Airplane Busy Bag Ideas

“In my body, where the shame gland should be, there is a second awesome gland. True story” - Barney Stinson

Remember those baby cakes that I made for my friend's baby shower in January? She never got them because I mixed up the dates and drove down on the wrong day. Remember the Wednesday play group I joined a few months ago with a few other Orange County mommies? I missed last week because I went the whole day thinking Wednesday was Tuesday. Remember that trip to Kansas that I was going to take yesterday? Well I showed up a day early, packed and ready to go, because I never took a good look at my itinerary and I don't actually leave until today. Do you see where I'm going here? This ain't my first rodeo, cowboys. I mean, good lord, really Krista?

Well I thought today I would be posting all about how the flight went and all the fun things we have planned for today, but clearly that's not what's going to happen.

So instead, I'm posting the busy bag ideas I have for Kalynn's airplane ride. Here's what I have so far:

An obvious staple; coloring books and crayons in a bag. She likes to color, but mostly likes to put the crayons in and then take them out of the bag over and over. 

I'm bringing my laptop and my external drive that has every one of our home movies on it. (I make pretty elaborate home movies once every month or so.) At home she'll sit and watch these things for hours and hours just because they are of her and she's pretty enamored with herself. But once those run out, I have a back up of her second favorites; a few seasons of The Muppet Show, The Little Mermaid, Alice in Wonderland, and Finding Nemo. 

A blank sketch book, tons of stickers, markers, paper shapes with glue stick, and a stamp. She's really very careful with her markers, always puts the lid back on one before opening another, and concentrates very hard when using her glue stick. I'm honestly not anticipating much of a mess for those of you with concern. I mean, I could be wrong, I'll let you know in tomorrow's post if I'm a total moron for bringing these.

I'm bringing about a dozen books. Not the big board books, but the thin, flimsy paper books that don't take up much space. 

I decided to pack the lid of a Tupperware container as a sort of tray for a few activities. Kalynn loves her magnetic marbles but I'm afraid they'll roll all over everywhere while she plays. I'm hoping she'll play with them in the tray and stop that from happening. In my sewing box I also found a crap ton of old buttons, so I put those in a compartmentalized box that she can sit and organize for a while. And then at Target last week, in the $1 bin, I found this little Easter bunny with non-stick slimy putty stuff inside that she can smoosh around. I wanted to bring play-dough but that's just dumb. I guess I could have brought regular silly putty but this was cheaper. 

Also some clothes pins and a strip of material. She's very proud of herself when she can open and close them. I figure maybe we can even draw little faces on them, using the clip part as the mouth, and put on a little show (lucky for the person next to us!)

Lastly, her phone (my old iphone) with every app that she loves, and her Elmo wallet with a bunch of old gift cards and business cards that she takes out and puts pack in. Are you seeing a pattern here with her entertainment? She's an organizer. The nut don't fall to far from the tree.

Lastly, CHAPSTICK! It's clear so she can't make a mess and she's obsessed with the stuff. I can pretty much bribe her to do anything with the promise of Chapstick.

If you have any last minute ideas, PLEASE add them in the comments. I'm going to need all the help I can get. (4 and a half hour flight here, folks)

Oh, and did you vote today? Because you can if you want but, you know, no pressure...