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Three Kids and a…Dash of Karma
So, my gut instinct when told that I was "brave" for going on a trip with my children, was to feel defensive. What I wanted to say was that it wasn't brave. There was nothing brave about it. My children, whether at home or traveling, don't need a parent to be "brave" to be with them. They're good kids. Great kids. The best. My mother bear wanted to come out. Claws. Fangs.
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5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Book Your Walt Disney World Vacation (and Why You Need to Answer Them)
It's these hiccups that really end up being the stories we carry forward as a family. And it's these hiccups that helps us plan our next trip. Through the past seven years of visiting Walt Disney World a number of times a year (for any number of days, any time of year (except summer...we just don't do Florida Disney sticky, sweat-inducing summer heat)), we've figured out some questions we ask ourselves each and every time we book a new trip. Only after we've figured the answers to these questions out, do we really get to the task of actually making the magic happen.
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Edaville Family Theme Park is Worth Your Weekend (Let’s Be Honest, It’s Thomas Land)
For a family that typically does Disney World at least three times a year and a momma who grew up working at a family-owned theme park in Pennsylvania (which we visit annually), we really didn't know what to expect before showing up. But it was perfect. It was small and sweet. It was managable. It was suited for everyone. And, most importantly, it had Thomas.
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Hotel Review-Embassy Suites, Chevy Chase, MD-Child Accommodating (With a Watchful Eye)
The main issue facing the hotel is the same issue that makes it appealing: it is part of a mall. That's right. A mall. A mall with a CVS (yay late night candy shopping), a World Market (because I always need to buy more whimsical notebooks or napkins for the house), and a Starbucks (because I'm a mom and I need it to go with the wine I just bought at World Market). So, there are some pretty impressive positives to staying at this hotel. But that mall aspect? Oh it isn't without it's down side as well.
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Three Kids and a…Mother’s Day Hike: an Ode to My Father
There is no reason a grown man should wake up at 2 am infectiously giddy. He has no right to be singing about going to “Wally World” and moving swiftly, floating even, turning on lights, rousing children. He shouldn’t have the ability to make a house pulse with life when just a week earlier it had been flatlining with the comings and goings of the everyday. And when that man then has to take his once sleep-weary children, put them in the car, and proceed to drive 1500 miles, there are even fewer reasons said man should be anything less than entirely spent and growling. He should have every right to…
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Tried, True, and Cheap Ways to Make Road Trips with Young Children Entertaining (For Them) and Relaxing (For You)
Whether four hours or four days, road trips can be stressful, let alone road trips with kids. Throw a few squirmy toddlers, perhaps a slightly older little person, and a tiny person and those road trips get exponentially more stressful. Whenever those moments in the car seem to be on the verge of bursting open in frustrated wails, I close my eyes and imagine what it would be like to be strapped to the seat in a five-point harness with close to no room to shift my heft left or right, sweet toes dangling at least two feet from the ground, most likely having lost all feeling about forty five minutes into…
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Why Spending a Day in Annapolis, Maryland Should Be on Your Next To Do List
Kids like water. Fact. Even if they don’t like being in it, they like looking at it. And when looking at it also includes looking at sailboats and pirate-esque ships, they like looking at it even more (unless they are scared of pirates, which is a completely valid fear). What I’m getting at is that Annapolis, Maryland, perched on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River is bound to be an amazing experience for little people based solely upon location (but believe me, that is far from all this quaint little city has to offer…there’s ice cream…oh is there ice cream (stares dreamily out into distance)). Beyond…
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6 Hacks for Making Road Trips with Young Children a Bit Easier for Their Grown Ups
I remember taking road trips with my mom and dad when I was little (don’t ask–there’s no way I’d mention how long ago that was). One year we drove the open road to Wyoming. Now, we didn’t have a station wagon, but for some reason a station wagon is in my memories. And this memory is so clear, that I’m sure it’s true. We must have borrowed it or rented it for the trip. I still have the images of my brother and I sitting in the back of the station wagon. And not the seat behind the driver’s bench seat either. I mean the most coveted seat of childhood: the…
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Surviving Disney World with a Newborn: You Really Can Do It
With each of our mistakes, we've learned a bit about how to survive the visually and physically overwhelming and exhausting landscape of Disney without completely losing our minds.
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Hotel Review–Disney’s Boardwalk Inn and Villas, Lake Buena Vista, FL–Child Centered
While well orchestrated chaos surrounds, I can slip off into a bench and watch it swim by, content in the knowledge that my little people are fully partaking in that chaos and I don’t need to do a thing to stop it.
