Plane Preparations

Next week, we're embarking on our very first plane ride with Avery.  And not a short plane ride, let me tell you.  Our first flight (which happens to be at 6 in the morning), is three hours long.  Our second flight is over five hours.  And this momma is nervous as heck about it. 

My toddler has an attention span that's less than a fourth of a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode (for you non-toddler moms, that's like 5 minutes long).  That's a looooooong time to have to entertain, console and keep quiet one very active toddler.

I plan on implementing several different tactics to make this plane flight easier....new coloring books and crayons, suckers for take-off, new movies that I'm planning to rent on the iPad.  None of which I can guarantee are going to work.  All I can do is pray that she stays fairly calm and that we're blessed with understanding and patient plane friends.

I can plan activities and distractions all day long, but honestly, the thing that keeps my kid quiet more than anything:  food.  It's our go-to strategy when we have to take her anywhere that she has to be quiet for an extended period of time.  Going to church?  Pack a giant bag of cereal.  Going to a wedding?  Throw multiple bags of fruit chews in my purse.  So why wouldn't this work on a plane?

I knew I was going to have to be more organized than just throwing a couple of packets of fruit chews and some Cheerios in a Ziploc bag.  To Walmart I went! 

I found these, which I found completely awesome:

Lunchables Jr., or basically Toddler Lunchables.  Each contains three different snacks in one container.  I started to grab them, but at almost $2 apiece, I really thought I could do better.  So I started getting creative to make my own Toddler Lunchables.

Since we're going to be on these flights for both breakfast and lunch, I made a breakfast, lunch and snack lunchable of my own.

I first headed over to the Tupperware container/lunch container section.  I picked up some double divided containers for $2.88.

Breakfast:

In one container, I packed "breakfast-y" type items.  PopTarts, fruit chews, dried apples, dried cranberries and fruit loops.  Obviously I know that my kid isn't going to eat all this by herself for one meal.  I'm over-preparing.  If she doesn't feel like PopTarts that morning, there's fruit.  If she doesn't want fruit, there's cereal.  Better to be prepared than have a screaming kid.

Lunch:



Lunch items include:  Uncrustable pb&j sandwiches, fruit chews, Teddy Grahams, Jif To Go packs and Ritz Bits.

Snacks:



Snack items:  Dried cranberries, goldfish, Pringles Stix, dried apples, Teddy Grahams and Jif To Go.

Can I get a shout out from all the moms that LOVE these things??  Technically, it's baby food in a pouch.  But my two year old still loves these things.  So, for 88 cents apiece, we still pick them out.





So, that's my food plan.  Wish us luck!!