So, what DO you feed a family with young children when in the car for many hours, anyway? If you’re like me, you feed a lot of the same items you would if you were home! We packed an ice chest, and this morning when we stopped for breakfast we picked up a few extra items to last the kids through the conference. Fresh fruits, milk for their cereal, one-day-left-rack banana nut muffins, etc.

We let them run wild around the park and play and slide and swing and get dew covered and get lots of the wigglies out and then we ate. By the time we finished our leisurely breakfast the morning traffic through Memphis had cleared out and we made excellent time. We had snacks provided by Plum Organics which came in handy when we didn’t want to spend money at the gas station on JUNK.

The Plum Organics has a mix called Mish Mash of fresh, organic fruits, that Micah can squeeze out for himself. He REALLY like the Banana flavored one. The bag reminded me of a space bag of food like what you can buy at a museum except it isn’t freeze-dried (thank goodness). Once you twist off the cap it just squeezes through the plastic end and Micah was able to do it on his own, for the most part. VERY cool.

Mish Mash - Check it out - I'm a big boy!

For the preschoolers we had a box of Fiddlesticks – the cookie like treats from Plum Organics which are a great finger food. Again, all natural and organic so you feel good giving it to your kids, but easy for them to handle and non-messy for the car. Here you can see that Evan is devouring his Fiddlesticks. I asked him what they tasted like and he said, “They are like apple cookies on my tongue”. A poetic four year old, what can I say.

The blurry Fiddlesticks just proves we are really on the road.

For a late lunch after nap time we stopped at – ahem – McDonald’s. It’s those blasted play places, I’m telling you – they suck in road weary parents with the promise of decreasing energy levels in the vehicles and you just buy into it. We were though, the only patrons in McDonald’s who carried in their own water bottles and sippy cups to fill with water. Lol! I’m not sure they knew exactly what to do about it, but oh well. We ended up just all sharing a snack-type-lunch of 5 chicken nugget packss for $10 bucks. Cheap.

Yep - Wear yourself out. Way to go!

We finished it off in the car with apples that I had packed for the to eat along the way and a few strips of beef jerky for me to help keep my blood sugar issues under control (I am rather hypoglycemic and tend to graze and eat lots of small meals throughout the day).

Now it’s 4:22 and we are only 60 miles from Asheville. I’m excited to arrive and even more pleased that we’ll be there before the kids get too hungry for dinner. I have meat, organic cheese and whole wheat bread for sandwiches when we get up to the room so that’s totally covered. Whew!