CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNER!

Thank you all for entering.

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By the time this posts I will be at the airport waiting to board a plane with my 2 and 4 year old. This will be their first time on a plane, their first time leaving the state, their first time traveling further than 200 miles away from home.

I’m excited, nervous and a little bit scared. I don’t know how my kids are going to react. We will be on the plane for a LONG time and they have a hard time sitting still for a 90 minute movie.

So I’ve been trying to come up with some ways to occupy and distract them. See, my kids don’t know we are going to Disney World. As a matter of fact currently they have no idea that we are going anywhere. We are going to stay the night near the airport the night before and we plan on telling them we are going to visit their grandparents that night. It’s not lying. We really are going to see their grandparents while in Florida. We are just selectively leaving out the whole Mickey and Minnie Mouse thing.

Anyway, back to the plane ride. My friend Sarah had told me about a really great thing she and her husband did when they flew with 2 of their 4 kids for the first time. They were flying for the holidays so to make it special she wrapped up several small presents and stashed them in her bag for the plane. When the kids would start to get restless she would pull out a present for each of them and they would be good to go for a while.

So I’ve taken that idea . I’ve actually procured some super cute items that are Disney themed and some that are not. My plan is to give them to the kids throughout the flight. I’ve also got the portable DVD player packed with Disney movies of course and each of my kids will have a backpack that they can pack a few toys in to take on the plane and I’ll put some snacks and a drink in there too.

One of the items I have (although not Disney themed) is a super cute product from Little Journeys Baby World.Chalkboard Placemats. This is one of her So, I actually let the kids play with this one already. It is so cool to have when at a restaurant. The kids have fun drawing on the “chalkboard” side and then when their meal comes we flip it over and they have a special placemat.

I also like the fact that they roll up and have a ribbon tie and fit easily in my purse, which I will admit is a bit oversized, and are great to carry around to use not just for eating out but for doctors office or any other appointments where you need to occupy the kids.

The only drawback that I could find with them is that since they are stored rolled up, when you first untie and open them you really have to smooth them out to get them to lay flat. This is all me though because the kids don’t seem to mind that they have to hold one side down when trying to draw on them. And when you flip them over for the placemat they lay down fine.

Could you use a chalkboard placemat? Well, then today is your lucky day! The fine folks at Little Journeys Baby World have been kind enough to offer one of my readers their very own!

You must complete the required entry before doing any of the additional entries. Leave a separate comment for each entry and be sure to use a valid email address. Contest closes on Dec. 11th at 3PM EST. Winner will be chosen using Random.org and notified via email.

REQUIRED

• Leave a comment with a tip or technique about traveling with kids

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES

• Follow @littlejourneys and @madhattermom on Twitter, leave your username (1 entry)
• Follow this blog through Google Friend Connect (1 entry)
• Subscribe to this blog, if you don’t already (1 entry)
• Tweet about this contest using the format below and leave a link to your tweet (1 entry per day)

I entered to win a @littlejourneys Chalkboard Placemat from @MadHatterMom! Contest ends Dec. 11th 3PM EST http://bit.ly/8oeYmo

GOOD LUCK!

Plane photo by Bob Reck