Air travel is unpredictable.  Sometimes, against all odds, you manage to get your family packed, dressed, and to the airport the required two hours early, only to find your flight has been delayed.  It’s maddening.

If you’re not careful, you’ll eat all your food, read all your books, and play all your games before you’ve so much as boarded the plane.  Now what?  Here are a handful of things you can do to prepare for this scenario.

Stretch your legs

If your kids are young enough, check if the airport has a playground.  If not, take a brisk walk around the terminal.  Don’t go too far though, and leave one adult at the gate in case they start boarding your flight unexpectedly.

Go out to lunch

If at all possible, don’t eat all the food you packed at the gate—you might really need it later.  Go out to a fun lunch instead and chalk it up to one of the many unanticipated costs of traveling with kids.

Bring a DVD player (and a back up battery)

Once your kids are no longer toddlers and preschoolers, the temptation to leave that heavy DVD player at home (especially for short flights) can be great.  Big mistake.  We were recently delayed two hours on a flight to Dallas.  Being able to pop in a feature-length film meant I got to read my book instead of playing I Spy for 120 fun-filled mintues.

Pack lots of printables

Our coloring book days are far, far behind us, and my kids never really liked them that much anyway.  These days, I pack printables.  What are printables?  Free activity sheets you can print off the internet and throw in your carry on bag.

My favorites are from Highlights Hidden Pictures (don’t forget to toss in a couple highlighter pens too), but I also bring word searches, crossword puzzles, coloring sheets, hangman, tic tac toe, and connect the dots.

Download some new apps

If you’ve got a spare battery for your iPhone, download some fun new kids apps ahead of time.  Remember that if you’ve got more kids than phones, this can cause more problems than it solves.  Still, it’s good to have a lot of arrows in your quiver.

Read out loud

As we all know, we’re supposed to read to our kids every single day of their lives.  If you haven’t quite lived up to that lofty goal, here’s your big chance to catch up!  Don’t worry if you didn’t pack a book that will appeal to all your children, the nearest airport book store is probably just around the corner.