After a long, cold, wet winter, my family has been itching to get the heck out of the house into warmer, drier air. My hubby needed to pick up a trombone mute from a colleague in Asheville over the weekend, and knowing that it was supposed to be warmer, and sunny, I thought it would be a great opportunity for the kids and I to tag along for a little day trip. For us (and most families) day trips equal a nice lunch out somewhere, or a picnic. We opted for lunch out, but told the kids that we would bring snacks from home. A 2 1/2 hour drive each way definitely requires car snacks.

Instead of bringing along a lot of junky stuff (convenience snacks, etc...), I like to make homemade trail mix, and mix it all up in a gallon size bag, and bring it along in the car for everyone to share. This way, everyone is getting a healthy dose of fruit, nuts, a little chocolate, pretzels, and so on.

Typically, I try to bring along little snack cups for the kids, but on this particular day, I forgot. I'm blaming it on my horrible pregnancy brain, which is causing me to forget- everything! Since I didn't have snack cups, I asked the kids to pull the middle console down, which houses the cupholders. I lined the cupholders with paper napkins (because I always keep those in the car), and then placed handfuls of the trail mix into the lined cupholders. Each kiddo had their own snack, and clean up was a breeze, just pulling the napkins out and recycling them.

Everyone was happy, especially me, knowing that we had a healthy snack that was easy to clean up after!

Stay tuned for more on our day trip to Asheville, and for more mom hacks!

Have a great Monday!