Kid-Friendly Vacations - Creating A Smooth and Tantrum-Free Trip {Guest Post}

If you have children, planning a vacation takes a number of additional steps.  Packing, planning, meals, entertainment all need to be thoroughly considered in order to ensure a successful trip for all. To keep kids happy and enthusiastic, prepare for these differences with some great travel tricks.

 

 

#1 – Maintain Regular Eating Schedules

Keep meals on schedule to prevent low blood sugar and crankiness from ruining the day. Most kid-friendly attractions have restaurants or snack bars to keep children fueled during the visit, but can be pricey. Keep snacks in the car or in backpacks for a quick lift if mealtimes are going to be delayed. Avoid a lot of sugary snacks that can cause blood sugar “crashes.” Avoid introducing your children to certain foods while traveling, like shellfish or nuts, as these can cause serious allergic reactions.  Finally, always make sure to have your pediatrician’s number handy when traveling.

 

#2 – Keep the Fun Coming

Keep activities for children in the forefront of your planning. Try to keep kid-friendly attractions evenly spaced throughout the vacation period to avoid boredom and restlessness. The zoo, amusement park, waterpark or aquarium are all kid favorites.  A beach day can provide hours of kid-friendly fun while you relax and supervise. Schedule energetic activities for the morning hours when kids have plenty of energy, and quieter activities late in the day when they are tired.  For a truly great vacation, find the balance between fun options and flexibility. 

 
#3  - Pick A Hotel With Special Features

The Fourth of July offers a great opportunity to travel with your family. Do some research for a hotel that allows you to see a 4th of July fireworks display from your balcony. You can spare yourself the hassle of parking and crowds and still give your children a wonderful holiday they will remember all their lives.

#4 – Other Ways To Avoid “Meltdowns”

Vacations often mean a big change in daily schedules. Toddlers may not get the naps they need, and older kids may become over-stimulated and irritable. As you plan your vacation time, remember to schedule in some quiet time during the day so that little ones can catch up on their rest. School-aged kid can read or watch a movie. Teens can use this time to contact friends at home or document their trip in a journal.  Depending on your vacation itinerary, planning a relaxed day at the pool can be a great idea following a rather busy day of fun.

#5 – Make Sure Your Hotel Is Kid-Friendly

Many hotel chains go out of their way to appeal to families. Research those with children’s programs that might appeal to your family. You can find a range of activities including “dive-in” movies by the pool, family horseback riding, and craft activities. Some even offer programs for teens. While the kids are engaged, you can get lost in a good book or enjoy a great meal with your husband.  The kids club on our last trip to Hawaii was an excellent resource for our family.  The vast assortment of kid’s activities provided tons of fun for our little ones and was still recommended as a top-notch Honolulu hotel.

 

So get excited about your trip!  If you plan ahead, your next family vacation will be one for the record books.  Happy travels!

 

Bio: Kendra Thornton: Travel advocate, TV spokesperson, PR businesswoman, proud wife and mama of 3. I am a long time travel expert who has been packing my bags and traveling the world since I was 3 months old! I've found my utmost desire in life is right here in my own home. I have taken my excitement for travel and brought it to you with some of my favorite travel tips and tricks. Enjoy!

More About Teal {Guest Post From My Husband}

I would like to introduce all of you readers to the newest member of our family; our new puppy, Lakewood’s Dazzling Indigo, call name Teal.  Teal is a Small Munsterlander Pointer or Kleiner Münsterländer, a breed that originated in and around Münster, Germany around 500 years ago.  They are a versatile hunting dog which share that distinction with other, more well-known, breeds such as the German Shorthaired Pointer and the Brittany Spaniel.  The North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association defines versatility as "the dog that is bred and trained to dependably hunt and point game, to retrieve on both land and water, and to track wounded game on both land and water.”  They are a relatively new breed to the United States and, at this point, there are only around 2,000 Small Munsterlanders residing in the United States.

I am a very avid outdoorsman and have always wanted a hunting dog but didn’t want to get one until we moved out of town, as our small yard and city life was not dog friendly.  We finally moved out of town onto four acres about a year ago so the search began to find the right pup.  Our new property just happened to be all set up for dogs with two kennels and an underground “invisible” fence encompassing the entire property.

I did a lot of research before settling on the Small Munsterlander as my breed of choice.  Initially we put ourselves on a waiting list for a Stabyhoun; a rare breed from the Netherlands area.  After discussing the Stabyhoun with several breeders in the U.S. we ultimately decided to keep looking as this breed wasn’t likely to be as promising a hunter as we were hoping for.  Plan B ended up being the Drentse Patrijshond, which stands for Dutch Partridge Dog or Drent for short.  This breed required a very long wait as there are very few litters born in the U.S. each year and, at this point, we didn’t want to import a pup from overseas. 

Ultimately we ended up picking the Small Munsterlander as the dog for us.  This breed, while still quite rare, was going to be much easier to acquire because we happen to have two local breeders within a few miles of our home.  This also allowed us to visit the pups nearly every day during the seven-week wait to bring our little girl home.

We put our name on the waiting list last August and ended up getting second choice female.  The breeder we chose is very thorough and did his homework to pick an amazing pairing with his female and a stud from eastern Iowa who is the best, most decorated male Small Munsterlander in the United States.  His registered name is Max vom Schützenknapp, call name Max.  Our pup’s mother is beautiful and gentle and an amazing hunter herself.  Her registered name is Crabtree’s Daisy Belle, call name Daisy. 

So finally the litter was whelped on January 30, 2013, resulting in five males and four females.  We almost immediately narrowed our search down to two of the females but, of course, had to wait for the first pick to make her choice before we could make ours.  The first choice female, a lady from Texas, ended up picking one of the other two pups that weren’t on our “list” so we were still able to make our own decision on which pup was right for us.  We ended up picking a pup that the breeder called “Rusty” (due to her having a small rust colored spot on her back).  She was the pup we were more leaning toward the whole time as she was just so calm and content with our family.  We wanted a dog that would be good with our children and she really seemed to fit the bill.

We brought our little bundle of energy and needle teeth home on the evening of March 22 at seven weeks and two days old.  She fit perfectly into our family from the start and has been a joy to be around and play with. 

As of today she is just one day shy of eleven weeks old and is growing rapidly. I have been busy teaching basic obedience and getting Teal socialized at this critical time in her life.  She has shown amazing intelligence thus far in her training and catches on quickly.  Her natural tracking and retrieving abilities are very strong and getting better each day.  We currently have her going to “Doggy Daycare” two to three days a week in order to get her socialized well with other people, dogs, and even cats.  I have also been taking her to work quite often, where she has a chance to interact with the other people at the shop and just be constantly exposed to new things and experiences. 

I plan on running Teal in a North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) Natural Ability test in June, where pups are tested to a standard and awarded points and prizes depending on how well they do.  I am hoping for the best and can’t wait to see how Teal progresses in her training.  We will keep you updated!

DIY Hair Accessory Holder {Guest Post by my Husband}

With having three precious little daughters with heads full of gorgeous hair comes an over-abundance of hair accessories!  My wonderful wife would find cute little hair clippies here or some neat headbands there.  Big, fluffy, flowers in all shapes and colors seemed to overflow at least one drawer of our girls’ dresser.  We had very quickly created a monster that was in dire need of organization!

Vanessa kept mentioning to me that we needed some other way to organize our many “hair things.”  She had seen other types of organizers online and wanted me to make her something that would be both visually appealing and, at the same time, very practical.  Everything I had seen thus far, I knew, would not work for the number of pieces we had so I had to think of something else.

As with many things I have done in the past, when faced with a particular problem or task, I just go to the store.  This is where my thinking happens and where my thought process shines (wink).  I can’t just sit down and draw out a plan.  I have to see what there is available and, with that, let the pieces fall into place in my brain. 

I had a general idea of what I wanted to do as far as size and colors go but wasn’t really sure how I was going to actually tie it together.  It all started with this frame I found at our local craft store.  It was a good size and a good price. (very important! ha!)  I decided to attach tiny little clothes pins and small wooden pegs to the frame around its perimeter in strategic locations so as not to cover up too much of the picture that was to be in the frame.  All of the wood pieces were stained dark mahogany to match our home’s doors and trim and then sprayed with satin polyurethane for a nice sheen. 

Most of the hair accessory holders that I had seen thus far had used some sort of ribbon or ribbons hanging down that were used to attach the various bows and such.  I knew I wanted to use this idea as well and set out to find the perfect ribbon.   Vanessa has always really liked hot pink and orange together so that was going to be my “theme” colors.  I found some ribbon that worked very well and stapled that to the back of the picture frame across the bottom and let the ribbons hang down about 15 inches.  

 I really wanted to personalize this project for my girls so I found wooden letters and purchased one that stands for the first letter in each of their names.  These letters I painted hot pink and glued to the frame as shown. 

Lastly, I found a photograph that features all three of my girls, all with different hair accessories and placed that in the frame.  The photo was made smaller than the frame so I could place an orange background behind the photo to continue with the hot pink and orange theme of the project.  This offset the pink of the letters on the frame.

So there you have it; a completed hair-thingy / accessory holder!  Once completed, we were happy to see it would hold nearly all of our accessories and make them much more accessible and visible when trying to match them to outfits.

Feel free to borrow the idea and make your own organized chaos.  It’s a fun project that the whole family can get in on and relatively inexpensive too!