No one seems to love the holiday season more than my kids (except maybe my husband!), so I decided that this year they could have their very own Christmas tree in their bedroom. And since our family Christmas tree is very traditional with large colorful lights and antique glass ornaments, I figured that the girls could have a tree that matches their big personalities!
So what do they get?? A girly glitter tree topped with beads, stars and unicorns!
Dread. It is the first expression I see when passengers board an airplane and realize that they have to sit in the vicinity of small children. Insert a silent “oh shit” and eye rolls here.
I get it…I’ve been there. FLASHBACK to my early 20’s on a flight from NY to CA where I was literally abused by a screaming toddler that was sitting in the middle seat (mom conveniently took the the window) and allowed my personal beat down to continue for the duration of the ENTIRE flight. You know its bad when random people apologize to you for having to endure said child while waiting at the baggage claim. I was seriously scarred for life – and long after the bruises from said toddler faded, I realized that I never wanted to be “that mom“.
Fast forward 10 years – I now have not one, but 2 crazy little gremlins that I have to keep content while traveling on an airplane. I am fully aware that toddlers are volatile and you can’t always control their emotions or actions, but I personally try my damndest to never let my kids be the one to ruin someone’s flight. I think I’m still overcompensating for “that mom” on my flight to California. When I travel with the tots, I feel like Mary f-ing Poppins pulling magical tricks out of my bottomless bag to make sure that everyone on the entire plane is content. So what exactly does Mary Poppins have stashed in her 50 pound bag of pure toddler pleasure???
I’ve decided to narrow it down to our top 5 for toddlers on a plane:
1. Snacks: I pack an entire gallon ziplock bag full of snacks when we fly. For some crazy reason, my kids somehow become ravenous monsters when we travel. I try to pack relatively healthy snacks that aren’t overly messy or potent smelling to keep them satisfied. We also *attempt* to keep the sugar intake to a minimum because the last thing we need is a toddler amped up on candy! But alas – sometimes we have to bribe our monsters with a bag a fruit snacks to get them to just sit still in their damn seats!
2. Gel Window Clings: Before we travel, I hit up the $1 section at the entrance of Target or the Dollar Store and purchase an assortment of gel window clings. What makes the gel clings so great? They stick to practically anything and don’t leave any sticky residue behind. When we’re finished, we just throw them out at the end of the flight!
(Here you see my girls making designs on the back of the head rest, on the tray table and on the window.)
3. Arts and Crafts: We travel with what feels like an entire craft aisle stuffed into my bag – with crayons, stickers, coloring books, play dough, an assortment of coloring “Play Packs”, colorful pipe cleaners, mini magna-doodles and blank cards with envelopes. Its hard to say how long this will entertain the kids – it could be a matter of mere seconds to the duration of the full flight. Its a crap shoot!
4. Finger Puppets: What silly little toddler wouldn’t love finger puppets? They’re super inexpensive, light weight and easy to pack in a carry on!
5. Tablets: As much as I like to refrain from giving my kids their own personal electronic devices on a daily basis, I don’t think I would survive long haul trips without them!! I can honestly say, “I don’t know how generations before us did it”. Each of our girls have their own kindle fire tucked safely into a Moko kids case loaded with lots of e-books, apps, games and movies. Neither of my kids will wear headphones at this point, so we have to keep the volume at a minimum to not disturb other passengers.
The list could go on and on…and to all you mamas (and dads!) out there – don’t forget to order yourself a stiff cocktail and enjoy your trip! It will all be fine in the end!
Happy Travels!
This year I had the honor of being a Bridesmaid in my sister-in-laws wedding. Conveniently enough, she was getting hitched on Cinco de Mayo. Not only did she make the date easy for me to remember (it’s one of my favorite “drinking holidays”), but she gave me an excuse to celebrate Cinco de Mayo more than once this year! Double score!
The theme for the party was pretty obvious – we threw her a big ‘ole FIESTA!
The Inviations: I designed and crafted the custom invitations on Cricut Access and used my Cricut Explore Air 2 to do all the cutting.
In hindsight, I would have chosen images that were a little quicker to cut. While adorable, the prickly cactus cutouts took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to make because the machine had to cut every single little dot. Next time, I will just use a solid image that will cut in a matter of seconds! Lesson learned.
For the traditional flags on the invitation, I strung them on sewing string and looped them onto the invitation between the front and back layers. This gave the card some depth and a unique flair.
The Decorations: Color, color and more color! We decorated my house in an assortment of “papel picado” which is considered a Mexican Folk Art. Papel picado banners are traditionally made of tissue paper, but I used card stock and cut out the banners on my Cricut machine. We created a photo area in front of one of the living room windows, which was decorated with mixed color tissue paper and a traditional colorful rug that I had picked up at HomeGoods for $19.99! I think the rug made a great statement piece! I picked up the small batch of cactai at the Dollar Tree for $1 each and they were later handed out as favors with a custom sign that said “Pick your Prick!”. The photo booth props were made with the assistance of my Cricut machine.
Bachelorette Ideas: For the bride, I created her very own “Bridal Sombrero” – complete with a veil. It started off as a very basic sombrero (compliments of Party City for $3) and I customized it for our party! I used an inexpensive white wedding garter to go around the center of the hat, which also served as something to pin the veil onto. Around the edges of the sombrero, I hand-sewed on medium sized white pom balls (roughly 1 1/2 inches apart) the entire way around the brim of the hat. To finish it off, I made a pink paper flower that I cut with my Cricut machine and embellished with a gold-tipped feather.
(Above, you can see the Bridal Sombrero being modeled by the beautiful bride herself as well as my oldest daughter!)
Bachelorette Favors: To add a touch of fun (and inappropriateness), we made custom gifts for each of the attendees. We had guests come from as far as Ohio and Texas (so we definitely had to go big and do it right!). Everyone received a mini sombrero headband and also their own personalized cup with a festive saying on it. Each girl had a matching black shirt with their custom saying on it as well. Pictured above your will see a few of them: “I like my men like I like my margaritas, strong and delicious”, “DTF – Down To Fiesta”, “Drinko de Mayo”, and “Tequila Por Favor”.
In-home Paint and Sip: We decided that rather than just going out for some drunken debauchery, we would have some sort of activity for our group. We thought a themed paint and sip would be fun. Rather than trekking our large (slightly inebriated) group to a set location , we found a fabulous instructor that came right to my house! Jackie from Paint with Jackie in State College provided everything for us – from painting supplies to our canvas as was very reasonably priced at $20 per participant. I would highly recommend her if you ever want to host a sip and paint! She was very tolerant of our terrible artistic skills and inappropriate jokes.
Pictured above are some photos of our painting session. My finished painting looks more like a dog wearing a sombrero than a llama (don’t judge me…I blame the sangria!) and you also see our whole group will all of our paintings!
What to Serve?: No Fiesta would be complete without some traditional Mexican (and “American-Mexican”) dishes. Our menu included:
The Drinks: We had a mixture of both alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic drinks for the party. Once again, we tried to stay on course with the theme and served a variety of:
Overall Take-away: This party was a blast to throw! All the guests for both the Bacholorette and Bridal Showers seemed to have a fantastic time. I will definitely re-use many of these ideas for future FIESTAS!
How to get the most of out your Museum Membership Do you belong to a local Science Museum? Did you know that with your membership you are often eligible to travel to other Science Museums for FREE or discounted admission in many locations?
When traveling, we are pretty much on the go every minute. But with small children, we have found that we need to have “break” days for them to burn off some energy and to play freely. We have found that Children’s Museums and Science Centers are a perfect place for them to do so. They are interactive, educational, safe and our kids love going to them! The best part: it is a FREE or super low cost activity that we can do when we travel!!! How often can you say that?!? In the past 2 years alone, we have personally visited centers in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Florida, Montana, Ohio, and Tennessee.
We belong to our local children’s science museum here in State College, PA – DISCOVERY SPACE. While we enjoy what it has to offer for us here, we like having the membership even more for the purpose of using it when we travel. Discovery Space is part of a larger organization called the Association of Science – Technology Centers (ASTC). The ASTC offers a Travel Passport Program, which is a reciprocal admission program that offers a travel benefit to members at participating science centers or museums. The Passport Program is a travel benefit that is included in membership at your local participating science center or museum.
Our annual Family Membership at Discovery Space is $125 and includes 2 parents/guardians, household children and an additional caregiver card. We are also given 4 free one-time use passes to take guests to our local center. The Basic Membership starts at $90/year. For our family of 4 with 2 adults/2 children, paying out-of-pocket for one trip to Pittsburgh to visit the Carnegie Science Museum ($19.95/adult; $11.95/child), and The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh ($16/adult; $14/child) would be equivalent to our annual membership.
Visiting ASTC Science Centers and Museums:
The fine print: In order to use your ASTC Travel Passports at other participating museums, you must be at least 90 miles (as the crow flies) from the science center or museum where you are a member and from your residence.
Before you Travel to an ASTC location:
In addition to the ASTC, there are other organizations that offer similar programs as well. If you have a local membership I any museum, zoo, etc. it is definitely worth checking out to see if they have a Travel Program to use when you are traveling. Here are a few others for your reference:
ACM – Association of Children’s Museums
AZA – Association of Zoos & Aquariums
NARM – North American Reciprocal Museum Association NARM has over 1,000 arts, cultural, and historical institutions along with botanical gardens, children’s museums, science and technology centers and more that offer their individual NARM qualified members reciprocal benefits.
If you are anything like me – you love finding a bargain! And being able to take my family to new places that we can enjoy for free or little cost is a win/win in my book!
One of our family’s favorite local activities in State College is attending Penn State Men’s Hockey games at the Pegula Ice Arena. Mainly funded by Terry Pegula (owner of the Buffalo Sabres and the Buffalo Bills), the “Peg” seats roughly 6,000 enthusiastic fans – including the 1000+ standing students (also known as the ROAR ZONE). The atmosphere within the arena is electric, boasting sell-out crowds many nights throughout the season.
Our Experience:
Pre-game: We *try* to arrive early (but everyone knows that isn’t always possible with 2 toddlers!!), to watch pre-game warm ups. Out girls enjoy taking laps around the arena, sticking their noses against the glass and taunting the opposing team a bit while they warm up. We grab dinner in the arena on occasion – there is a Subway and Auntie Anne’s Pretzels with a small restaurant seating area located toward the rear of the building. They even have high chairs for the smallest hockey fans!
The Game Experience: Penn State Men’s Hockey has been climbing the ranks among the top college hockey teams in Division I, which makes for some great hockey games! Being a small arena, there isn’t a bad seat in the house. Our season tickets are located in Section 108, just to the left of the ROAR ZONE. We love these seats for several reasons: the home team attacks twice on this goal, its close proximity to the students and the Penn State Hockey Band. The students are highly involved and are great in leading the arena in chants that often heckle the opposing team. If you are easily offended by hearing the term “SUCKS”, then these seats or possibly hockey in general are not for you. The students frequently taunt the goal tender by first name with repeated “(insert name here) SUCKS!”, and their own creative colorful version of the song “Hey Baby”. The Zamboni machines also enter/exit the rink near our corner which our kids are typically fascinated by.
Our girls love that they can see the Nittany Lion, Cheerleaders and the Blue Band up close and personal and even have regular run-ins and photo ops!
Collegiate Hockey is similar to NHL, consisting of three 20 minute periods with a 15 minute “intermission” in between. Penn State does a great job of keeping the crowd entertained during breaks.
Post-Game: Similar to Penn State Football, the hockey team gathers in front of the student section for the singing of the Alma mater after the conclusion of the game – regardless of the outcome.
Parking: Parking for Penn State Men’s Hockey is $5 for General Parking located in the Bryce Jordan Center lots across the street from the Pegula Ice Arena. Tip: To avoid traffic (and the parking fee), we park in the lot located off of Hastings Road adjacent to Nittany Apartments. It is available for free public parking on weekdays after 6pm and on weekends. It is about the same walking distance as the Bryce Jordan Center Lots and you don’t even have to cross over University Drive!
Bag and Stroller Policy: No backpacks permitted – all other bags will be searched upon entrance to the arena. Babies may be brought into Athletic Venues in a soft baby carrier or a sling and all ticketing standards apply (meaning they will need a ticket for entry regardless of age). Rigid frame baby and toddler carriers, as well as strollers, are permitted at Pegula Ice arena in the appropriate standing room only areas. If you have chairback seats, strollers and/or carriers must be left in the entry or hallway.
Final Thoughts: We LOVE attending PSU Men’s Hockey games! It is a great family activity at a considerably lower price point than Penn State Football games with ticket prices starting at $15 each. Games are lively, interactive and can make for a great night out in Happy Valley!
I’m Susie. I’m a Mom on the move always looking for our next adventure!
Here it is folks – my first blog post! As a mom of two darling gremlin daughters (ages 2 and 3), I’m always looking for ways to make my life a little easier, a little more entertaining and to keep all our heads above water. Hopefully some of our experiences may help you out (or at least give you a good chuckle) along the way!
A little bit about me: I mom (hard), I craft, I travel, I tailgate, I obsess over party planning, I love football, I attempt to bake and I snowboard. I sporadically live a healthy lifestyle; flip-flopping between eating clean, exercising regularly and throwing it all out the window. I D.I.Y. and I love home renovations with the help and handy work of my husband. I love a good sale. I also love food, beer, wine, and a stiff cocktail – especially after a long day of “Mommying”. I swear like a damn Sailor. I love my life (on most days). I have a fantastic family, some awesome friends, and an incredible support system. Most of all, I have an amazing husband and kiddos. Thankfully my husband is a great sport and has hopped on the crazy train to our journey that we call life. I sure couldn’t do it without him!
As I continue on this adventure, I hope to share a little about my favorite “topics” – covering regional activities, everyday adventures, some traveling tips, products that we love and even some blunders that we’ve experienced along the way! You’ll be able to find blog posts under the following titles:
I’m most likely nuts for taking this on – but I am looking forward to sharing this new adventure! Thanks for coming along for the ride!
If you live in State College, you may or may not be aware of Bargain Tuesday at the UEC Theaters! If not, let me tell you this…it’s a damn good deal! All movies, all day are $5.50 and you get a free 46oz bag of popcorn per person when you present your UEC Loyalty Card. (3D movies are a $2.75 up charge). This offer is valid at either State College location – both the College 9 Theater (near Lowes on North Atherton) and also the College 12 Theater (on Benner Pike near the Nittany Mall).
It’s a great date night, family night out or even a solo outing if you are just looking for some peace and quiet away from your kiddos!
Yesterday we went as a family for the first time and saw Toy Story 4. We went to the 5:20 showing at the College 12 and it was not overly crowded at the early evening show time – especially given that it was the first Bargain Tuesday since the movie’s release last week. However, when our showing let out, it was packed for the 7pm-ish showings with a line out the door!
Overall, we LOVE Bargain Tuesdays (minus the 3 bathroom trips during the movie with 2 young kids!). You can’t beat it!
UEC offers Bargain Tuesday at their theaters in the following states: Arkansas, California, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Utah.
And if you haven’t seen Toy Story 4 – it was definitely worth it! The girls LOVED “Forky”!!! It was waaaaay better than Toy Story 3!
Suz on the move 