10 Road Trip Tips

Is anyone else taking summer road trips this year?

We have been on a couple road trips (5 hours and 16 hours) and have a few tips to share with you.  I do a lot less for the 5 hour trips than the 16 hour trips.  Five hour trips means one fun surprise and some good snacks.  A lot more work goes into planning 16 hour road trips especially when it's 16 hours to AND 16 hours from your destination.  

1. Figure out your favorite food stops and try to find them along the way.

I love Dunkin iced coffee and Kevin loves a Starbucks run.  We're always excited to see Jimmy Johns, Chick-Fil-A or Culvers.  Make sure to use your rewards apps for all your favorite restaurants.  I cashed in some CFA points for free items, earned points for coffees and used Culvers rewards for kids meals.

2. Search Amazon for some fun new toys surprises for the drive.  

The kids loved these Gokeey Transformable fidget spinners.  They were very sturdy, the kids played with them a ton and they really were albe to transform into the coolest robots/creatures/inventions.  We have played with them for a couple of weeks and they area lls till in perfect condition.  The kids and adults had fun making different creatures and playing with these fidget spinners.  10/10 recommend them for summer travel or for birthday party gifts.

GoKeey Transformable Fidget Spinners 4 Pack - with a coupon to clip!

3. Post-It Note count down.

My kids (ages 4-11) all appreciate this visual count down.  I set a timer on my phone and for every hour we do of driving, we take down a post it note.  I prepped these ahead of time and wrote out 1-16 twice.  That way I was ready for the trip down and the trip back.

4. Make a fun Spotify playlist or two.  Olive made one for the kids.  I always have a current playlist ready and Kevin wished we'd made him a playlist of his favorite songs to put in the rotation.  We listen through the car bluetooth and it was really helpful when we hit dead spots of not great radio reception.

5. Car crafts!  My kids enjoy these wax wiki sticks, busy books, marker crafts, sticker books and more.  I don't usually like things like slime in the car because it is so messy.

6. Fun Pit Stops!

If you have time, fun pit stops are an instant mood boost!  Bucees is something else.  We've skipped them before when they are too crowded, but this trip we visited twice.  It's quite a spectacle and the food is oustanding.

7. Dine in.

Another instant mood boost is getting everyone out of the car and dining inside.  We all needed a break when we got to Macon, GA.  This Chick-Fil-A dine in gave us the energy to drive a few more hours.  We never dine in for long, but the change of scenery is good for everyone.

8. Reserve your hotels in advance.  We have made the mistake of not doing this and had to sleep for a few hours in a van at a rest stop or drive way far out of the way for a hotel room.  Kevin handles all of this.  He'll map our the hours he'd like to drive and then pick a hotel in that city.  We split up the drives where we did 9 or 10 hours on day 1 and then had a shorter day of about 6 hours for day 2.

9. Gas station snack grab.

Nothing perks the kids up more than telling them to grab any snack of their choice at a bathroom break.  It's so fun to see them strolling through the giant aisles of salty and sweet snacks to pick out something that sounds good to them.

10. Collect trash as you eat and snack and then throw away a bag of trash every time you stop for restroom/gas breaks.  That way your car will stay clean and clutter free!

11. If you have a long drive and are spending the night in a hotel half way, pack a small bag with pjs/outfits for everyone for that night.  That way you just have to take that small bag into the hotel room for night and not have everyone drag in all of their suitcases and bags.  It makes it a really quick sleep and go night if you have everything you need for everyone in one bag. 

12. Find things to get excited about - landmarks, fun stops along the way, a new movie to watch, make a vacation to do list as you travel or anything happy and positive to pass the time.  The silliest thing we got excited about on this drive was our stops at Bucees.  I think we passed 3 of them each drive and it was fun to monitor the billboards.  And after we stopped for the first time we came up with a list of things to try on our next visit.

The Banana Pudding is amazing.

Skip all the hot food options and go straigth for the BBQ.  Kevin and I will be dreaming of these pulled pork sandwiches for a while.  Skip the BLT and the chicken strips/fries.  They take forever to prepare and aren't very good.

And then grab a snack to enjoy later.  Kevin loves fudge so this sampler pack caught his eye.  The kids of course picked out Bucees stuffed animals or key chains.  We all have wish list items for our next visit to Bucees.

Good luck planning and enjoying your summer road trips!!

Friday Five

Happy Friday, Friends!  It's been BUSY overe here so I am doing a quick Friday 5 post today.  

Five highlights from our week and a lot of blog catch up work coming soon!

1. Florida Fun.  We just got back from the best trip to Naples, FL.  It's one of our favorite places.  The weather was rainier than usual (record breaking rain the first two days!) BUT we got to swim every day, tried some new things, hit our favorite spots and enjoyed a week of extra family time.

2. My pots of flowers are bursting with blooms!  I learned the best tip recently.  If you are leaving on a trip and having someone water plants for you (thanks, Dad!), move your full sun plants out of the full sun for the week.  I pulled all my patio pots into a line right up against our house.  They still got sun, but weren't being roasted when I wasn't home to water them daily.

I am really proud because I planted these from seeds and I can't wait for them to bloom!  Kristen, Your Zinnia seeds seem so happy here!  Along with some wildflowers.

3. Surprise centerpiece.  We hosted some friends for dinner this week and Kevin surprised me with fresh flowers for the table.  He knows the table looks nice with a small bouquet and he guessed red flowers since I tend to do red, white and blue all Summer long.  I asked him how he knew that I hadn't already bought flowers for the table.  He said that since I did grocery pick up for the meal, he knew I wouldn't order flowers for the table that way.  He was right.  And so thoughtful!  It helped pull together a perfectly pretty table.

4. It's good to be home!  Any time Leo sees something with writing on it, he says "This says Leo on it!" claiming it as his.  These binoculars had a product label on them and he was sure that it said LEO marking them his.

Our Midwest sunsets have been extra pretty this week!

5. Bucee's Banana Pudding.  We visited Bucees a couple of times on our trip to Florida and I'm here to tell you: Get the Banana Pudding for dessert after you finish a pulled pork sandwich.  They're both delicious.  And you won't find a cleaner bathroom and gas stop.  It's not the easiest or fastest stop to navigate with all the people, but it's an iconic travel must do if you're heading anywhere in the South.

Happy weekend!  I hope you have a fabulous one.  See you back here next week!

Lifetime Playset

I have wanted a playset for our backyard sinced we moved in two years ago, but they're expensive and a huge project to build.  We had a wooden playset at our last house and I was hoping this metal one would be easier to assemble.  

I was WRONG.  The online reviews said it would take 2 people around 8 hours to build.  That was also WRONG.  It took Kevin and my Dad and a little help from me and my mom an entire week of working on it for good chunks of time.  It probably took us 24 solid hours with a team to build.  They may never let me live this project down, BUT the kids love it and I think we're all happy to get to enjoy it now that the assembly part is out of the way.

We started on a chilly Saturday in May and finished the following Saturday.

Some serious eye rolls and WHITNEY comments were made when they saw the table full of hardware that needed to be organized.

SO HAPPY.

There is a city map on floorboard of the tower and Leo loves driving his cars up there.  Then he sends his cars down the slide for some extra fun.

Sweet memories.

100% worth all the hard work.  The kids play on the playset every single day.

We found this set on sale at Sams in April.  It's a beast to assemble, but we've been really happy with it so far.  And Kevin says I was right - the kids love it - but it was a tough project even for guys who are familiar with building and assembling.

June Coffee Chat

Happy Friday, Friends!  I've got a coffee chat post for you today instead of my usual favorites.  Grab your favorite breakfast and et's chat about all the things!  Pearl will be joining us today :)

1. What's your go to mosquito repellent?  For people and patios?  Two of my kids are delicious to mosquitos and I hate that for them.  I picked up some bracelets for them to try at Home Depot.  I've always wondered about those stickers you can put on their clothes.

2. I need a few new Summer dresses.  Where is your go to spot to find something pretty, colorful, floral, fun and light weight.  Also, not super short.  The last few dresses I've tried were SHORT or super low cut.

3. I have been loving reading Emily Henry's books this Summer.  First I read Happy Place.  Then I read Book Lovers and now I'm moving onto The People We Meet on Vacation.  The characters are all so interesting and each story feels familiar yet different.  You will come to expect happy endings (which I love!), but there are a lot of twists and turns along the way.  With a little bit of spice.

4. What is everyone grilling this Summer?  I love grilling season (Kevin does all the grilling) and am looking for some new protein options.

5. What shows are you watching?  Kevin and I started Into the Night - it's about a group of people who are on a plane together who are racing around the world to avoid being burned up by the sunlight.  It's been interesting and dramatic so far.  I'm watching The Parisian Agency's new seasons.  I listen to it in french and read the subtitles.  It's so interesting to see their exlusive properties all over the world plus I love their family business dynamics.

6. What are some things that are on your family's summer to do list?

7. I'm currently trying to schedule all the appointments for us.  I'm trying to get my new contact prescription just right which is annoying.  Hopefully I'll end up with new glasses and new contacts that I love.  Then it's onto pediatrician appointments, dentist appointments, etc.

8. I've got a great money saving tip for you - learn to do haircuts at home!!  Obviously, this won't work for everyone, but if you've got little boys or girls with long hair, there are tons of youtube videos out there to teach you.  Just buy a great set of clippers on Amazon and get started.  I've been cutting everyone's hair starting with Olive in 2013 and it's saved us so much money.  Boy hair grows so fast that it's awesome to be able to confidently take care of it at home.  Kevin's hair is the hardest, but I've figured it out.  And if someone gets a bad Summer haircut, your schedules are probably lighter and won't see all that many people.  Fun fact, Kevin has been trimming my hair since college so for probably 20 years.   

9. I'm doing a Jen Wilkin Bible study - Sermon on the Mount - with my small group this Summer.  Have you ever done one of her studies??  It's a combination of videos and homework throughout the week.  The kids come with the moms and they play while we do the Bible study.  I'm hoping to learn a lot.

10. Talk to me about your favorite screen free games to play as a family or for you kids to play.  My big kids love when I play Yahtzee with them and then we have a handful of other games.  We like doing puzzles together, but Leo is at a hard age for big puzzles to be fun.  The kids call him the enemy of all puzzles.

Thanks for chatting!

Happy Summer!

I'll be blogging as consistently as I can with my whole crew home this Summer!

Tween Slumber Party of Her Dreams

Olive requested her first slumber party with friends for her 11th birthday.

I was hesitant.  Tried to suggest a late over instead, but she was sure she was ready so I got on board.  We invited friends that we knew well and knew their families well.  Plus one new friend.  The friends we knew well spent the night and the new friend left around 10pm.  It worked out great and I'm glad I said yes to her request.

My best teen advice is to ask your kids what they want to do for their birthdays, listen and come up with a plan you both agree on.

We brain stormed a list of activities for the slumber party and then promptly hid the list before her friends arrived.  It was good for us to talk through activity options ahead of time.

She made another Canva invitation and we texted them out to her friends.

We made candy salad.  Stay tuned for a post on this because it was so much fun!

Did the cutest craft.  I've got to get a post together with links and details.

I made a pasta bar for dinner.  The girls loved it and it was much cheaper than eating out.  The boys went out to dinner so that it was just us girls at home.

Kevin had some leftover Memorial Day fireworks to do for the girls.

We gave them flashlights and let them go on a neighborhood walk together.

We did popcorn and a movie, made late night blizzards, played ping pong and lots of talking.  I took their breakfast orders and told them breakfast was at 9:00am.  I went to bed at midnight and suggested they do the same.  They stayed up too late so everyone was tired the next morning.  They loved the breakfast and then their moms came to get them at 9:30am.

It was Olive's real birthday so she got busy opening gifts after her friends left.

She loved her gifts this year.  Can you tell??  It always feels good to pull off a good round of gifts.

We took it easy all day and then she requested carrot cake for dessert.

I was nervous about a sleepover, but it was so much fun!