Vacation Memory Books

Before our vacation to the beach last week, I whipped up these little blank books for the kids.
Every year on our trip to the beach, they like to record the trip in a book.
I ran out of Bare Books so this is how I improvised. 


I took 5 pieces of white cardstock and one piece of colored cardstock and folded them in half. 
I find using a pencil helps create a nice crisp crease.
Then lay the white sheets on top of colored sheet and sew down the middle of the crease.


I used stickers from my stash to decorate the front.
And a bit of washi tape and labels that came with a set of canning jars.


I love looking at them at the end of the trip.
Maressa drew picture of her sand angel, some castles and waves.
Zachary filled up his whole book with diary style entries and lots of pictures.
One day I’m sure they will enjoy looking back and remembering.

Remember me??

Why hello there!  There I go again dropping off the face of the earth.
 It's been a busy but wonderful summer. 
Spending time with the kiddos, running here and there. 

Now we are spending our last, treasured week of summer break at the beach.

I actually brought my external hard drive that houses my photos to finally catch up my posts during our quiet/rest time.  But I guess the sun and surf has been a big energy sucker and I've taken a lil nap, then it's time to take the kids back down for more beachy goodness.  We only do this once a year...for 7 glorious days on the gulf.

Have I ever told you my third born child is a natural born boogey-er?  lol  He is always bustin' a move.

This is Maressa's "daddy shell, mommy shell and 2 baby shells."

Anyhoo, I hope to catch up my latest bday celebration stuff this week (some Batman details and Kalla's garden brunch shabang).

Also, I finally jumped on the Pinterest band wagon.  Slowly makin' my boards, etc.

I'll add a button/link to my sidebar when I figure out how, if you care to follow my boards.  :)

I am a baseball mom

Our baseball season is briefly ending this weekend with a road trip to a state tournament.

My oldest son, 9yrs, plays for a local travel baseball team.

They started practicing in January, tournaments started in March and about to wrap things up for a couple of months.

This is what my foyer area has looked like for the last 4 months.

I'm seriously hoping to fix this before we start up fall ball.  ;)

Gotta little project hoping to help in the garage.

We don't travel far, but it usually means a whole day.

With 3 younger siblings along for the ride.

We bring LOTS of stuff.

One area park just outside our city, has NO shade.

So I got a cool giant sports umbrella from Sam's.

My rolling cart is awesome. It fits loads of snacks and toys for the younger spectators.

Z man usually pitches or plays right field.

We go through batting gloves like water.

But this boy LOVES his baseball.

Never tires of it.

Has played 30 games so far this year, about to play at least 4 more, and is still not ready to be done.

This awesome pop up tent has been great for the other kiddos.

We got it back when the oldest 2 were babies and we took a trip to the beach.

It rolls up into a flat circle.

Makes for great shade or protection from early season cool breezes.

And a place for tired ones to curl up for a while.

We bring lots of food always.

I love a yummy ball park hotdog, but we are at the park too much to be eating those all the time.

I got these cool containers from Old Navy.

They not only hold each kids lunch but folds out to eat from as well.

Z isn't the only ball player we have in the house.

This was Micah's second and last year in t-ball.

So being a 4 year baseball mom veteran I have a few tips that I've learned thus far and what works for me.  ;) 

Here are some of my fav related products:

IRON OUT~it works miracles on red clay and white baseball pants.

I just figured out to use it well.  You can't go by the directions on the container.

It is very toxic, so work carefully.  I pour a ton into a small plastic clean wastecan and some hot water to cover the pants.  Soak over night.  Wash in washing machine.  Voila, white pants.

You can get it at Walmart in the plumbing section.

ROLLING CART~I got mine from Staples.  It holds our sidewalk chalk, picnic blankets, pop up tent. cooler bags, etc.

SPORT-BRELLA~Got ours at Sam's.  Makes for nice shade over a picnic blanket for the little ones.

Frogg Togg Chilly pad~a must have for when you play ball in the deep south when spring brings 90F++ heat for like 20 days plus straight.  Really helpful when Z played 3 games this past Sunday in 97F heat.

Zachary has trouble with his heels and foot pain in his cleats.

One thing we do to try to help is he takes them off immediately after/between games and put these on.

As far as my strategy for keeping the siblings happy during our long tournament days, I bring lots of stuff.

Crafty stuff.  Like copy paper and crayons, stickers.  I've gotten wooden snakes and wood markers from Oriental Trading before.  Or clothespin dolls.

I really try to change it up.

Small toys.  Like squinkies or mini Lala Loopsey dolls.

Sometimes colored rice and petshop animals.

Or playdough or sidewalk chalk.

I avoid bubbles.  I found out the hard way during an all-star tournament last summer that folks tend to get upset when the bubbles float across the batters box.  :)

Snacks.  Here I am careful because I have boredom snackers.  So I bring a lot of healthy stuff so I have no problem handing over snacks when they get the frequent munchies.  ;)

Here are our staples:  grapes (kept super cold in the cooler are quite refreshing), sweet peppers, unsalted cashews, string cheese, ham n cheese tortilla wraps,popcorn, homemade granola bars and homemade salsa and chips.

I do bring a couple of treats for reward for patient good behavior.  ;)

Miscellany

Well summer break is in full force and we haven't slowed down yet. 

 But we're having a good time...just tired.

  I really hope to find more time to get over here to my blog. 

 I've got some tutorials, some before and afters and whatnot. 

Then there's the birthday parties coming up.  :)

So far we've posted a summer list (like many other bloggers) on our fridge.  That and a calendar. 

 I think the kids like to check it every morning at breakfast to see what's up for the day.

We're hosting a craft camp for our friends on Friday mornings. 

 Our first one we made these squid like seen on  Whatever. 

It was a little ambitious to try to do with 13 kids in one morning.  :) 

But they loved them.

I'm making a ton of iced coffee to keep up with the active schedule we've been keeping.

Brewing 4 C water over 1/3 bold coffee

Pour in 2 qt pitcher/container

Add 1/4 C vanilla syrup

Add milk moslty to the top (see photo) or to your preference.

My other fav snack is a yummy plain cheese bagel from Target bakery and a homemade cream soda.

Speaking of bagels, we hope to try our hand at making some homemade bagels this summer.

I dunno...there is just something  about making stuff yourself. 

 Plus to get the really good bagels is expensive! 

Trying to get back in creative mode. 

Scavenged the house for all cheap glassware to spray paint.

(as seen in a magazine and on various blogs)

Yeah that was fun.

Hubby says "I don't get it."  lol

Maressa had her first ballet class. 

She didn't stop grinning the whole 45 mins.

The other 3 loved watching her cute lil self too.

Mental note to self:  make sure she wears less baggy undies that day.

And we're been to the water fountains for a free splash.

For the most part they all enjoy it.

Maressa however did request me making them smaller for her.

See you tomorrow with my very happy laundry room/closet makeover. 

A Few of my Favorite Tips for Traveling with kids

We just got back from our lil family vacation to the beach.  We went to Destin and it was just beautiful.  I really hate to think what it will be like when the oil will hit these gorgeous white beaches.

We only travel a few times a year in the car with the kids (usually to visit our families).  They aren't the hardiest of travelers.  We learned the very hard way that our oldest gets car sick very easily.  And Kalla gets a bit uncomfortable too back in the third row.  So we always have to start off with some Dramamine (of which is either a swallowing or chewing pill...both of which Z can't stand, but is getting more tolerant as he gets older).  

But to keep from the never ending 'when do we get there??' I keep a few tricks up my sleeve.  And yes we watch a few videos here and there which is a giant help.  

But this time around I gave them all a little notebook to keep.  Then every half hour if there was NOT any fighting, whining, complaining, crying or 'when are we there's' they got a sticker.  And believe it or not, just marking the half hour seems to make the trip go quick.  But of course there are rewards.  This time was for every 5 stickers they received a silly band.

I brought a couple of packages of silly bandz.  When they received one, they played with them, wore them and stuck them on the windows.  lol  Not sure if this fad has reached your area or not, but those who have know all about them if you have kids in elementary school.  They hit hard here in northern AL last year.

Now this method of marking the 30 mins and rewards works really well for my four.  Z even says it helps it go faster.  Another way I've done this before was I made key chains for the kids using a key ring and plastic string and various pony beads.  I tied a long string to the key ring and added their names and tied a knot to hold it on.  Every 30 mins I gave them a fun pony bead to add if they earned it.  For every 5 beads I let them have a dum dum sucker.  That one I used on a 11 hour trip and it worked like magic!  ;)

Something else I like to do to make road trips special is I make a special trail mix snack.  Simply just some dry snacks mixed together in their own little bowls.  This time I used pretzel goldfish, cheerios, unsalted cashews, mini marshmallows and M&Ms.

As far as actually being on vacation away from all their precious toys and not wanting to pack any of them I just brought a few things for them all to share that all would enjoy.

This moon sand really saved us during down times (when the little kids were napping) and impatient mornings...they wake at 6am every morning so by 7am they wanted to go swimming!  So during those times we played moon sand and blew bubbles off the balcony.  :)

But then I was scolded when they ran out of white paper quickly with the small stash we brought for the car.  So one of the grocery trips we picked up a ream of copy paper and they were happy as clams making all kinds of fun beach scenes.

Anyway, thought I would share some things that worked for us.  Anybody else have some road trips lined up this summer??  For us the rest of the summer will be people coming to us, so that was it for us for a while!

And........you know I have a share just a few of the 265 pics I took in 3 days...lol  :)