Five Frugal Road Trip Tips with Children

Travelling with kids- three words to strike fear in anyone's heart!

We recently went on a quick road trip to see family, and as it was over a long weekend we knew we would have to be prepared as most shops were closed and motels were booked up.

Planning a road trip on a budget and with kids doesn't have to be hard- I am sharing five tips today to help your journey go smoothly.

Set a budget and pay cash
It is tempting to pay for your entire vacation using your credit card, but making a budget and paying cash where possible will make your finances a lot easier in the long run. Set a budget for petrol, accommodation, entertainment and food and stick to it! Letting your whole family know of the budget will stop everyone from asking for extra coffees at the petrol station and kids asking to go to certain attractions. In fact, getting the kids involved with planning your journey will help avoid any last minute melt downs. If they know in advance what the itinerary is, they can request where they want to go and you can work it in if the budget allows. This is also a great idea if the family all wants to do different things- planning an itinerary and a budget can help avoid arguments and the stress that comes with last minute decisions. For instance, I wanted to go to the new Cadbury Cafe for a hot chocolate so we knew to budget in a morning tea stop there.



Visit the library
The library is a fabulous place to find some guidebooks on your destination, as well as find some magazines and books to keep the kids entertained on the road. Another great idea is to get out some audiobooks to listen to during the journey, or even a new CD of a favourite musician or band.

Take your own food

One of the largest factors in our budget is food. As someone with a food allergy, it makes it hard to stop in at a fast food restaurant and order off the menu, but the convenience of ready to go food is a lifesaver on the journey. I sit down with a calendar and plan what we will have for each meal while we are away. I check each motel for kitchen facilities- if they have a toaster then I know to take a loaf of bread and some peanut butter for breakfast! In fact, I don't stay in accommodation without a kitchen- just my personal preference but it definitely saves money. I make my grocery list in advance and go shopping, sticking to the list! Packing your own fruit salad, making muffins and re-bagging bulk snacks make travel easier, rather than stopping at each food place on the way to pick up something. Nut mixes, home-made granola bars such as these ones from Nuts.com or a delicious smoothie are all ideal for healthy snacks on the road.





Plan ahead for the car ride
To stop the "are we there yet" and fighting, I like to create a fun bag of activities to be earned during the car ride. Snacks are a great distraction for kids in the car but mix it up with activity books, little toys and other things to keep them entertained in the backseat until you reach your destination. I simply used these cute printables and laminated a sheet with all of the tasks. Each time the boys ticked off one of the ovals, I gave them a bag.

Visit free attractions
Even though you may have some bucket list destinations on your budget, it is great to space these out with things you can do for free. Simple bushwalks, a visit to the beach or a stroll into the city centre all cost nothing and fill in time. Museums, landmarks and playgrounds all work well with children too, as stopping there to give them a run around works well after being cooped up in the car!

 

I hope these tips help you to have a fun, frugal family holiday in 2016.

School Holiday Suggestions

The school holidays are upon us- and I have put together some fun suggestions for how to keep the little ones entertained.

Pictured above is one of the activities at Pioneer Stadium's The Southern Centre, a multi-sensory experience for all ages and abilities. My boys absolutely love this place! Booking are essential.

Why not create a recipe using Griffins biscuits and submit it to the Little Bakers competition? A great excuse to get messy in the kitchen and teach the kids some filming techniques.

Westfield Riccarton has some fun Peanuts themed activities in centre between 10:30-2:30. The first week you can make a birdhouse, and the second week is a Peanuts Jigsaw. Monty the Monkey is also walking around, so be saure to say hi!

If you are looking for some outdoor activities, head along to the Tothills Maze for the Find Ken the Kiwi challenge- Ken the Kiwi is in the wooden maze and if you can find him, you can enter the draw to win a prize!  There are also special school holiday family packages - 2 adults and up to 3 children for $49.

The Breeze Walking Festival is back, and the Pukeko Stomp on Wednesday 7th October is an easy walk. Shake your tail feather as you skip, walk, hop and stomp your way around Travis Wetland to find Perky the Pukeko and friends. Enjoy storytelling and fruit kebabs along the way. A perfect outing for babies in buggies, young walkers and their families.

Get your children involved with arts and crafts by popping into The Make Company Imagination Station where your child can make a mask, a rocket, a mermaid or one of 16 other crafty options. Priced from $3-$12, you are sure to find something fun to create. You can even purchase kits to take home, which is a great idea for young ones who are stuck at home due to sickness.

I hope these give you some ideas- what do you have planned for the school holidays?

Plans for a weekend of Love

Valentines Day is coming up, and so I have planned some fun things for my family to do with love. I tend not to be too worried about the commercial side of Valentines Day, to me it is a time to remind my husband and boys how much I love them and a great way to reconnect as a family. My husband and I also celebrate our wedding anniversary just before Valentines Day, so it is great to be able to use this time to show my entire family how much I love and appreciate them.

 image via Bento School Lunches

Lucas is a school boy now, and I want to make sure he eats his lunch on Friday. I will make an easy love themed lunch similar to this with simple heart shaped sandwiches, some strawberries and fresh fruit. Some Babybel cheese and strawberry yoghurt will be perfect additions to a delicious, nutritious and fun lunch.

Valentines Day falls on a Saturday this year, so we have the whole day to celebrate. We do have some dance classes in the morning, so we need a fuel-filled breakfast. I plan on making some berry smoothies and also giving the boys some berry cereal.

 

We like to snuggle up with some books before nap time, so I will be reading Splat The Cat Funny Valentine and Foxy in Love.

To keep the boys entertained, we will do some Heart Stamping using toilet rolls and red paint. I will also mix red and white paint to make pink to teach the boys about primary and secondary colours.


 Image via I Can Teach My Child

As part of my Pinterest Resolutions, the boys will be receiving these love coupons.

An afternoon treat of Strawberries cut into heart shapes will suffice- my boys love fruit!



Image via One Good Thing By Jillee

The night will be finished off with a special family dinner inspired by One Good Thing By Jillee, as she has provided table decor ideas, a menu with printables, recipes and even a family activity.

Lastly, we will settle down and watch Madly Madagascar together- my 5 year old loves the penguins and this movie looks to be popular with all of us!

What have you got planned for Valentines Day?

Pinterest Resolutions Jan-April 2015

My Pinterest Resolutions so far have been mostly successful, so I think it is time to choose a few more to attempt!

If you are new to my blog, each six months I have been choosing some items that I have pinned on my Pinterest Boards, and will complete the idea, creation or activity.

Instead of six monthly, I will now break these down into four month goals. I feel like I forget about some of the things I want to do during a six month time period, so four months gives me a good amount of time but not too much.

As far as blogging goes, I like to plan ahead and so this way of planning a year of blog posts is definitely something I need to do!

We are heading on holiday soon, and I need to pack light. This guide on a capsule wardrobe for a beach vacation will be perfect for me to get a variety of outfits with minimal space.

All of the males in my family are big on quality time, so for my 2 and 5 year old I will have to make up these Valentines Day coupons for them to take advantage of some special activities with me, Dad and as a family.

I love making cards, and this video showing how to make 12 cards in less than 20 minutes is something I need to try once I get the Wishes book!


My boys love bananas, peanut butter and frozen yoghurt, so making our own peanut butter and banana frozen yoghurt will be something we can all do together and enjoy.

My boys also love treasure hunts, and Easter is a perfect time to do them. How cute is this active Easter Egg hunt? Great to get the kids up and moving.

These should all have been put into place by the end of April- make sure to check back to see how I am doing!

Childhood Christmas Memories

Every year since 2010 I have been arranging a day where my children see Santa. I dress them in their best, but unfortunately my husband and I have had to be in the photos too! This year we finally got a great one, with two big smiles and no parents.

I started thinking about my own Santa photos as I couldn't recall ever visiting Santa for photos as a child. However, a look through my family photo albums shows a love of Santa that started for me at an early age!

This photo is of me and my Dad- my fist time seeing Santa at the Plunket Christmas Party. I was 14 months old here, and obviously unsure of Santa! Plunket is a local organisation that looks after new mums and their babies, and is a huge part of growing up in New Zealand.



Santa features prominently at Plunket Christmas parties- here I am with my twin sister. We always had matching outfits growing up, and my mum sewed some amazing clothes for us to wear.



This photo made me smile when I saw it- this was taken again with my twin sister (I am wearing the blue headband) at the local supermarket. The reason I love this photo so much is that now my boys have had their photo taken with Santa at the exact same supermarket this year. I was hoping to post that photo but I have not received it yet, but will update when I do! It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know that some of my experiences with Christmas will be replicated with my children.



This photo is another Santa in a shop with my twin sister- do you sense a theme here? While we may not have had many professional posed Santa photos, we did have a lot of opportunities to get Santa photos in our local community. That's what I love about living in my childhood town- the spirit of Christmas comes alive locally and all of our neighbours, teachers and friends come together to make sure the children have some amazing experiences.



It was so much fun to walk down memory lane and see how much of my love of Christmas came from my childhood. Now that I have children of my own, I want them to experience the magic of Christmas. We do fun things each year such as meeting Santa and choosing an ornament for the tree, and I recently came across a beautiful website called Patience Brewster. Her ornaments, paintings and handmade gifts are breathtaking, and have so much detail. This rooster ornament will look perfect on my tree as I love all things poultry related, and the Chicken Teapot is on my wishlist! My boys loved the Mini Candy Cane ornament, as my oldest son declared it was the coolest candy cane ever due to the glitter shoes! This website captures the magic of Christmas so well for both children and adults, and would be perfect for gift giving or as a feature for your own tree or holiday decorating.

Christmas for my children this year is quite bittersweet as my son turns five today, and already the magic of Christmas is being lost on him. Doing family and Christmas related activities is a great way to keep the excitement in December, as well as create my own family memories so that one day I can show them photos for them to also have fantastic Christmas memories. Local events, retailers in our area and beautiful Christmas themed items help me to bring Christmas into our lives each year.

Do you have any favourite Christmas memories? What type of things do you do with your children to create memories? I would love to know!