"I Spy" an addiction being born.

Since we're on the subject of traveling 6 hours to the backwoods, (well, ok, we were most recently on the subject of food, before that Spumoni, and before that santa and ninjas.  But before THAT we were talking about driving up north and staying there for a week and the need to entertain our children, so...) I figured there was no better time to share a simple and fast car diversion I whipped up for the kiddos.  (These obviously did not replace the awesome car bags my sister made the kids... rather ADDED to the options of travel distractions available.)

I saw somewhere (pinterest?) that someone had drawn a scavenger hunt and covered it with giant bubble wrap.  That was the catalyst for my project.  I didn't have giant bubble wrap and couldn't find it anywhere, actually (lame, people.  Will you please stock giant bubble wrap?  Thank you.) so I decided to just use normal bubble wrap.  And it worked out just fine.

I came up with two different "I Spy" games using this same method.  First is your typical scavenger hunt type I spy and second is for those car lovers out there, like bug.

So, for this easy shmeezy project, you'll need:

The printables available below

white card stock

bubble wrap

double sided tape

scissors

Your first step is to print out the cards below on card stock.  They were created to be about 5x7.  At this size, they are perfect to use with the mini clipboards you can find at Walmart and sometimes the dollar store.  A mini clipboard is pretty invaluable when traveling with kids.

Once your card stock I Spy cards are printed, you just need to cut them out, like so: 

 and put pieces of tape around the edge of the box of pictures:

Next, cut a very loooooong piece of bubble wrap to the width of your card.

Line up the top edge of the bubble wrap with the top edge of the outlined box.  Smooth the bubble wrap down onto the tape, making sure it lies flat.  Don't push too hard, or you'll take all the fun out of future attempts to play the game.

Trim the bottom of the bubble wrap.

And you're done!

Repeat this with more cards, so you end up with several per child.

For the "How Many Cars" game, you simply repeat the above steps with the other printable!

You don't need to put bubble wrap over the car pictures, just next to them.

First version, pretty self-explanatory.  Your child watches out the car windows for the pictures and pops the bubble over that picture once he/she finds it.  You can have contests to see who can complete the card the fastest.

Second version.  Your child watches out the car for the colors indicated by the cars (for the truck and bus, they just need to find any semi truck and any school bus).  Once they see that color, they pop a bubble.  They continue popping bubbles next to that color car every time they see that color.  If your kid has a scientific mind like bug, they can track which color most frequently appears on the road!  Or they can just see how fast they can fill the card in.

Maybe up the ante with prizes?

And there you have it!  Two quick games that you can take with you anywhere!  As long as the popping sounds won't drive you nuts, that is.
If your children are anything like mine, they will quickly become addicts.  In which case, you can refer them here.

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!