Travel Backpacks for tweens (and great stocking stuffer ideas!)

 I refused to decorate my house before Thanksgiving.  I just couldn't do it.  Now we're 5 days into December and I am scrambling to get the house decorated and do Christmas shopping and basically all the things before my kids get out NEXT Friday for 3 weeks.  I honestly can't wait til they are off because (hopefully) I will be done with everything so we can just savor the time together and do Christmas crafts (thanks Hobby Lobby and JoAnns!), drink hot cocoa, and watch all the Christmas movies. That's probably wishful thinking, but I am sure going to try.  It's not every day where we get so many days BEFORE Christmas and I am so excited!   I also managed to not blog the last few weeks because I took a little staycation to celebrate my 40th birthday (I'll talk about that next week) and then the kids were off for a week, and then we all got nasty head colds.  Minus the head cold part, it's been great!

When most blogs are posting about their current Christmas crafts, food and decor, here I am reminiscing about our big summer adventure.  Maybe it's my way of procrastinating.  Or maybe it's because I might (just maybe) be able to tie this little post to Christmas.  I think I can, so I am going to do it. 

 This past July, we went on what may have been our biggest adventure to date.  It was great adventure and hopefully I will get that blogged soon.  This year, we took on Washington D.C., Philly, and Baltimore.  But, before we could take on those cities, we had to spend a lot of time in airports and on a couple of airplanes.  It's a lot of time for anyone to sit, especially 8 and 10 year old boys!  Every year, I always buy some new activities for their backpacks that they get to see once they get to the airport.  It's kind of like Christmas morning! (see. . . . Christmas!).  Almost everything is brand new so they aren't already bored of them when we get on the plane.  A lot of these activities fit very nicely into most stockings, so I thought it would be great to save this post for now. 

Also, buying for pre-teens is hard.  (Any suggestions for a soccer loving 11 year old are gladly welcomed!), so I thought I would share these because they were all big hits! 

Let's start with Weston.  He's 8 1/2 and loves Minecraft.  You might notice a theme (this is one of those times I could insert a laughing or winking emoji right now. . . so just pretend).

I made each of the boys notebook holders with places for colored pencils (when we aren't traveling, they stay in the car and are perfect for short trips or appointments!).  Both boys also have a travel journal to keep track of our adventures (I'll be honest, we we did so much on this trip that sitting and sleeping was all we wanted to do when we got back to our hotel each day).

3D geometric magnet blocks, Minecraft Uno, Minecraft activity book, Melissa and Doug Detective book, Oragami kit, and a fun coloring book that connects to your phone by Crayola.

Not shown are Plus Plus blocks which are so much fun!  He built the Lunar Lander on this trip and then it turned into robots and other fun creations! 

He also had ear buds and his kindle which I downloaded a few books for him to read from our local library's kindle collection.  He also had Spiderman into the Spiderverse downloaded, too. 

Now for Ethan.  Honestly, he was a little bit harder.  (Weston has tangible things that he likes and some of the things Ethan loved at 8 so I just bought them again and crossed my fingers he'd like them. . . he did!) 

 Ethan had his notebook, a travel journal (a moleskin journal with washi tape and fun pens), coloring books, Plus Plus blocks, markers, games, Scratch Art, and probably the biggest hit was Kandoodle. He was determined to finish all the challenges. . . he hasn't yet, but I am sure after next year's trip he might! 

He also had his Kindle Fire with books downloaded and a movie (But, our planes had great movies to pick, so I am pretty sure he watched Captain America and Captain Marvel as much as he could! 

I tried avoiding buying tangible books because they are heavy, but we ended up with one each, because my boys would rather read a book with pages than digitally and this Treasure Hunters book came out the week before we left and it tied right in with our trip and we couldn't download it.  Weston was obsessed with going to the White House and after visiting the Archives on our second day he begged for this What Was the White House book at the gift shop.  It went every where we did in D.C. (good thing I had my back pack).  It even had a map, so he would try to help is navigate the streets.  He even read while we Ubered from one side of the town to the other and when we were taking breaks.  So, if you need to know anything about the White House. . . he's your man!

Here's a link to last year's back packs for more ideas!

Also, the great thing about all these things is that we have an old backpack that stays packed with various activities so that we can just grab it for soccer practices and quick beach trips!  None of this stuff gets forgotten about when we get home!

I hope this helps you in some way, whether planning a family trip or even trying to stuff a stocking full of fun. 

And really, if you have any more tween boy ideas, please, please comment below!