How to procrastinate and vacation prep at the same time

 Are you waiting anxiously for the "Homemade Reusable Baby Wipes" tutorial?  Well, my serger is on the fritz AND I'm going on vacation next week.  So, it will be post-poned until after my vacation.  In the mean time, you can re-read these tips for vacation prep that we will be reviewing as well.

What did I learn from last year's family trip? 

• Take more water than we think we need. 
• Travel at night.
• Bring Playaways for the oldest four kids.

1.  The kids get SO thirsty during daytime travel.  They drink a lot.  We have to stop for many potty-breaks.  Sometimes places to potty are too gross for me to even think about hovering my four year old over.

2.  Traveling at night means using less air conditioning.  This means saving on gas.  Here in the Golden State gas is $4 a gallon.  Traveling at night in a 12-passenger van like Brutus (that's his name the kids gave him) over 800 miles, cutting back on the use of AC could save $100+. 

What will be different on this year's trip?

• We have another child, almost 7-month old Peach.
• The twins, who are almost 22 months, are not rear-facing anymore.  But maybe they should be for the trip so they can sleep better.
• No caffeine.  Remember, I gave up caffeine right before Christmas?

I took a look a last year's vacation prep list to start this year's list:

Water.

Playpens.  Just one playpen this year for Peach.


diapers. 

Music, not just this kind.


Games.

Magna Doodles and probably Magnetic Letters.

picture from this post.

Audio Books to listen to and real books to actually hold.

...and maybe chew on a little.

Pre-rationed snacks in ziploc bags. I'm thinking we'll probably use peanut butter containers this year since we have so many, and so the snacks don't get crushed.

So, that's what I've got.  Vacation prep.  I might just start with the Cheerio and Goldfish eviction from the van.  

Am I missing anything?