Fun on the Run

A loud growl of frustration rumbles from the back seat mid-trip during our last long car ride. The guttural tone quickly transitions to a high-pitched whine.

"Mama, I dropped my marker again," Grace, 6, complains.

My promise to find it when we pull over at the next rest stop does little to quell the drama (it was red and she was coloring a ladybug) and, to make things worse, all I can picture is the rogue pen rolling around cap-less, gleefully sketching all over the car's floormats.

A brief pitstop and a full-van search yields the marker and, miraculously, its missing cap (along with a few smudges of scarlet-hued graffiti). We celebrate the recovery, but it's short-lived as we have to repeat this scenario at least three more times in the next two hours.

The good thing about long car trips is you have plenty of time to think...

Grace loves to draw in the car — I know it's not the best "studio" space, but I'm thrilled to indulge her creative passion. But extending a road trip an extra 30 minutes to accommodate marker-and-crayon recovery is insane.

When we get home, we decide to create a "mobile" art caddy. Using a metal TV tray, I hot glue a plastic cup to it to keep markers steady. I apply a strip of magnetic tape (about $5 for a 7' roll at office supply stores) to the back of a pad of paper and her coloring books, and voilà — a creative little lap space that won't slow us down.

Inspired, we make a little tic-tac-toe board on an old cookie sheet using masking tape and affix the magnetic tape to some Xs and Os we print on the computer. For her little brother, we make some Mr. Potato Head-inspired faces by printing photos on magnetic paper and cutting them out.

And now the fun on the run just never stops — except for those darn potty breaks!