TOTT–Airplane Gifts

Traveling…with kids…we’ve ALL been there (and if you haven’t, you’ve at least observed it)! I often wonder why people aren’t more, shall we say, thoughtful? understanding?

This fun little idea was inspired by my mother to help some of my friends who were flying cross country with their kids. I purchased almost all of the supplies at the Dollar Store, but I’ll try and include links for some of the uncommon items. Below is an explanation, as well as the free printables to recreate them yourselves! Just click on the image to enlarge, then right click and save image as. Hope this makes traveling with littles slightly less stressful.

Step #1: Purchase all necessary toys, gifts, and wrapping. The shopping list for each group of 4 items is listed below.

Step #2: Wrap each of the items, placing the correct # label on each.

Step #3: Print and cut instruction sheets and put into an envelope for mom to reference, label with “For Mom’s Eyes Only”. They will fit in a business envelope.

Step #4: Place all the wrapped items in a bag labeled with the child’s name and deliver to the traveling kiddos. Watch a bit of stress dissolve from the parents face! =)

Shopping List: wiggly snake: socks, yarn, googly eyes, felt, pipe cleaners, super glue (or velcro strips): Cars coloring book or felt coloring page & crayons: Pipe cleaners and small beads 

Shopping List: party favor sized spirographs (or fun stencils), paper, writing utensils and a roll of scotch tape roll: Annie’s bunny fruit snacks and plastic pop-ups (I will admit, not the best on the plane, but you could do it at the end, and say that if they can behave until you land THEN they can play with them. They’re SO fun!): 2 silk flowers: Cars water color book (and a paintbrush if it doesn’t already come with)

Shopping List: M&M’s, pretzel rods (both in ziplocks), peanut butter (I put it in a tupperware): some type of Bible story book: party favor sized spiral graphs (or fun stencils): roll of scotch tape

**Yes, I realize the bottom two are repeats, I included them in case you would rather wrap them as two separate gifts.

Shopping List: princess posters (or coloring book) & coloring utensils: princess glow-in-the-dark wand: princess stamps & stickers & paper

**I first made it for 2 boys, then for a girl. So the last one is in case you want to add some girly ones to the mix.

And lastly – here are numbers (I put two in case you’re making it for 2 children, or if you want to put a label on each side), a label for the bag with ALL of the goodies inside (without the name so you can write it in), and a label for the envelope with all the instructions – “For mom’s eyes only”.

Here was Cooper all ready to deliver our goodies! He didn’t mind helping so much because he got to keep some that had extra in the package. Fun, fun! Remember, you can keep it relatively cheap – check out your Dollar Store, or browse the dollar aisle at Target or Michaels. Ironic that I have yet to do this for my kids. I think it’s for two reasons:

Reason #1: I haven’t had a long enough flight with old enough kids.

Reason #2: My kids have an attention span the size of a gnat are perfect on airplane rides!

There you have it ladies and gents. Use some, or all! If you’ve got time, leave a note letting me know if you used them, I LOVE hearing from you!