It can be hard to find a weekend break that fit’s all family needs, in fact it can be pretty impossible, especially when you have two overactive boys aged seven and eight, a husband that works very hard all week and thinks weekends are for relaxing and me, who just doesn’t want to cook and wants a little me time.
We are off to Florida shortly with my brother and his family for our holiday of a lifetime. We will be hiring a car in the USA for the duration of our holiday, so like when we were in France, I thought it wise to put together a tips for driving in the USA. Make sure you drive on the right. You have to come to a complete stop at a stop sign even if the roads are deserted Make sure you check the driving rules of the state you are visiting Have your driving license and passport ready, you may also need your booking reference that the travel company gave you. more »
Yes, I am going to talk about our holiday again! We have been encouraging the boys to save money to spend whilst we are in Florida and I have discussed before just how hard it is to get children aged 7 and 8 to save, so I wanted to share with you what has worked for us this time and it is really relevant as Coinstar have just released information for their survey that revealed just under 70% of households have loose change lying around their home that never make it to a savings jar, equating to £60 a year per household on average and a shocking accumulative £1.5 billion in the UK. more »
Details: 7 nights accommodation in a Vivaldi Mobile Home at La Croix Du Vieux Pont, which sleeps 6 and Eurotunnel Crossing for one car costs £1214 for 2 adults and 3 children on August 17 2013. Special offers and discounts are available at certain times of year, see the Al Fresco website for details. We received free Eurotunnel crossing and accommodation for the purposes of this review. You can see more photos of our trip over on Facebook.
The secret for enjoying a day at the beach is what you take with you and I have some great hints and tips.
Leave towels at home for the younger children and purchase towelling dresses or robes instead. It is much easier to just pop them on when they are wet and cold.
Talc or baby powder is great for removing sand off feet before putting your shoes on.
Get some shade – a beach umbrella is a must with children, even better is a UV tent as they can take a nap in it.
Take plenty of sunscreen. Even if it says it is water proof please reapply every time they have been in the water.
A string bag is perfect for carrying beach toys.
Take beach toys, bucket, spade, ball, flying disc and cars or diggers.
Take snacks and water. I pack my snacks in individual bags as sand will always find a way in to an open bag. The same with water, it is better to pack multiple bottles than one large one.
Take spare change for ice creams and beach snacks. Never take a lot of cash or your cards.
If you want to take photo’s – make sure it is just a cheap compact camera – sand and camera lenses do not mix well. Or even better take a waterproof one.
Hats are a must for everyone.
We always take a couple of UV suits so that they can use one against the other.
Beach shoes are great if you are going to a rocky area.
Win Your Family Holiday This Year!
The recession has hit most household budgets hard, with families struggling to meet basic outgoings, and not very much left in the pot for luxuries like holidays. If you’re feeling pretty gloomy at the prospect of giving your break a miss this year, imagine how good it would be to win your family holiday this year!
With Cushelle and Butlins, you could do just that. They have teamed up to give away three UK breaks, for families to try out the brand new Wave Hotel at the Bognor Regis Butlins resort. The lucky winners can check in two adults and two children, for a super exciting vacation at Butlins.
Those with older children, between the ages of 8 and 14, will be especially excited by the new Wave Hotel, as everything about it has been carefully designed to appeal to hard to please teens and pre-teens. The designers have gone with a cool and quirky underwater theme, complete with submarine style rooms, and the tech geeks at Butlins have gone all out to integrate the latest gadgets and gizmos to appeal to tech savvy kids.
The piece de resistance is the Games Port, where families can challenge each other to interactive modern games. The hotel also boasts a kindle and iPod library for guests, free Wi-Fi and a Soho Coffee Co Café. In the bright, funky designed rooms you’ll find iPod docks, freeview, and individual DVD players for each bed – saving on squabbles over what to watch!
Outside of the hotel (if you can drag the kids away!), the Bognor resort has also been treated to a brand new fairground, where you can ride your favourites for free! There’s also a fantastic new Discovery Studio hosting live shows themed on science, animals and magic – perfect for inquisitive kids!
It’s got to be worth a quick click to enter – all you have to do is enter a Cushelle barcode online. And even if you’re not a winner, Cushelle will give you £20 off your Butlins break of choice, making a family holiday that little bit more affordable.
Teaching the boys hangman
The log flume at Thorpe Park
Making the most of the sun – Maxi
Sunshine means water – Mini
The men in my life in the Crash Pad at Thorpe Park
Cakes by the minimads
Washing machine flooded our kitchen (insurance assessor coming on Thursday)
An adventure playground to ourselves on inset day
My monkey
What you don’t see is that it was Maxi’s first week at Cub camp, he learned to canoe, BBQ, make a wooden catapult gun, planted seeds, made a cresshead, walked a lot and went to a theme park. He had the best time ever. Mini and I missed him a lot, but we made the most of our time with reading, playing, football, baking and one to one time. Oh and not being woken by Maxi the early riser at 5.30 am!
Fancying winning a 3 night weekend or 4 night Midweek break with Haven Holidays? I thought you might…………
All you have to do is share a picture of one of your Haven holidays saying why you think nothing beats a holiday by the seaside using through Haven’s Facebook app before 14 April 2013.
Then Rory the Tiger will choose a winner and they can either have a 3 night weekend or 4 night Midweek break in a Deluxe caravan for up to six people before October 2013 (but this excludes July and August).
Now I know that I am lucky to actually live by the sea, so I am biased, but I also know that nothing beats a seaside holiday. There is something about the sea that makes me and the rest of the family relax and feel grounded. The boys adore the sea. They never seem to feel the cold of the water until they get out! They love digging and making sandcastles and honestly nothing beats fish and chips out of the paper at the seaside.
When I was growing up even though we lived by the sea, most of our family holidays were taken in our touring caravan at the great British seaside resorts. In fact look at the photos my brother found of one of our holidays!
I love the fact that no matter how hot it was my Grandad would be fully dressed!
I love reliving my holidays of past with my children, so why not enter and see if you can win a seaside holiday.
For full terms and conditions please see the Haven Facebook app page
Maxi and I are spending the half term holiday in Orlando, Florida thanks to Visit Orlando. This is perfect timing for us to explore it all prior to our family holiday there in November with my brother and his family.
We will be exploring the major attractions including including Walt Disney World, Sea World Parks and Universal Orlando Resort.
I have taken a look at the Orlando Holiday Planning tool, so I know that the weather is going to be great and have packed our swimming things and the sun cream and for the first time I will not be taking prescription sunglasses on holiday and I am looking forward to being able to see things from the top of any rides we go on and not worry about my specs falling off.
A perfect couple of days. Here to more this week.
We have been making the most of a week off school and have been busy here in The Mad House, far too busy to even blog about it until now. So I thought I would do a roundup of what we have been upto.
