Posts Tagged ‘vacationing with young kids’

Sesame Street and Beaches

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Taking a beach vacation with the family can be tricky when you have, uh, the family. I know when my husband and I have gone, we love to just hang out on the sand, in the sun, with a drink. But add kids to the mix and everything changes.

In 2004 Beaches Resorts started an exclusive partnership with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, giving kids the chance play and have fund with some of their favourite Sesame Street characters at the Beaches Turks & Caicos Resort Villages & Spa and Beaches Negril Resort & Spa. Kids could experience Story Time with Elmo, Baking Cookies with Cookie Monster, Exploring with Grover and more.

I attended a media lunch recently, with special guest Big Bird, to announce that Beaches Resorts has extended their partnership with Sesame Workshop until 2015 and that Sesame Street pal Big Bird will be joining the rest of his friends at the Beaches Resorts.

big-bird-and-carrie-anne-badov

Our family hasn’t gone on a beach vacation in a while, trading in our lounge chairs for amusement and water parks to keep the kids happy, but the inclusion of Sesame Street characters at the Beaches Resorts makes it that much more appealing (and feasible) to have a vacation that both parents and kids will enjoy.

And who doesn’t like Big Bird.

bigbirdr

Trying not to forget

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

In December the family took a trip to Disney World and planned to attend Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Unfortunately my two youngest were sick so that just left my oldest and myself heading out to the party. Even with the rain we had a lot of fun, maybe too much fun. Since those attending the party could enter the park before it closed, party goers were given armbands. We went to the party the first night we arrived but my daughter continued to wear her party arm band for the rest of the trip.

We arrived back home and she heads back to school, still wearing her party arm band. Christmas comes and goes and my daughter still wears her arm band. You can see it on her arm during our breakfast with Santa. I was only able to convince her to remove it today. Now it sits on her dressor, so she can daydream about the next time she head’s out to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (hopefully without the rain and with her brother and sister in tow).

disneychristmas

It’s Worth the Drive to Buffalo

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

planeWith a family of five air travel can get pricey so we tend to vacation in destinations we can drive to. That doesn’t mean we’re only visiting surrounding cities. We’ve driven across the United States to Las Vegas, Nevada (when my youngest was four-months old). And just last summer we drove down to Orlando, Florida. However those types of drives require a lot of vacation time since most of your trip seems to be driving. But all that changed we discovered the Buffalo International Airport.

If you’re thinking of taking a family trip, here are four good reasons to fly out of Buffalo:

Cost Savings. This is by far the best reason to fly out of Buffalo versus Toronto Pearson International airport. Our last few trips cost us $65 US a person, one-way. That works out to about $650US for all five of us to fly to Florida; slightly higher than the cost of just one person flying out of Toronto, even with the exchange rate. And if you’re driving to the airport, parking at the Buffalo airport is much, MUCH cheaper than parking at the Toronto airport.

Later Check-In Required. Flying to a US destination, say like Florida, is viewed as a domestic flight from Buffalo by an International flight from Toronto. Domestic flights don’t require you to be at the airport until about 2 hours before your plane leaves unlike international flights that require you to be there 3 or 4 hours before in order to go through customs. With small kids every hour you don’t have to be stuck in the airport is important.

Easier Customs. Now this is my personal preference (others may disagree) but I prefer going through customs at the boarder versus the airport. Probably because the kids can be entertained with a movie versus causing mischief in the airport. Somehow standing in a line with a lot of people is more stressful than sitting in a line of cars.

More Shopping. Depending on when you flight is, you might be able to sneak a trip to Target in either on the way down or on the way back. And who doesn’t want to stop at Target?

And if you happen to be flying to Disney World, another bonus is Magical Express. You can probably use the Magical Express if you fly out of Toronto, but I’ll take any excuse to talk about Disney again. And although this post references Buffalo, I’m sure any US border city will offer the same advantage over flying out of Canada.

Happy Holidays!

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Hotdog!

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Can I have a side order of cheeky chips with that.

Can I have a side order of cheeky chips with that.

My son’s favourite expression, actually his favourite word lately has been Hotdog. Everyone and everything is a hotdog. He’s in a hotdog mood. He’s looking forward to playing with hotdog at school today. It’s endless. So when we visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan not too long ago, I couldn’t believe the display they had.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Viking Girl

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Look out, it's Viking Girl

Look out, it's Viking Girl

On our recent trip to Disney World we spent one day in Epcot, touring the world. The first country on our visit was Norway. And when in Norway there’s nothing more fun than being a Viking. (funny, my youngest is getting so big, she’ll be 3 this December, but somehow in this picture she looks like my little baby still. Must be that large troll creature behind her).

Vacation adjustments

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

When we go away on vacation I can always count on the kids making adjustments when we get back. This last trip, our week in august to Disney World, was no exception. It came as no surprise that my two year old daughter would show up in the middle of the night wanting to sleep in our bed. You see, when we’re on holidays, to avoid paying for two rooms, we split beds in one room. My husband and son in one and myself and my two girls in the other. So my daughter was use to sleeping with me the whole week. It’s understandable she didn’t want to give that up.

For about a week my daughter would come to our bed for an early morning sleep. When the visits stopped I had assumed she had adjusted to being back home and sleeping in her own bed. Well you know what they say about assuming.

No, instead of coming all the way down the hall to my room, she discovered a closer alternative:

Two peas in a pod

Two peas in a pod


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