As moms, we’re always looking for great places to take pictures of our kids. My favorite place to get pictures is at the beach. On our annual beach trips, my goal is to always get at least 2 or 3 excellent shots of the kids enjoying the sand or water plus a bunch other pictures to round out our photo album. After 8 years of beach excursions with my children, I’ve collected quite a few lovely photos. I thought it would be nice to compile them into an inspirational post so other moms can get ideas for their own photo collections. Following are some of my best tips for Keep Reading
Printable Camping Trip Checklist – Essentials to Pack for the Weekend!
We're gearing up to go on our annual camping trip in a few weeks, and I am putting together our camping essentials packing list. Ever since I started posting about camping as a family, I've gotten this question - "What exactly do you need to take camping?!" I've had several requests for a printable PDF camping checklist. Ya'll know I love me a good checklist!!! So I thought I'd sit down and type out all the things we take on our camping trips. The list was longer than I expected. I guess I just pack a lot of this stuff out of habit, but seeing it all written down in one place Keep Reading
7 Things You Shouldn’t Forget to Pack When Camping WITH KIDS
Camping is one of our favorite things to do as a family. I get so many questions from other moms about how in the world you can make staying outside with your kids an actual fun experience. My answer to them – go prepared for comfort, but don’t worry about traditional “activities” like you might have at home. In essence, the key to having a good time camping as a family is to make sure everyone is happy, dry, and well fed. You don’t need to make a lot of plans if you cover those bases. I love having no plans. It’s a time to truly unwind and just enjoy the God’s creation in Keep Reading
Easy Campfire Nachos – The Perfect Camping Recipe!
Anyone who knows me knows that camping is one of my all time favorite things to do in this world. We used to go camping all the time with good friends of ours every May. We'd meet up at a mutually convenient campground - 45 minutes away for us, 1 hour away for them - and set up camp for a long weekend. We'd usually stay Thursday night thru Sunday morning. We took our oldest camping when she was 6 months old... We set up a portable crib beside our bed in the tent, and we were all snug as bugs! Then we went when she was 1.5 Keep Reading
Camping gear you need if you REALLY want to be prepared!
We go camping pretty often as a family. In fact, I have started a whole series on this topic, which you can read about here: 10 Easy Camping Recipes You Can Cook Over the Fire and/or Make Ahead All the Essentials You Need on a Family Camping Trip Easy Way to Build a Campfire (video tutorial) FREE PRINTABLE Camping Packing Checklist What to do if you want a relaxing camping trip with kids Amazing Camping Nachos Recipes I thought it would cool to show everyone a handy list of the mandatory things you must take camping. I know a lot of people aren't sure what Keep Reading
Camping with Kids & Unplugging for a Weekend
It's been a few years since we went camping as a family. We used to go all the time and kind of stopped for a little while when all the kids were little. We used to camp all the time when our oldest two were babies & toddlers, but something about having three in 4.5 years puts you over the edge. We kinda stopped for a while! Now that our youngest is 5 years old, we feel prepared to start back up again. This month we went on a camping trip at a lake just down the road from our house, and it was lovely. We chose a weekend when there were scattered thunderstorms Keep Reading
21+ of the Best Mad Libs & Awesome Kids Books for Your Next Road Trip
Whenever we go on a road trip more than, say, 1 hour long, we like to let the kids take something to do. It's good for the sanity of all involved. LOL As they've gotten a little older (no longer toddlers, but not old enough to have a cell phone), we've found that they really love road trip games and cool books like Mad Libs! I found a lot of different ones we like, so I wanted to put a good list of our favorite + wish list Mad Libs right here in case you could use some quality road trip game ideas! :) Your kids definitely won't get bored if you have a good Keep Reading
Going Camping? Easy Way to Build a Campfire {video tutorial!}
We go camping as a family quite a bit now, but when I first started going camping, I remember being truly intimidated by starting a fire. It's not as hard as you think. And there's actually some technique to making a fire that lasts (especially when you need it to keep going to keep you warm or to cook on. Even a beginner can make a good fire. What You Need to Make a Fire You'll need these things to make a fire: Kindling (a.k.a. larger pieces of wood + smaller sticks) - as dry as you can find. If you're camping right after a rain, look for kindling that Keep Reading
10 of the Best Campfire Food Recipes – Easy Meal Ideas for Your Next Camping Trip
We've gone camping quite a bit over the years. We usually camp with family friends over a long weekend, and we split up the meals to make sure everyone doesn't end up bringing food for everyone, for every meal. (this happened our first year and we had SO MUCH FOOD leftover!) lol Since there are three families, what we usually end up doing is taking one breakfast and dinner each, then everyone provides their own lunches. It works out really well! We like to mix up our menu each year so it doesn't get boring. Last year we made chicken kabobs on the fire for dinner and pancakes on the Keep Reading
How I’m Saving Up $3,500 This Year For Our Trip to Disney World
We are going to Disney World this October, and I am already starting to plan for it. I know based on our last trip that we will easily spend at least $3,000 on this trip (more like $3,500-$4,000), so I am getting a jump start on my savings plan. I don’t mind dipping into savings for big trips like this, but I would much rather save up the money ahead of time. I kind of like knowing we have the money allotted in advance and can have fun worry-free. Last time we went to Disney World, my youngest daughter got a double ear infection on top of just recovering from pink-eye, so that was worry Keep Reading
Family Beach Trip Planning Checklist
Every year I am the one in charge of planning my family's beach trip. I love the beach soooooo much that I can't imagine going a year without a trip there with my family! Topsail Beach, NC ~ 2013 Emerald Isle, NC ~ 2014 In addition to our immediate family, we always take at least one set of grandparents and one our siblings' families. This year we are taking a vacation to Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina. We're sharing an oceanfront beach home with my parents for the whole week with my sister's family and my in laws rotating in and out half way through the week. We're here right Keep Reading
FREE Disney Customized Map & Vacation Planning Video
Before our family went to Disney World last year, we found out as many vacation planning tips as possible from friends and family. We received so much advice (some of it conflicting) that we couldn't possibly take it all. However, two tips we followed and were glad we did were requesting the free resources available to us. By far my favorite thing we got before our trip was a set of customized maps showing which attractions we wanted to see in each park. Since our kids were 1, 3, and 6, we chose all the little kid rides we could. We took those maps with us into the Keep Reading
