Long Car Trip with 1 1/2 and 4 Year old...things You Wish You Brought but Didnt

Some things we forgot on our recent vacation with a 16 month old, 2 year old and 7 year old.
-a portable high chair (I ended up purchasing one because I got tired of trying to get him to sit in a normal chair or holding him on my lap when we ate)
-a backpack carrier (If you plan on doing any walking on the beach, this would have been handy. We meant to take ours, but accidentally left it at home)
-swim diapers (another thing I forgot and had to buy)

Hope you have a wonderful trip!
M.

The pull-down art tables are great (they attach to the back of the seat)--you can put art supplies and snacks in them (I can't remember the name of the one we have right now, but you can e-mail me if you want me to look!). It's been a while since I've had a 1 1/2 year old, but if you are worried about art supplies w/the little one, there are those markers that only color on special paper. For the older one you can fill it with coloring or activity books, blank paper, crayons or colored pencils, maps, stickers (beach theme?) or whatever. Also, books on tape/CD can be great--something like the Winnie-the-Pooh books maybe? You could also get the actual book (or probably any Pooh book) for them to look at while they listen. The reading might even lull the little one to sleep. Maybe an etch-a-sketch? I've also brought a little bag full of new/silly dress-up stuff and a hand-help mirror. You could include masks, sunglasses, ears, scarves, a hairbrush, hats, jewelry--whatever you have around. We did the travel bingo w/my daughter when she was four (the squares have pictures of things to look for--e.g. a cow, a bus, a stoplight, a river)--though sometimes she may have "seen" something that wasn't there! I just try to keep everything by me to start and dole stuff out so that there is always something fresh for that long stretch of driving. Hope that helps. The little one will probably sleep more than the older one, so you'll need more stuff for your big guy/gal.

Have fun!

anxious to see the answers.....

Laptops, plenty of snacks & movies for the car. I've found that while on the trip itself our kids (almost 4 and 17mo.) needed very few toys. However, they need to be occupied in the car! I bought them each a new laptop & gave it to them the day of the trip so they weren't already bored of it ahead of time (like a V-tech laptop). Keep plenty of snacks by you so you can easily reach back & give them some. I brought a grocery bag of toys for the trip itself (once we reached our destination) & they only played w/ 1/2 of it. All they needed was to be outside playing!

Extra clothes! My 19 month old went through an outfit every 2 hours or so during a car trip. Part was all the milk he was drinking, and part was that he wanted to drink from mommy's water. His clothes were buried in the back and we hadn't packed for that many changes. Good thing we were visiting family, and could use the washer.

Yes I second more changes of clothes than I originally packed! Lots of wipes, car snacks and more snacks, travel pillows, the little bottles of water, and lots of movies for the DVD player.