Okay, I’ll give you a hint.
We were on our way to Ohio, but a three-hour trip in the eyes of a four-year-old and a six-year-old may as well have taken three days. “Are we there yet?!??!” was uttered before we even left the city. My jumbo bag of kettle chips disappeared in a mere five minutes. And one can only listen to the same Tom and Jerry cartoons over and over and over for so long before they start losing all sense of sanity. A diversion was definitely in order.
I don’t know how my parents did it back in the day touring the country with four kids—and even Grandma one year!—in the back of a station wagon, but they always managed to keep us amused. Amongst our proclamations of “Mom! She’s touching me!” and “I have to go potty!” were our own whiny inquiries of “Are we there yet?!?!?” It was at that point when Mom would whip out those nifty cardboard travel scavenger hunts with the sliding windows. We’d be engrossed for hours trying to find everything so we could be the first to yell “Car Bingo!” (sibling rivalry thing, you know). Had I been thinking ahead I would have brought the very same thing we used on road trips when I was growing up, but what do I know? I’m the aunt, not the mom; I don’t typically travel with kids. So I did the next best thing.
An impromptu checklist on the back of an envelope and the promise of a prize to the first person who could find all five—a cow, a horse, a red barn, an airplane and a police car—worked for 6.2 minutes. Then it was “This is too hard!” Suffice it to say that patience is not a virtue when you’re six and awaiting a surprise. Kaden was actually pretty observant and spotted more things than Zhak did, but they each were winners in the end. I had found THE cutest crocheted armadillo and panda bear finger puppets at a store in Williamston a few weeks earlier and knew they’d be perfect for entertaining the boys in a pinch. That held them over until we took a picnic break near Brighton. After another hour of … yes, you guessed it … Tom and Jerry and seven more queries of “Are we there yet?!?!?” we finally made it to Uncle Mark’s new house.
Stay tuned… this is going to be an interesting weekend!
6 comments:
I have looked around trying to find the car bingo cards. You'd think you could find them at the dollar store but so far, the few places I found them wanted several dollars each for these cards. I thought the back of an envelop worked just fine. Kaden is still enjoying our little game. Just the other day we were in the car and he yells out "COW, RED BARN", "bingo, I win!"
You know..... all cows do NOT look alike.
Are those Michigan cows?
Hello..... anyone out there?
We're waiting for your next MOOOOOve!
Mooooooove us with some photos,
Mooooooove us with some words,
Mooooooove us past the picture of the cows PLEASE!
Patiently waiting!!
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