PACKING...and knee issues

There is nothing like trying to get ready for a short vacation when you have a crazy busy week looking you straight in the face. In an attempt to get organized and not be a crazy lady on Tuesday night, when the bags have to be packed, we are working on packing this weekend.

The huge positive is my parents are driving so we get to have more flexibility in what we take and how we take it. The negative is, we have to be packed a head of the trip so we have to plan to not have favored clothes or other items for a few days if they are going in the luggage.

I don't know about your house but for as many times as we try and get the Things to pack everything, things get left behind or forgotten. There was the weekend Thing Two didn't pack any underwear, and the trip where is was 100 degrees and all Thing One brought were jeans.  This time I wrote a list, somehow I imaged a list would help, it didn't.  As I started reviewing bags, Thing One had no socks and Thing Two forgot swim trunks.  I am a big believer in, if all else fails we can buy it on the trip, but we are trying to do this trip a bit on the cheap.  Along with the basic packing we need some nice clothes and getting either Thing to even consider dress clothes yet alone wear them can be difficult.  It was no surprise that the dress pants got forgotten and, somehow a belt couldn't come because of airport security.  There was also a discussion of how we pack the dogs.  Eventually enough laundry got done and enough clothes made it into a bag that I can say we are mostly packed. 

Those are some seriously cute knees

The thing about packing is you can get a pretty good idea of where the kids are at and what they like based on what they pack.  Both Things are opting to leave their long time lovies at home, they are growing up so quickly.  Thing Two is only taking Star Wars t-shirts, I think it is safe to say he is developing a passion for Star Wars.  The thing I found of particular interest was Thing Ones desire to only take pants. We have been fighting her all summer to wear shorts when it was hot, it has gotten so bad we took all the pants out of her room because it was getting so bad. When I reviewed her luggage it was all pants, so I took them all out and made her restart, after a talk. Turns out Thing One doesn't like her knees and has spent much of the summer trying to hide them?!  She is 8, almost 9, and I can't imagine the idea she is already starting to struggle with body stuff. Now I am not worried this will spawn something worse, but it does make me think. Turns out they are constantly bruised, and have freckles. Ends up freckles on the face are ok and the knees aren't, oh well.  Eventually, we talked enough that leggings and long shorts are ok, for now and we will have to see how it all goes.

Now back to packing talk.  The Things have to plan their carry on luggage to and this has again proved interesting.  Thing One selected next to nothing and Thing Two picked scissors. Thankfully I went through both bags and we have a pretty good plan for what to take with us. 

How do get your kids to pack and take everything? Have you ever had a travel oops based on your kids packing?  Happy traveling..