Tag: family

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Countdown to Fall Break (and a giveaway)

A Flashback: FALL 2008 Junior is more likely kick, rather than sit, on a pumpkin these days šŸ™‚

Updated 10/23/10: This giveaway is now closed and the winner is Shelby! Thanks for playing, Shelby look for an email from me.

Five is apparently the age where you start understanding that a break from school is an anticipated event. Sunday night I was talking to MaM and she figured it out — “So I go to school for two days and then there’s FIVE at home days? That’s awesome!” And she’s been counting down ever since.

We’ve got some fun things planned — a visit to the Children’s Museum, a visit to Conner Prairie for the Headless Horseman, and a quick getaway to Brown County and the Columbus Children’s Museum. We’re even hoping to squeeze in a trip to a pumpkin patch (this week’s Savvy deal), and then there’s Trunk or Treat at church on Sunday. Phew. Should be fun!

In the spirit of all that is fall, I had the chance to preview a Taking the Scary Out of Halloween Kit by children’s author, Joy Berry. It’s a fun kit that includes glow sticks (one that’s a necklace! with a whistle!), Ā a fun projection flashlight and book about Halloween. The kids have had a great time with the flashlight (are mine the only ones who are constantly playing in the dark bathroom? what? they are?), and the book is a good one. It’s filled with safety tips and also some good manners lessons that can make Trick or Treating go more smoothly. The book also has fun stickers and Halloween activities.

Want to win a Halloween Safety Kit of your own? Leave a comment here, telling me your fall break plans or a costume idea or whatever you feel is seasonally appropriate Ā and I’ll randomly choose a winner sometime on Friday!

Happy Fall Break, Everyone!

(Disclosure: Joy Berry Books sent me a Halloween Safety Kit to review. Note: the first flashlight was jostled and broken during shipping, but its replacement arrived undamaged and worked great!)

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Drive Thru Weekends

Fall is what I like to call our “Travel Season”. With a billion birthdays, a few holidays and Fall Break from school, we find ourselves driving all over the place on fall weekends. Ā And while I try to plan snacks for the car rides, inevitably, we make a lot of fast food stops this time of year too. It’s not always meal time, but when you pass the only small town for 60 miles, you stop at 2pm if that’s what time you’re passing through.

Enter Wendy’s new Pick Two for $4.99 campaign. I wrote about their all-new salads last month. Now they’ve made a smaller portion (still loaded with good things) and added an option where you can add a menu item (Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger, rich and meaty chili, oven-cooked Baked Potato, grilled or spicy homestyle chicken Go Wrap, Dasani bottled water, small Frosty or other small beverage). So I can appeal to my healthy side (salad! Ā for this post, I chose Apple Pecan Chicken — SO GOOD) and my decadent side (Frosty!) in one simple order. I like simple.

Of course, you could go totally “good” and get either chili or a baked potato and have yourself a fine lunch with good variety.

But in the effort of full-disclosure, I’ll admit it: I always choose the Frosty.

(Disclosure: I was a sent a Wendy’s gift card to try these new salad/menu combinations. No one told me to get the Frosty, I decided to do that all on my own.)

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Dreaming of a Polar Family Vacation

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I learned early on as a new mom that vacation with kids typically isn’t a vacation — it’s a family trip. A family trip means travel, means family, means fun, means memories, but it’s not a vacation for mom. Suitcases need to be packed, children need to be entertained while traveling, and upon arrival? Oh my — there’s the sleeping away from home issue, the eating away from home issue and the pottying away from home issue. That’s a lot of issues for a 5day/6night adventure. My line of thinking is this — for it to be a real vacation at this point, it needs to be all-inclusive. And there needs to be on-site childcare so that at some point in the trip there is an actual vacation. I’ve concluded then, that our ultimate vacation would be an Alaskan Cruise.

Why Alaska? I don’t need to be paranoid about sunscreen, and I think seeing that part of the country would be amazing. I imagine it would be a National Geographic issue come to life — educational, breath-taking, interesting, and fun all in one swoop. The kids would swoon at the wildlife, I would swoon at the lack of housekeeping and cooking for which I’d be responsible, and I think it would be a win-win all around. The four of us would be able to have a lot of family time exploring what the ship had to offer, as well as swimming, sharing meals, and enjoying entertainment when we weren’t on excursions. I would make no beds. I would make no meals. I might even spring for the housekeeping staff to do our laundry. That, my friends, would be a real vacation! Where would you go??

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