How cool is this picture? And this romper? I just loved this phrase when I saw it during our trip to the shore this summer and had to get a picture – and how true is it! Nothing like the smell of all that boardwalk food to remind you of being a kid!
Can you believe that the summer is almost over? It sounds so cliche, but I truly feel like last week was the end of the school year. On paper our family did some fun things but not even half of what I had on my list to do! Now we are two weeks out from school starting and I am scrambling to find time to do everything I wanted to do in those few weeks.
I miss when the kids were little and summer didn’t necessarily end when school started, and we could still take trips and long weekends into September. Parents with little kids take note! Take that vacation over Labor Day, or that long weekend randomly on September. Sooner than you think school will be upon you and you won’t be able to just take off without thinking about missed school days and sports practices and games. How cute are
Anyways, we did a lot of traveling this summer, mostly to the beach, and I wanted to share some of my must have items for traveling. Also, how cute is this romper??? Linked here and below. We were lucky to be able to go to the shore for a soccer tournament, to visit my in-laws who live at the beach, and on a week-long family vacation with friends. I am trying to plan one more trip to a Maryland Beach over Labor Day, fingers crossed the stars align.
I think with three kids, you begin to realize some of the hot gadgets and “necessary” items aren’t really needed. Kids are actually quite portable, and adaptable, and over the years my list of must-haves have items has really shrunk to just a handful of things. I used to bring an insane amount of beach toys and now realize they each just need a shovel and a bucket and they can occupy themselves for hours!
That being said, there are a handful of items that if we do not take them we just cannot function. We are not the most organized crew and not having these things absolutely sends us a standard mess to a hot, non-functioning mess.
Also, several of these trips involved all five of us sleeping in one room, which meant sharing beds. For an entire week. One night someone had an accident, right next to me. Another night someone fell out of the bed. Still another night the baby insisted her and I sleep with our cheeks touching. Literally, cheek-to-cheek all night long. I will tell you, we ended up purchasing the portable cot below and it made ALL the difference in the world.
Let me tell you – when you have to sleep cheek to cheek all night long with a wild 2 year-old you don’t get much sleep. If we weren’t at the beach it would have been pure torture, and instead I like to label it as slight torture. It took a lot of coffee to get me to functioning those mornings.
Anyways – we still had so much fun, and I’m getting depressed over here thinking about these last two weeks. A big thank you to these items that I deem to be our absolute travel must haves with our kiddos, listed below, most of which helped either improve the car ride or sleeping and we all know these are the two areas to focus on when traveling with kids!
The first item, and let me reiterate probably the most important item especially if you have limited bed space on your vacation or are staying in a hotel is this inflatable travel cot:
Our baby is almost three and not ready to sleep in a big bed, but is super uncomfortable in a pack n play, so we originally bought this for her. However, my older daughter, who is 7, actually really liked it too and it was big enough for her to sleep comfortably so we bought two! It’s perfect for hotel stays where there may not be enough room for everyone. Here’s what makes this thing amazing:
- If kids sleep on this they are not sure sleeping in bed with you, which is probably the most important thing
- It is super small before you blow it up and easily fits in a carry-on suitcase (we flew to Florida with it)
- It comes with its own pump and is really easy to blow up and deflate
- My seven year-old says it’s “really really comfy” and chose it over a bed
- It has a lifetime warranty and is apparently “award winning”
- It has amazing reviews on Amazon
The second item I absolutely cannot live and travel without is a good sound machine. Again, getting a good night’s sleep makes my vacation so much better and this little item absolutely helps my kids do that. When you are all sleeping in one hotel room, and another kid is squirming or Dad is snoring this totally drowns all of that out. It also drowns our hallway noise, or if you are in a beach house it drown out that amazing “adults having beverages” time after the kids go to sleep.
I like this particular one because it’s loud, has a lot of options for noise, has different timer options. it’s easy to transport and is highly rated.
So I was just telling this story the other day. When I got pregnant with my first kid I spent a ton of money on some amazing stroller that pretty much did everything but breastfeed my baby (now wouldn’t that be an invention đŸ¤”). Eight years later, however, I find the only stroller I pack up, and the one I take everywhere is this simple yet amazing fold and go stroller.
I found out about this stroller when we went to Disney and a neighbor let me borrow it saying “this is THE Disney Stroller.” THE stroller it was. Not only is it listed as the number one umbrella stroller on many lists, but it is unbelievably light and can unfolded literally with ONE HAND. I have no problem carrying it AND a toddler, keeping said toddler on my hip and unfolding it with one hand! It’s super small when folded up making it easy to store or pack up, and was comfort enough that my baby fell asleep in it. I have taken it to Disney, in the subways of NYC and on all our trips. It’s fantastic.
I mean are you even a parent if you haven’t bought a Kindle Fire for your kids? Just kidding, of course, but I just say this because everyone seems to have one so I know I am late to the game with this recommendation but just in case you haven’t gotten one, they are lightweight, child friendly tablets that are necessary for any long car ride. There is a new Fire HD 10 version available now that I don’t have but looks nice because it comes with a stand.
When you purchase one, or pick up a two-pack for multiple children, you get one year of Amazon FreeTime which provides kid-friendly content based on the users age for the Kindle. Through this, mom and dad don’t have to worry about them stumbling on inappropriate stuff or purchasing things. There are also SO MANY FREE BOOKS you can get on there with FreeTime.
They are also super kid friendly and have tons of shows, you can put Netflix on them as well, the list just goes on. Also, because they are kid friendly and easy for them to use Mom and Dad don’t have to spend every five minutes helping the kids find stuff on a 6 hour-long car ride. Our kids all enjoy them, from ages 2-8.
So if you have the Kindles, and your kids are going to be using them in the car, then you are going to need to get them earphones so you aren’t hearing multiple kid videos going at once which could drive anyone to insanity.
We just got these earphones which work great, they are good quality and come in a multitude of colors.
During our two big vacations we too this year, our youngest was on antibiotics that needed to be refrigerated. That can be impossible to do during a ten hour travel day. I used this as an excuse to buy one of these new Ice Mule cooler bags and I’m so happy that I did because I love it!
It’s so much easier to tote this around as opposed to a hard cooler or lunch box type cooler and everything stayed super cold all day. Also the colors are so fun and I’m overall low key obsessed with this bag which also works for sports practices, tailgating, etc.
Cards/games
So while I’m definitely good with giving my kids electronics during long trips or at restaurants, I do make a good effort to miss it up and bring small games and cards with me to entertain them. My kids are at an age where The classic Uno is still a favorite. We also really enjoy this “Would You Rather” book which asks silly and fun questions.
We also have fun with this travel scavenger hunt, somewhat like travel bingo.
Our favorite card games are any of the Peaceable Kingdom ones – like this Crazy 8’s game. It’s great for kids, cards are easy to hold and fun. We pull these out at restaurants all the time.
Kitty Beach Hat – under $5
