5 flights, 8 States, 8 hotels and 30 hours of driving

Part 1

We travelled from NYC to Boston to Orlando with lots of cities inbetween. I got to visit the sights of NYC, Milton got his seafood fix in Boston, Molly got her dream of attending IGC gymnastics camp in Stroudsburg and Lily got to see all the princesses at Disney world, Orlando. We had a great trip but it was filled with flights, stop overs, different cities, lots of driving hours and hot, busy theme parks. Our girls are great to travel with, but like all kids they do melt down at times, as do we.
The question is how do we plan to prevent these meltdowns.
By being prepared.
Ever since the girls were babies we have travelled. Short fights or car journeys, to visit friends and family in different parts of the country. Milton often laughed at me for having towels, extras bottles of water and a change of clothes in the car. But for those who have travelled the road from Wanganui to Taupo over the Para Paras you will know the need. Its like always packing some sort of pain relieve for children, as who wants to be going out into the middle of the night, in a strange city to find medicine for a screaming child.
Always be prepared.
There are a lot of travel blogs and blogs covering this topic, I'm not claiming to be an expert when traveling with children but these are some of the things that have helped us and made the journeys enjoyable.

Part one - flights

We don't have many choices about what time we fly from Tbilisi, as most of the flights leave at 4 am. So by the time we board the plane the girls are already wanting food. No matter what time you fly have a good supply of snacks. It always seems to take forever for the meals to arrive, and when they do, if there is nothing on it the kids will eat, god help you. Your own snacks are also great for stopovers as airport food can be expensive and sometimes hard to find.
Always leave home with every electronic device charged and filled with kids apps, games and movies. We have been caught out on a couple on shorter flights with no in flight entertainment. Not much fun. The girls also like to listen to audio books.
Both the girls have there own bag for the plane. I have tried a small soft wheelie bag and small back backs but they like the wheelie bags the best. They hate to carry what they call heavy backpacks. My thought, what ever it is, make sure it is small enough for them to carry and also important that it fits under the seat as I for one hate getting up and down getting things out of the overhead lockers.
I fill the girls bags with stickers, pencils, pens, a magazine, cards and doodle books. To make it easy to keep everything together while girls are in their seats, I pack everything into a packing cell found at Kathmundu. I also use these in our luggage, great for keeping everything together.
On overseas trips the girls also have a journal that we make before we leave filled with activities to be completed on the trip. Title pages, flags, maps are good things to complete on the flight.

Always pack a light change of clothes for the kids and yourself. You never know when an accident might happen and you don't want to be sitting in it for the rest of the flight.
Miltons tip for the adults. If you find you get some sort of cold or flu after flying, try having a tomato juice followed by water every time the drinks trolley comes past. He swears by it.