Making Memories

“I participated in a Blogger Activation on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for the J.M. Smucker Company. I received product samples to facilitate my review as well as a to thank me for my participation.”

If you ever come to my house for dinner (and please know you’re always invited — I make a killer lasagna!), I have a few rules that everyone has to follow — no phone, texts or tv during the meal.

One bite of the lasagna and you really won’t care who’s texting you!

Now actually, this is a rule my parents had way back when we were kids — raising three teenagers during the dinner hour almost drove my Dad crazy with the constant phone calls.

So one simple rule was born — no calls during dinner! 

“If it’s important, they’ll call back” my parents would always tell us.  Not to mention, the people around the table were JUST as important as the people on the phone.

Dinner was time for our family to sit down and catch up with each other, talk about the day, plan for trips and take time to reconnect.

After a few years of planning and saving, we were able to take a trip to Hawaii this year — yes, it was amazing! 

We had accumulated enough Disney Reward dollars to stay at the Aulani Resort in Oahu on our first night on the island and it was one of the BEST decisions we made on the trip!  Being able to stay at an all-inclusive resort and not have to worry about grocery shopping or driving to any activities for the first day after that long plane trip meant a great start to our vacation.

Here’s what you need to know if you’re heading to Aulani especially if you’re only staying for a short time —

Do you have a child who just loves trains?  Or maybe you’re one of those parents who doesn’t mind getting caught at a railroad stop while the kids try to count how many train cars go through? 

Trains are a form of travel that we should introduce to our kids – real train travel!  A few years ago, my family took a trip by train for just a few hours.  The kids loved the idea that we could all do things together (like visit the dining car for a snack!), had lots of room to stretch out and saw some unique places on the trip.

  This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Gulf County Florida. All opinions are 100% mine.   We love to go on outdoor adventures as a family! Sometimes it’s as easy as a creek walk at a local park and other times it’s trying something totally new (like snorkeling) when we …

One of the holiday traditions that we look forward to the most in our family is having an Advent Calendar.  I remember having one as a child — putting candy canes into the slots each day as we counted down to Christmas Eve.  And now we do one with our kids too. Our countdown changes …

This is one of those week’s when sentiment has crept in and taken over. The first week in April is the anniversary of the passing of two of my grandparents so I always find myself thinking more about them and family at this time of the year. And it just so happens that I’ve been …

I did a little math this week and came to an odd realization — We have 2 kids and somehow over the past 17 years, I’ve helped them to create more than 50 costumes! I know — there’s some crazy math there since Halloween only comes but once a year. However, in the kid world, …

As a child, I loved the idea that ‘little people’ might be living in our house.  Books like “The Borrowers” and “The Littles” allowed for much imagination and creative thinking.  If your planning to see “The Secret World of Arrietty”, here are a few fun ideas and resources!

We are on countdown in our house — only 9 more school days left for us!

Yep, only 9 days, 4 finals, 3 school activities and 1 graduation event — then we can enjoy sleeping in, long days without schedules, fun day trips and some relaxing time to connect.

I do love summer!

Yes, some days are longer than others and the kids do get bored by mid-July — but we wouldn’t trade it for the world!

This content is sponsored by Kohl’s as a part of their #DestinationSummer campaign.  Although this is a sponsored post, all opinions (and crazy comments) are always my own.

This week, I’m excited to be working with Kohl’s and some truly amazing bloggers on the #DestinationSummer project. 

In addition to their Pinterest Virtual Road Trip, Kohl’s also has a great in store campaign taking place this summer called “FindYourYes”. 

The idea is to find what matters to you. 

For us parents, a huge ‘Yes’ is our kids.

But while I was watching the #FindYourYes video and thinking about my kids, I began to wonder – what’s their “Yes”; what are the things that matter to my kids?