Making the most of a very long drive - part 4 = presents!

This idea is one taken from my genius parents. Not sure if they got it off of someone else or came up with it out of experience from the many many long drives me made as kids to visit family, but however it came to be it seriously is pure GENIUS.

Presents are an awesome way to help kids wait and be good a little while longer. I remember watching the clock until it was the hour we could get our next present, trying to be as good as possible, with the excitement of wondering what it would be.

 note the concentration it took for unwrapping it!

For Hannah my mom had a tonne of presents for her on the way up. Something I had to do again since it worked so well. She does not get the waiting part yet really, but unwrapping took up exciting time for her and she loved the new presents, which kept her entertained more than if I just handed over a toy. 

almost there....

What did I wrap? To be honest for the most part I wrapped up the toys we had that she could play with. But I also wrapped up craft stuff and snacks!

Some of the list includes:
- some stamps she can put on a notepad
- a weird pink thing (no idea how to describe it) my mom gave her on the way up
- some books
- crayons
- slinky
- flash cards (these I bought a pack of 3 at the dollar store and had to be one of my favourites! She would take each one out at a time, with at least 25 in them, that took good time, and then organize and talk about them...it was great!)
- apple
- craisens (her candy)
- more craisens
- stickers

I think in all I had at least 15 wrapped "presents for the trip" with a third at least being her snacks.

Craisens! Just what she wanted! pure happiness for all!

Anyone else have any tricks for keeping kids entertained in the car on long trips? Would love to hear them since our long driving days are not over yet!