Car Talk for Kids

Like Carrie said on her blog, there may be "tough times ahead" during our summer travels. I told Adam that if I can just make it through the drive to California, I'll live happily ever after. How could I forget that not only do we have to make it to our destination, we also have to make it back? The car trip is something to be survived.

I'd like this next trip to be different, though. Any ideas on how to make car trips better with kids? Please share, even if they seem obvious or simple (simple is good). One idea I have this time is to plan some "pre-beach house destinations" to help break the trip up, and to help get the vacation started before we actually make it to the beach house. After we've driven 2 0r 3 hours, we'll plan to stop at a certain park where the kids can run free and lose some energy.

More ideas?

The Dirt Box

This is our dirt box. We've had it for almost a week.

Adam filled it with Nature's Best Soil from the local forest products supply place. In addition to other landsape products, they have bins of soil from which you take what you need and pay a low price for it by the bucket or cubic yard. Adam paid for 15 five-gallon buckets.

I have filled the dirt box with plants/seeds for tomatos, cucumbers, peppers, cilantro, romaine lettuce, carrots, bush beans, and mixed salad greens. We tried a few different veggies to see what we end up harvesting and liking.

Adam built a conduit frame with twine for the vine plants to climb. The kids absolutely love the dirt box and want to dig in it all the time. The biggest garden pest so far is Michael. He doesn't try to eat the plants, just the dirt. We really have to keep an eye on him.

The other day, Emily was digging a nice little hole in the corner of the dirt box. Before I could "assist" her, she pulled a lettuce plant, roots and all, from it's store container, then placed it in the hole she'd dug. For all we know, we couldn't have done it any better than she did.

Vegetables, anyone?

Our back yard is about 18' by 18' and covered with bark/gravel stuff unfit for a garden. This evening we are going to fill a raised garden bed (4'x4') with about 12 cu. ft. of soil. My sister, Elsa, mentioned that we should look up stuff on Square Foot Gardening, and I think it will work well considering our backyard "conditions". We will divide the garden into 16 squares, then plant within those squares.

What veggies should we plant? We're planning to transplant tomato plants, but I don't know which variety. Also, maybe bean poles because they are more space efficient than bush beans. Other considerations--peppers, onions, romaine lettuce, carrots. Any tips on keeping out pests and such? I'm going the nursery down the road to find out more about local gardening, but I just wanted to throw this out there to see what anyone else has learned from past/present gardening endeavors.

Down by The Bay

My parents live about 1 mile from Freshwater Bay. Adam, the kids, Calvin, and I drove down for one very full hour at the beach.

Squished in between the kids' car seats, I snapped this lovely shot of Calvin sitting up front. Of course, I let him have my seat. I just didn't like the idea of his sharp claws and slobbery mouth that close to the kids, and I really couldn't leave him home.

It was so fun to watch Mikey explore. He would have walked right into the waves. He tried more than once to eat a handful of wet sand. Ugh!

Low tide, warm sun, tide pools, sea shells, jumping waves--the kids just loved it! We are excited for the beach house! We can all try some wet sand with Mikey!