We spent a couple of sun filled not-so-relaxing weeks in Florida. My wish was for easy going self-entertaining kids: Yanic obliged, but the girls just couldn't grab the concept of it. For some reason when my kids are under 5, they do not do well on vacations: they refuse to eat, they refuse to sleep, they come up with new very painful screeching sounds and whines and just push everbody's buttons... But, it was not all bad. We did have a few days were everybody was happy and having fun. Especially, when we were hanging out at the pool. The kids just LOVED being in the water. Yanic taught himself how to swim above and under water. Which made us very happy, because up until now he had a lot of fear of even putting his face under water.
And did I mention we drove down to Florida (ca. 1,300 miles each way)....?! To be honest, it wasn't too bad. Of course, we had the occasional outbursts because the kids were getting tired of being in the car and some emergency potty breaks. But all in all in was quite manageable. We split each trip into two legs and spent the night at a hotel. In case you are thinking about a road trip with your kids, here are some of my "secrets":
1. Bring as many video games for the older children as possible and throw a couple of new ones in there.
2. Bring your younger children's favorite doll/stuffed animal, so they can "show" them all the fun things to see on the way
3. Bring lots of fun, upbeat music
4. Bring lots of different snacks and make sure to include some unhealthy (even sugary) snacks that the kids typically don't get.
5. I also bought plastic trays like these for each child to decorate with stickers, rub on stickers, etc. and then use as tables to draw pictures. Magically, the decoration had disappeared before the trip back home, so they got to do it all over again...
6. About 5 pounds of Twizzlers for you and your co-driver to survive the trip (5 pounds for each way that is).
I did manage to sneak in some crafting as well. Mainly, when the girls took their afternoon naps. Since I couldn't take my sewing machine with me I had planned for some hand stitching. And I made lots and lots of flowers.
I think they make great appliques, brooches, hair clips, hairbands, embellishments on bags, pillows or shirts. If you think so too, you can grab a couple right here, here and here.
So, that's all for now. Have to continue to go through all my emails and open issues at work... Yikes!
1 comment:
Oh I have missed you so!! The kids look like they were having a GREAT time! Thanks for the travel tips, I will keep that in mind when we vacation to Orlando again. It is a 10 hr drive from here!
I love the flowers, some adorable, some beautiful... all fabulous! I am thinking of cutting some and letting my 6 yo stitch some up to use for magnets on her new spaces I painted with magnetic primer! Thanks yet again for the inspiration! See, I told you I missed you!! :D xo
Post a Comment