File Folder Freakout

We are going on a trip soon (I still can't believe that my nephew is getting married!). I wanted a way to bring plenty of entertainment for our children for the plane and car rides without having to bring TONS of books and/or gluing them to a screen. In the past, we have brought a bathroom bag with small books, stickers, pens, and markers inside it. It has worked well, but what we could fit inside never really held their interest for very long. So, I took to the internet to get ideas for ways to go about this in a new way. I saw that someone used a binder to hold different travel games. I couldn't get to the full post (link was broken) to see what they included in it, but I thought a binder was a good idea. I started searching for ideas and came across file folder games. Educational and fun (hopefully) games that can be made reusable with some laminating paper and velcro strips. Below you can find just a sample of the games I have included in our binders.

Five Senses game 

Match the Heart game

In this game you place the animal in its habitat: Forest, Farm, Pond (not shown), or Ocean (not shown)

Mazes and connect-the-dot games, laminated for repeated use.

"Frozen" sequencing game

Simple Patterns

Classic games, again, laminated for repeated use

Color Sorting

Money Practice

Categorization

Dinosaur Math

Rhyming

Troll Math

More "Frozen" games

Oh, how I thought this was a perfect idea -- one contained binder (OK, two of them, one per child), with many games, most reusable, that are travel-friendly.  Just throw in some dry erase markers (I even found some with erasers attached to the cap so I didn't need to bring any sort of wipe), a few books and crayons and we have entertainment to last. And did I mention that most of these games are free to print online?! But, that's the problem. I now have two, very thick binders to transport and deal with on our trip -- or have to try to cut out some of the games (most that I have spent precious time carefully cutting and laminating, not to mention that I have already cut out games I wanted to include). I'm not sure I am any better off for our trip. Yes, the kids will (should be...) entertained, but it isn't looking like it is going to be any less weight/space taken up if I bring these as-is.