Traveling with the family is all about fun – having adventures and creating memories. Our favorite part of vacations were the excitement building up to the trip and then remembering the good times afterwards. So, don’t forget to get your kids excited about the adventure. Family vacations can provide fun before, during and after the trip itself. With a little planning, turn your family vacation into a lifelong memory.

Here are some ideas on how to “amp up” the fun.

Build Excitement:

• Get the kids excited about the destination: read books about where you are going or what you’ll see, cook a special meal that’s typical of where you are traveling.
• Create a countdown calendar. X off the days or “sleeps” before the trip to build anticipation.
• Draw your route on a road map and let the kids color in the route.

Road Trip Games:

• Take advantage of the time you have together to talk and learn more about each other with conversation games like the Box Girl’s Road Trip Box of Questions.
• Print a black and white map of the United States. Play license plate bingo and have the kids color in the states as they see them.
• Collect quarters from all 50 states. Play license plate bingo and give your child the quarter from that state when they see the license plate.
• Looking for more travel Games? We sell quite a few Travel Activity Books and Games at the Chocolate Cake Club.

Audio Books/ CDs:

• Go to the library and get some of your kids’ favorite books in audio tape version.

Some of our favorites for older kids are:
o The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Brian Selznick
o Chet Gecko Private Eye – Bruce Hale
o Judy Moody – Megan McDonald
o Any Bill Harley story CD

For younger kids, we recommend trying www.storynory.com to download stories.

Finally, don’t forget to help the kids create a Scrapbook or Travel Journal to remember the fun times on your trip. Work on it together for some quality time spent remembering the highlights.

Don’t forget! Tomorrow’s the last day to enter our Spring Break Kids Travel Gear Giveaway. Enter before midnight tomorrow, Wednesday March 10th to win $120 worth of travel essentials for your kids. Good luck!

Packing for a family vacation is a pain. There, I said it. Not only do you need to think about what outfits and gear you need, you also have to do it for your children. Despite my desire to be super organized, I usually end up forgetting some essential item for myself or the kids. “Mom, where’s my underwear?” My worst packing experience was the time we left to visit family in Iowa and realized that we left my daughter’s bag with her clothes sitting at the top of the stairs. I had to drive to Wal-Mart in the next town and buy her some of the ugliest clothes ever. Oh well. At least I could drive and get something.

However, packing lists have helped me get my act together. (Lists in general tend to be a Mom’s best friend.) Even if they don’t include everything that we need for our family, it’s a good place to start and helps so that we don’t forget the essentials. “Honey, why did you bring the nose hair clippers and not any toothpaste?” Anyway, download our Chocolate Cake Moments Family Packing List here to help you stay in control and smiling – ChocCakeMoments Family Packing List.

We interupt our Spring Break Family Travel Tips series to throw out an idea for Family Fun this weekend. Going to watch the Oscars this weekend with the kids? Why not make it a party or add more fun to the evening? Celebrate with your kids or invite some friends or neighbors over for some star-studded fun.

Sit and Score
Don’t want to have a party but don’t want to sit like lumps on the couch either? Try some Oscar themed games! A lovely site I just discovered called How About Orange has an Oscar Bingo card that you can download to play. You can also keep score with this beautifully designed Oscar Ballot from Twig & Thistle. Download it for free and thank Kathleen on her site for making it available to us family fun lovers.

Get Up, Get Ready
If you have little kids they probably aren’t that excited since they haven’t seen most of the movies and might have to go to bed early. But you can still celebrate a little earlier in the evening by watching Pixar’s Up movie, which has been nominated for Best Picture.

Puttin’ on the Ritz
Don’t let the stars on the Red Carpte have all the fun! Your kids will love getting all glammed up to watch the telecast. Put some make-up on your little girls and they’ll be thrilled. Have your son be the photographer. Give him an inexpensive instant camera or flip camera and he can film the “stars” during your party.

Eat, Decorate, and Be Merry
As I mentioned earlier in the post, the beautiful Twig and Thistle site has some free downloads to make invitations, popcorn bags, and candy bags for your family and guests. The kids would love making these beautiful, inexpensive party pieces with you.

Then, check out these Oscar Statuette Cookies. Bakerella has come up with an incredibly clever Oscar themed cookie. While there is no chocolate involved, I think eating one would be a Chocolate Cake Moment.

If you are in the mood for a casual party, Celebrations.com has a variety of party themes to throw the perfect Oscar Party. You’ll find games, menus, and decorating ideas. Personally, I like their vintage Oscar party theme.

Finally, every time I have a party now I head over to MemorableEntertaining.com for some great party menus. It is a subscription site but if you love to entertain, as I do, you’ll find some incredible menus that are simple, tasty and memorable. It’s well worth the annual fee. They do offer a lot of free information on the site so don’t be afraid to explore. Debra, the hostess with the mostest, who creates the menus and entertaining tips is amazing at creating impressive centerpieces that are super easy. Why not have some fun with your daughter this weekend, and make one?

I hope these fun ideas have inspired you to spice up the way you watch the Oscars with your family Sunday night. Roll the fun …

Send us some photos of your party, we’d love to post them and share.

Don’t forget to enter our Spring Break Kids Travel Gear Giveaway. Click here to win $120 worth of must-have kids travel essentials and have a blast on your Spring Break trip.

Continuing our series of Spring Break Travel Tips for Families, today we focus on how to get through the airport with less stress and maybe even some fun. While you may live in a town that has a nice easy in/easy out airport, we live outside Chicago so we know the beast that is O’Hare Airport intimately. Whether your airport is small, nice and accessible or you have to traverse the crowds in Chicago or Atlanta or travel a thousand miles within the airport like in Dallas or Denver, or deal with the hordes of humanity in Boston, hopefully these tips will help you easily deal with your time in the airport with kids in tow.

Get there plenty early

You never know how busy the airport is going to be, so reduce your stress level and give yourself plenty of time to get to the gate with kids in tow. Don’t try and cut it close thinking that less time in the airport with kids is good. Trust me, you don’t want to be running to your gate with diaper bags, kids luggage or toddlers on your back before a fun family vacation. It takes years off of your life and turns your hair prematurely gray.

Take a Stroll

Chicago O’Hare is large. The DFW is monstrous. Denver is a hike. Assume that you are going to have to walk and walk and walk. So, if you have babies or toddlers with you, make it easier on your back by using a small, inexpensive umbrella stroller to push the kids to the gate. You can check the stroller right at the gate and use it while traveling.

The airport is full of fun stuff

Think of the airport as part of the adventure of your trip. While watching planes take off and land has lost some of its glamour for me, my kids love it. Go sit by a window and enjoy. If you do have extra time to kill at an airport, find an information desk or ask one of the gate attendants what you can do with kids. Most airports have some fun stuff. You can even check online on the airport’s website before you travel.

At O’Hare, kids love the full size dinosaur skeleton in Terminal. Toddlers love the flashing lights and the moving walkway between B and C gates in the United Terminal. Take them for a walk in the tunnel, if you have the time. If you really have a lot of time to kill, our kids always love riding the People Mover or tram between the Terminals. Sit in the front car and they can pretend to be driving a space-age vehicle.

Munchies make a party

While there are plenty of places to grab food in airports, it can get expensive and if you are late or in a rush you might not have time to stop and wait in line. Always have a Ziploc baggie of goldfish crackers or Cheerios for toddlers or pretzels, raisins, or baby carrots to munch on while traveling. Do take time to buy a bottle of water before getting on a plane. You never know when the drink cart will make it around and you can always use the water for drinking, making baby formula, or even dabbing at spills on your clothes.

Here we are now, entertain us …
Traveling takes time and you’ll need to keep kids (and maybe some of the adults) in your group amused. Every traveler should have their own Boredom Bag, you know a bag or backpack that is full of toys, books, crayons, stuffed animals, or games to keep them occupied. To keep kids amused during the flight or in case of delays, check out my age-appropriate ideas for a Boredom Bags.

If you have a great airport travel tip, please share it with us.

Don’t forget to enter our Spring Break Kids Travel Gear Giveaway. Click here to win $120 worth of must-have kids travel essentials and have a blast on your Spring Break trip.

We were so excited to see that we were the featured blog today at TodaysMama.com. I love their content and subscribe to their e-newsletter and so we were all thrilled when we saw our site featured today.

Thank you to all of the wonderful Mamas at TodaysMama.com! We appreciate the shout-out.

As we continue our series of Spring Break Family Travel Tips, we are going to focus on planning road trips today. (Surviving the trip itself will be the subject of another post, never fear.) But as one friend told me today, planning a road trip vacation is a nightmare. Well, I hope these tips help to make the planning process less stressful for you, so you can enjoy this adventure more.

Tip: Plan the route ahead of time.
By taking a little time up front to plan the route including places to stop for bathroom breaks or energy stops, you might feel a little more in control before you ever set foot in the car.

Stop in the Name of Adventure
You’ll need some help planning your route and where to stop to reenergize the bored family. Check out RoadsideAmerica.com, a site dedicated to helping you find those amusing road side attractions. You know, like the World’s Largest Ball of Twine or Flipper’s Grave. I’m not making that one up, you can stop in and see Flipper, the beloved dolphin’s grave in Grassy Key, FL, outside of the Florida Keys.

Timing is Everything
You can also check out RoadtripAmerica.com to plan which cities you might hit within a specific period of drive time. So if you want to stop every 4 hours to give the kids a break, type in your zip code, your desired drive time, and which direction you are headed. The handy trip tool will tell you which cities you can stop in. Then pick a restaurant, hotel or head back to roadsideattractions.com and see if you can find a fun place to stop.

Brake for Potty Breaks
Looking to find the cleanest bathrooms en route for a potty break? (Sorry, that’s a silly question. Like someone is on the hunt for a dirty, stinky restroom.) Gas stations don’t have to be your first choice. While it’s convenient to get gas and take care of those natural needs at the same time, sometimes the best bathrooms are at fast food restaurants or even stores. Especially if you are stopping for a diaper change, you want a restroom that is clean and spacious. Stop at the fast food restaurants or if there is a strip mall off of the highway, don’t forget that some of the larger stores have nice bathrooms. We like Target’s restrooms. Buy some snacks while you are there and you’re good to go. You can also check out The Bathroom Diaries for the top restrooms in a variety of cities. Voted on by fellow travelers, enter your city and see where you should stop. Did you know that the best bathrooms in Orlando, FL are at Old Navy? Now you do.

If none of this helps you out, watch the National Lampoon’s Vacation movie and laugh away your stress.

If anyone knows where to go to find the World’s Largest Cheese Curd, let me know.

Don’t forget to enter our Spring Break Kids Travel Gear Giveaway. Click here to win $120 worth of must-have kids travel essentials and have a blast on your Spring Break trip.

There is nothing more exciting than embarking on a travel adventure with your family. Whether you have someplace exciting planned for Spring Break or are going to take a road trip to visit Grandma, we wanted to share some tips to make it all easier so you can enjoy. We’ll be adding more tips daily so check back often and don’t forget to enter our Spring Break Kids Travel Gear Giveaway. You could win $120 worth of cool travel products to make sure your kids are amused and traveling in style.

Planning the Trip
Planning ahead can ease some of the stress of traveling with your kids, especially when they are little and you need to bring a lot of extra gear. Don’t be daunted or get discouraged. Follow these tips and add your own creativity to make Family Trips a blast.

Tip 1: Two weeks before the trip, conduct a mock packing session with each member of the family. Mom, when you know what everyone wants to bring, you’ll have time to wash favorite things or shop for extra necessities. No more “Honey, have you seen my favorite shorts?” the night before you’re leaving or “Why don’t Johnny’s ski pants fit anymore? Is Target open this late?”

Tip 2: Take a look at all of the gear you need to bring then decide whether it is easier to carry it with you, ship it to your destination, or rent it on site. With all of the new luggage fees on most airlines, it might be easiest to just ship your stuff ahead of time or see if you can rent or borrow on site. You’re going to have to pay anyway so have someone else lug it for you.

If going to see Grandma, tap into the Grandma Network. What’s the Grandma Network you ask? Have Grandma ask her friends if they have any baby gear you can borrow. Especially if Grandma and Grandpa live in a sunny locale, there are bound to be other grandparents who have their kids fly in for visits. One friend may have a stroller and one may have a high chair. By sharing and trading, it makes life easier for the grandparents and the traveling families.

Renting is an option and there are a lot of services popping up to help make this process easier. Your rental car company can usually rent you a car seat. Many hotels have cribs for rent now too. Or look into these incredibly handy services:

- For larger baby gear like strollers, cribs or car seats, rent from
www.babysaway.com

- For baby essentials like diapers, formula, etc. look at www.babystravellite.com

Don’t feel like you have to carry everything with you. Ship it or rent it and travel a little lighter. Remember you’re an adventurer, not a sherpa.

Don’t forget to enter our Spring Break Kids Travel Gear Giveaway. Click here to win $120 worth of must-have kids travel essentials and have a blast on your Spring Break trip.

Spring Break is almost upon us and the Chocolate Cake Club and Chocolate Cake Moments Blog want to make one traveling family’s life easier with a chance to win $120 worth of Kids Travel Products. The lucky contest winner will receive a Four Peas Rolling Kids Suitcase with matching Travel/Supply Bag. To keep kids occupied in the car or plane, the winner will be able to fill their kids’ boredom bags with a Piggy Story Chalk ‘N Doodle Set, a Magnetic Figure Travel Toy Activity Set, and a Chat Pack Game with fun conversation starter questions.

It’s a prize package worth $120.00!

But wait, there’s more. We’ll also choose an additional 3 people to win one of our hugely popular Kids Animal Toiletry Bags.

But hurry, contest ends March 10th, 2009!

Click here for more details and to enter! Good Luck!

Looking for tips on how to make Spring Break Travel with your family easier? Check out this article I was quoted in for Examiner.com. There’s a link to some general travel tips and then I offer ideas on the Chicago area specifically.

We’re kicking off our Spring Break Traveling with Kids Made Easier series today. We’ll also be announcing a Traveling with Kids Giveaway Contest later today, so check back. We’re giving some lucky winners $120 worth of cool Kids Travel Gear. Every day we’ll be posting tips and ideas on planning for the trip, packing for the whole family, and entertaining your kids while on the road or in the air. So come visit us every day and let the countdown to Spring Break begin …

Enjoy!

The family went to see the Lightening Thief movie and we thoroughly enjoyed the electrifying action. I eagerly read all of the books so I was excited about the movie. Why do I love the books? Mostly because they teach you Greek Mythology in a way that is fun and the way that the author ties ADHD into the story with a positive or special spin is very clever. The author, Rick Riordan, treats ADHD like the princess fantasy. You know, the one where you are really a princess from a far away kingdom but were hidden away within a normal, suburban family to protect your life. Someday, they will come for me, … I mean you, and you will rule the land with a kind and fair hand. You know that fantasy, right? Right? (I’m still waiting, by the way, but I have faith that they will come.) Well, if you have ADHD, which I do as you can tell by my rambling narrative, the inability to focus, hyperactivity, and self-centeredness are all because you are the child of a Greek God. It’s too much power for a mere mortal to handle. How cool is that! I’m a princess and a goddess. Anyway, it’s a cool way to make a child feel special instead of down.

The books are a lot of fun for me because I have always wanted to learn more about Greek Mythology and yet every time I picked up the Iliad or the Odyssey I just couldn’t get through it. The Percy Jackson series helped me learn about the famous figures in a clever and action-packed way. While I couldn’t get my son to share my enthusiasm and read the books, he WAS very excited about the movie. (I knew he would love the books, but the Greek names put him off. He couldn’t pronounce them so he got frustrated and stopped reading.) However, now that we have seen the movie, he is interested in reading them with me.

So what did I think of the movie? It was fun. I would recommend it if your kids like action, fantasy stories. The movie is action-packed, loud, fast-paced, energetic, and entertaining. We all liked that. Highlights for my kids were Grover and the Capture the Flag scene. “Mom, how come when we play Capture the Flag at summer camp they won’t let us use swords? It’s so lame the way we play.” Highlights for me were Uma Thurman as Medusa. She was perfect. She makes a curse look cool. The minute we got home from the movie, my daughter had to draw Medusa. What do you think?

My son on the other hand had to get out every sword and shield he could find in the house, because he was electrified into action.

Here are my cautions: I thought it was a little scarier than it really needed to be, but I understand that they are trying to appeal to a larger audience. My kids (ages 10 and 7) absolutely loved the movie but they had their eyes closed and ears covered through a lot of the movie. My daughter is 7 and she enjoyed it but I really wouldn’t recommend bringing any kids younger than that, especially if they get scared by monsters easily.

If you read the books, you’ll be disappointed that they left a lot of the story and the fun characters out. Although, when I read the books I never imagined Chiron to look like Pierce Brosnan. I think that was a bribe for Moms, so that they would agree to take their kids to the movie. Pierce Brosnon as half-horse and half-naked? Grab the popcorn, kids!

There was a “drug” scene in the movie with the Lotus Flowers, although it went completely over my kids’ heads so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Finally, for me, Poseidon was a real wimp in the movie, he is much cooler in the book.

Bottomline though, my family enjoyed the movie very much and the kids can’t wait for the next one. And, if the movie encouraged my kids to now read the books, it’s money well worth spent.