Loving The Results

I started this blog as a fun way to document the changes we were making (or experimenting with) in our home. About two years ago I was introduced to the idea of minimalism. My brain about exploded with excitement.

THAT'S ME! 

THAT'S WHAT I WANT! 

I'M NOT WEIRD! 

IT'S A THING

Before minimalism entered my life, I would spend weekly trips at Target and bi-weekly trips at Goodwill donating the stuff I had spent our money on. I was constantly trying to declutter and never truly making any progress. I had joined in the partaking of shopping as a fun activity, but my brain couldn't handle the influx of stuff when I got home. Once I heard about minimal living, I knew it was my answer. I didn't have to join the masses at Target, I could move my life in a different direction, and I did.

Our Changes

I stepped in my kitchen and said - What do we need? I ended up getting rid of a lot of stuff. We kept half of our plates, bowls, coffee cups, water glasses and silverware. We got rid of all specialty appliances, keeping only the toaster, crockpot, and blender. We gave away all our specialty glassware (margarita, martini, beer, wine). We aren't big drinkers so this didn't mean much to us. We drink beer from a bottle and wine in our cups that double a stemless wine glasses. In the end, we eliminated the use of a bottom corner cabinet, and five upper cabinets. 

After the kitchen came a lot of other changes. We got rid of a full set of living room furniture, two TVs, and five dressers. We kept only our favorite clothes and favorite toys (a keyboard, barbies, legos, dress-up/make believe items, stuffed animals and dolls, and a few games). We got rid of our fake Christmas tree and replaced that with a norfolk pine that stays in our living room year round. Our girls named our tree Elsa!

Our minimalist journey has also led me to discover Zero Waste living. I am buying as much food as I can in bulk. I wear my hair with my God given waves instead of straightening it. I wear no make-up most days, we got a worm composter, and traded our 96 gallon trash and recycling containers for the small 36 gallon ones!

But Why????

This is the big question we get. Why are you doing this? This is a big question, but I have learned I don't have to defend our changes. My answer is simple.

I Enjoy Living With Less

I really do. It makes me happy. I am less focused on my material goods and keeping my home organized. I still have to to clean up and put things away, but I don't have to dedicate days to doing this anymore. With these changes I have found more free time to discover my passions.

Two years ago I was asked - What do you like to do? What are your hobbies? I didn't have anything. I couldn't think of a single thing. 

But today this is different. I love painting, not canvas, but homes. I have spent a lot of time this past year doing something I only wished I could do - paint our woodwork white and repaint our walls a light gray color. My husband gave me his support and I slowly and with some growing pains grew a talent for painting. I am so proud of my accomplishments - that's a good feeling. 

I also spend a lot more time reading. I wake up every day excited to make a cup of coffee and sit down with a good book. I usually get a chapter in before my girls are hungry and then in the afternoon I take time to relax on the couch and dive further into my book. I have read 62 books this year. My favorites include:

Favorite Series

Stephanie Plum Series: Janet Evanovich
Lizzy and Diesel Series: Janet Evanovich
Crossfire: Sylvia Day

Favorite Books

The Fringe Hours: Jessica Turner

Jesus Feminist: Sarah Bessey

The Power of Habit: Charles Duhigg

Zero Waste Home: Bea Johnson

Notes From A Blue Bike: Tsh Oxenreider

My Year With Eleanor: Nicole Hancock

The Marriage of Opposites: Alice Hoffman

Walkable City: Jeff Speck

The Life- Changing Magic of Tidying Up: Marie Kondo

The other thing I have found is freedom for family time. Freeing up our finances and time has led to a lot of adventures. We now go on a Family Summer Road Trip each year.  Two years ago we traveled to Arizona for my sisters wedding. We loved our special bonding time on the road so much that we decided to make this an annual thing. This past summer we road tripped to Florida and next year we plan to road trip to the West Coast. Our fun goal is to make it to all 50 states with our girls. And then, hello Europe! Creating these memories has been so fun and fills my heart with joy.

I simply enjoy living with less. I started with experiments - pull out half the dinnerware and see if we don't use it, empty a dresser and see if we miss it, etc. The idea of living with less sometimes seems weird, against the norm, or impossible; but I have found that starting with an experiment allows you to give it a try. To say - this is temporary and if it doesn't work we can go back to the way it was and try again at a later time.

Now that I have experimented and followed through on most experiments, I feel confident in our changes and have seen the blessings that have grown from minimalist living.  

I can't wait to continue this journey next year. While I spent most of this year documenting my experiments, I will be transitioning to sharing more fruits of our lifestyle next year. The things I am enjoying - my new hobbies and more fun family times - mixed in with experiments or changes in our minimalist and zero waste journey. I am loving the results of all my experiments and I'm looking forward to continuing this journey in 2016.

I invite you to follow our journey and to share your journey with me. I love hearing how others are embracing and enjoying minimalist living as well!

Our Minimalist Christmas Wish Letter

Our journey towards minimal living has involved going through all the rooms in our home and donating or selling the things we don't need or love. We knew Christmas could be a step in the opposite direction with an influx of gifts. How could we minimize this influx? We decided to open our hearts in an honest letter to our family members. Gifts are an important part of Christmas (especially for the kiddos) and we didn't want to take that away. Here is our letter:

Dear Family,

As October comes to a close and the holiday season approaches, we (Chris and Jaime) have started thinking about the celebration of Christmas. We are living a more minimalist lifestyle, encouraging our girls to be using their creativity, focusing on enjoying experiences and each others' company, and instilling the love of Jesus and generosity in their hearts.

With these values in mind, we would like to ask for your support in the presents you gift the girls.

With living minimally, we ask that each couple give no more than one gift to each of the girls. It may not seem like much, but add everyone together and times 3, our home easily fills up.

With encouraging our girls to use their creativity, we ask that any gifts given inspire their imaginations to grow. We have a few ideas on this and if you would like a suggestion or clarification, please ask.

With focusing on enjoying each other's company, we are excited to spend quality time with our loved ones during the holidays and throughout the year. Instead of focusing on the number of gifts, we are focusing on the gift of togetherness.

Along with that, instead of giving a toy to the girls we encourage you to give the gift of togetherness. This could be a fun planned day with the girls - examples: to a movie, to a theater show, to the children's museum, to the zoo. These could be individual events/outings with each girl or all 3 collectively. They could be grandma/grandpa/girlie(s) dates, nanee/papa/girlie(s) dates, auntie/uncle/girlie(s) dates. We know the girls would cherish this special gift of time with you all. And once again, feel free to ask if you have any questions regarding gifts of time.

With instilling the love of Jesus and generosity in our girls' hearts, we are each filling a shoe box with a special gift, hygiene items, and school supplies for children in need in other countries. Samaritan's Purse delivers these shoebox gifts and shares the love of Jesus with them. In lieu of gifts for us (Chris and Jaime), please consider giving a gift to Samaritan's Purse. If you are interested in this, you can find out more at www.samaritanspurse.org

We look forward to this holiday season, spending time with you all, and celebrating the birth of our Savior.

God Bless,

Chris and Jaime

Have you ever expressed a change in gift giving with loved ones? How did you go about expressing your desires with an open heart and honesty?

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Our Minimalist Stay-at-Home Christmas

Part of our minimalist journey is saying NO so we can say YES.

The Christmas season has been ever evolving for us over the years. Before kids, we traveled to family. After our first baby we still traveled. Then we had twins, TWINS! And we traveled less, but still traveled. WHAT?!!! WHY!!! Our Christmas quickly became a busy day with a late night of cranky little ones. It was a bit miserable to say the least. We realized after that Christmas that we really wanted a Christmas that was enjoyable for our family, that didn't end in cranky little ones (and a cranky tired mama).

So we finally said NO to travel. It was hard. Super hard. Many family members didn't understand and were disappointed. And being a people pleaser, I had a hard time with that. That first Christmas I felt more guilt than joy even though I knew we made the right decision for our family.

Now, two years later, we were presented with the option of travel again. In so many ways it seemed nice - seeing family I haven't seen in a while, being with loved ones on a special day, and watching aunties, uncles, cousins, and my parents enjoy our girls. It sounds lovely, right? But it would come with 4 hours of travel in one day. I knew that wasn't how we wanted to spend our Christmas. While we would miss the time spent with our loved ones, my husband and I were craving a relaxing Christmas at home.

With recognizing our needs and desires for a stay-at-home Christmas, I also realized that other than a relaxing morning of opening gifts and eating a laid back breakfast in PJs, I didn't know what our Christmas would look like. We didn't have anything to look forward to. What would we do with our day? So I made a decision to make a general plan for our day that would bring us a day of joy together.

The first thing I did was ask my girls what they want to do on Christmas. Their answer:

Make Christmas Cookies and a Birthday Cake for Baby Jesus!

I'm not much of a cook or baker, but for my girls I could dedicate our afternoon to baking! Then we planned out our meals. Breakfast: Donuts and Orange Juice. For Lunch....Once again, not being a cook, we decided to look on Pinterest for Christmas themed lunch box ideas. From this we came up with Tortilla Roll Up Bites laid out on a tray in the shape of a Christmas Tree, star shaped pretzels, and red and green grapes. For dinner I found an easy Christmas Tree Pizza Recipe using frozen dinner rolls! Super easy and fun! 

I knew what I wanted to do to end our night. I have dreamed of a Living Room Sleepover Christmas Night for years. We would pop in a fun Christmas movie, have sleeping bags and popcorn, and just enjoy this throwback to childhood sleepover days. We don't have sleeping bags or air mattresses at the moment. So my husband said he would brings the girls' mattresses and blankets down to the living room and set it all up. SO AWESOME! And my husband and I will utilize the couch and share cuddles with our girlies! AND THE JOY I FEEL IN MY HEART IS OVERFLOWING JUST THINKING ABOUT THIS HAPPENING!

Saying NO to travel for family has been a tough journey. Saying NO isn't easy. But we knew that traveling on Christmas would lead to stress and resentment. Saying NO meant that we are saying YES to our stay-at-home Christmas and I am finally looking forward to creating a Christmas Day that our little family can fully remember enjoying. I'm sure it won't be perfect, I will have a messy kitchen, and there may be temper tantrums, but it will all be a messy kind of wonderful because we are following our hearts and remembering the birth our of Lord Jesus.

Are you saying NO to anything this holiday season and making room for the YES in your heart? 

Zero Waste Clothes Shopping

Patagonia

Walking through the mall I am always shocked at the number of clothing stores I walk past. The sheer number of clothing items for sale in a single mall is mind blowing to me. There are usually a handful of department stores providing clothing for all age groups. Then you walk into the main part of the mall only to find more of the same - different brands of course. Do we really need to be selling that many clothes? And if we don't need to be selling that many items of clothing - how much waste are we creating in producing such excess?! 

There is waste in materials, waste in energy usage, waste in pollution, waste in people's skills and talents who are making clothing not necessary for our fellow neighbors.

Coyuchi

With this in mind, I have decided to become very conscious of what clothing companies I support and the number of clothing items I have in my closet - because in the end - we don't really need that much!

I started looking for clothing companies that focus on eco-friendly clothes - organic cottons mostly. These companies also follow eco-friendly manufacturing of their products. I feel good about the quality of my clothes and supporting companies focusing on sustainability. I love my pajamas from Coyuchi. I love my sweatshirt from Patagonia.

Goodwill

To take zero waste to another level, we decided to start shopping resale as well. I took my 5 year old to a children's resale store for a winter jacket. She picked out a jacket she loves for $17! My husband needed new jeans (He's been wearing jeans with holes in the knees for over a month.) and got a pair at Goodwill for $8. Now, it was my turn to try out the resale market. I was in need of a sports bra and workout pants. I was able to get a sports bra for $2.29 and athletic pants for $4.29!

Buying resale saved us over $75. We didn't upset our budget and we have our clothing needs met. I feel so great about supporting the resale market, the impact it made on our budget, and ultimately supporting our zero waste lifestyle.

Less Monthly Menstrual Waste - Diva Cup

Ok. So when you really think about it, buying tampons and pads is like buying garbage. Literally, you are buying something that you are planning on throwing away! There has to be a better option for our money and the earth!

Then I heard about the Diva Cup. It comes in 2 sizes, can be worn for 12 hours straight, and washed and reused. Sounds awesome and I dove right in. 

Size 2 was for those who are 30 years old and/or who have ever had a baby - vaginally or via c-section. That fit my description and I tried it. I was able to insert the Diva Cup with little effort, but then the tricky part came. IT GOT STUCK! 

Literally, I couldn't get it out. I tried for 15 minutes to get it out on my own before I decided to get help. The suction was so tight and the cup had moved so far back that I wasn't able to get it out on my own.

After getting the size 2 Diva Cup removed, I decided that maybe it was the wrong size for me. Maybe I needed the smaller size. So I got the size 1 designed for those under 30 and who have never had a baby. I inserted it in the evening and an hour later was able to remove it no problem. So I decided to wear it over night (directions say you can). When I got up in the morning, IT WAS STUCK AGAIN! 

It was so far back and the suction was so tight that I couldn't get it out on my own. Deja Vu! Once again after 10 minutes of trying to get it out - which resulted in my feeling nauseous from all the pressure down there - I needed to get help again. 

Major bummer! I was so excited to try this method, but it seems it is not the right fit for my body. I will be getting some reusable organic cotton moon pads instead. 

Less Antibiotic Use - Urinary Tract Infection

When you end up with a Urinary Tract Infection, how do you fight it off?

I ended up with a UTI a few weeks ago. I've had them before, so I knew when I got that burning sensation when I peed that it might be the start of a UTI. I really hate calling the doctor and asking for the medication and I was bound to beat this infection on my own if I could. 

I knew that cranberry juice helped fight UTIs, but I hate the taste of all juices, especially cranberry. But I sucked it up, held my breath and downed a bunch of cranberry juice. It seemed to help on a temporary basis. I would drink 8-16 ounces, it would get better that day, but the next day I felt the burning again. I probably wasn't drinking enough cranberry juice, but I have limits.

My taste buds were hating me. Plus, I knew I was taking in a bunch of unnecessary calories in juice. I was drinking Ocean Spray brand that had added apple and pear juice (for the sugars). The other option was a straight up cranberry juice with a bunch of sugar added. Neither option seems great to me.

Still determined to fight this infection on my own, I found out, through another mom, there are cranberry pills designed to help with UTIs! I was fascinated with this concept. If it worked it would save my taste buds and my calorie intake. I went straight to Whole Foods and found an organic cranberry pill that supports a healthy urinary tract! Awesome!

I started taking one pill a day. I knew it would probably take time to work. I had the UTI on and off for over a week at this point. It was a Tuesday when I started taking the daily cranberry pill. By Friday I was peeing constantly (almost peeing my pants a few times running to the bathroom). By Saturday morning the burning was at it's worst since the beginning. 

I told myself that if by Monday morning I was still feeling crappy, I would give in and call my doctor. I had about 16 oz of cranberry juice left in the refrigerator that I drank throughout the day Saturday and continued my daily cranberry pill through the weekend. 

Monday morning came and I felt almost 100% better. I was amazed! It's now Wednesday and I fell 100% better. I am still taking the daily cranberry pill through this week to help make sure I'm completely cleared of my UTI.

I think it's normal to feel worse before you feel better. And the fact that I was peeing constantly was probably a sign that I was flushing the bad bacteria from my bladder. I am so pumped that I beat this UTI naturally! At the first sign of another UTI, will be be taking my cranberry pills again!

Less Waste at Preschool

The Preschool my oldest attended last year had snack time each day. The snack was always provided by the parents on a rotating weekly schedule. We were to bring a snack food and a snack drink, along with dixie cups for the kids to drink out of.

Now my twins are in Preschool and my mind is all about Zero Waste. I started thinking about snack time and how we provide all these dixie cups each week that end up in the trash - WHAT A WASTE!

With Zero Waste at the top of my brain, I thought, there has to be a solution to this! My oldest brings her own snack to 4K this year - which is a water bottle and almonds/crackers/pretzels, etc. And I thought - Boy, it would be so easy to send my twins with their water bottles too! SOLUTION!!!!

So I wrote an email to our Preschool teachers with my idea:

Hi (Teacher),

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend. My girls are so excited to start Preschool!

I am writing you today because I had a thought/suggestion in regards to snack time. Right now we are using dixie cups to supply drinks to the preschoolers. I understand that there is no time to wash 18 little cups (x2) if morning and afternoon classes are full. At the same time almost 36 cups are being thrown in the trash every day of preschool. That is an estimate of 3,240 dixie cups being tossed in the trash over the course of the school year. 

To help our preschool be a little more environmentally friendly, would you consider asking parents to send their kids to preschool with water in their own reusable water bottles each day (one that they would take back home each day)? This would save on trash and then parents would only be asked to supply the snack for the class.

I think this would be a great opportunity to talk about taking care of our earth with the kids. I would even be happy to come in and talk to the kids about ways we can help the earth stay healthy :)

Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks so much,
Jaime

The day school started one of the teachers approached me and told me she got my email and that they loved my idea. Not only would it save waste, but it would also solve sticky juice spills and multiple runs to the drinking fountain. She said that they are planning on sending a letter home with the parents with the change! HOW TOTALLY AWESOME IS THIS!!!!

Here is the letter they sent home to parents:

Dear Parents,

We have decided to try something new this year. Instead of having our Star of the Week bring a drink with disposable cups, we would like to have each child bring their own water bottle to school each day. The bottle would be available to your child throughout classtime, as well as during snack. One parent pointed out to us that during the course of one school year, we would be discarding 3,240 cups! This is a great opportunity to teach our children about our environment and the little things that we all can do to pitch in. Please be sure to bring the water bottle home with you each day and refill it for the next class day. Also, be sure that the bottle is labeled with your child's name in a place that is easily seen.

Thanks for your support!

Preschool

I am totally pumped about this. I spoke up about something I am truly passionate about and was actually met with a welcoming response! It just shows that sometimes all you have to do is speak up. So many cool things can happen when we stand up and share our passions with others. I have a passion for living healthy (for our bodies and our planet) and living minimally. And I am so excited to continue this journey and share my joy here on my blog and in my community!

Spending Less Money On Books & Movies

My oldest girlie came home from school yesterday with a stack of Scholastic Reading Club Order Booklets. Four to be exact! While each purchase supports your child's school, I would rather save my money on books and make a donation to the school at a later time. 

Last year I got sucked into buying Scholastic books. It's great and all, but it was money I didn't need to spend. We regularly reserve books for myself and for my girls at our local library. The girls are excited to read new-to-them books and old favorites (like Fancy Nancy) that we borrow repeatedly.

When my daughter came home with this packet of order forms, my first thought was - CRAP! NOT AGAIN! And then I came up with a great idea! 

My daughter was so excited about all the books and I wanted to support her enthusiasm for reading. I told my daughter to circle all the books that she wants to read and that we could then borrow them from our local library. She was thrilled about going through all the pictures and circling her favorite books. 

Even better, I didn't have to limit her excitement to 1 or 2 books to keep the cost down. Her excitement about books could grow as much as she desired! 

In addition to the cost saving of utilizing our local library, I am also avoiding throwing the order forms in the trash by holding on to them for the next birthday present/christmas present and reusing these colorful papers as wrapping paper!

I love supporting our local library and the benefits we receive from utilizing their service. In addition to borrowing books, we've transitioned to borrowing movies for family movie night with the girls - this Friday we are going to watch Disney's Robin Hood for free.

When I went to the library to get our next batch of books and our Friday Night Movie, I started thinking about our movie collection. I went through a phase of buying movies for the girls every time I saw a good Disney Movie for sale. Now I have a stack of movies in my home. I decided, why not donate our movies to the library so that other kids can enjoy them as well. 

I knew getting my kiddos to agree with parting with all their movies at once was not going to go over well. So I had them each pick one movie to donate to the library. Next month I will ask them again to each pick a movie to donate, getting rid of our movie pile 3 at a time!

Movies donated to our local library!

Taking LESS To The Next Level

I have been moving down the path of a minimalist lifestyle for over a year now. I am loving the changes that have been taking place in my life. With less STUFF I find myself reading more books (from the library), my house stays more clean, and I spend less time organizing (which I do love to do). I sell less stuff on craigslist and give less to goodwill because I'm buying less. I am loving my more minimalist life.

We love our organic cotton napkins with our initials!

Then I came across a podcast (thanks to The Art of Simple) about Zero Waste Living. I was intrigued and listened with excitement. I am all about being green, earth friendly, creating less waste and this podcast was just what I needed to inspire me to my next level of minimalist living!

Here are some things I am inspired to start doing:

1. Start COMPOSTING. I'm not to the point of self composting, but our town has a compost collection site. So I am hoping to get a counter top compost bin and start throwing apple cores, banana peels, etc in there instead of in the garbage.

2. Replace PLASTIC ITEMS with COMPOSTABLE ITEMS. I'm excited to switch to compostable floss and toothbrushes.

3. Replace DISPOSAL ITEMS WITH REUSABLE ITEMS. I already use rags instead of paper towels, cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. I'm excited to switch from kleenex to handkerchiefs, pads and tampons to reusable cloth moon pads and a diva cup. 

4. REFUSE handouts. In the next month we go for our 6 month dentist appointment. We always get free toothbrushes, toothpaste, and floss. But I am going to say NO THANK YOU because I am switching from all that plastic to more earth friendly options.

For more inspiration on Zero Waste, check out Bea's website: Zero Waste Home

Summer Fun List 2015

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We are embracing our minimalist lifestyle more than ever these days - less furniture, less toys, less clothes, less kitchen stuff. In return, we are enjoying more energy for fun and relaxing activities this summer.

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We had created a Summer Fun List to accomplish this summer season with our kids. As we near the end, we have almost completed our list. Here it is:

Devil's Lake

1. Milwaukee County Zoo (Memorial Day)
2. Water Balloon Fight in the Back Yard (June)
3. Family Road Trip (June - To Disney World)
4. Visit Nanee & Papa's Lake House (4th of July)
5. Cottage Grove Family Fun Movie Night (July)
6. Daddy Dates - Our girls each had a date with Chris to lunch and a water park (July)
7. Visit Devil's Lake State Park (July)
8. Henry Vilas Zoo (July)
9. Attend One Concerts on the Square Night (July)
10. 7yr Anniversary Get Away / Kids Sleepover with Nanee & Papa (August)
11. Visit Grandma and Grandpa D in MN (August)
12. Attend One Dane Dances Night (August)
13. S'mores and Camp in Backyard (August)
14. Flick & Float Event at Monona Pool (August - plan to do this up-coming week)
15. U Pick Organic Rasberries (August - plan to do next weekend)

One event we wanted to do that we missed was:

• U Pick Organic Strawberries (must do next June)

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We are having such a fun summer because of our list! This will be something we continue to do each season to make sure we are creating fun family memories with our girls throughout the year!

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Concerts on the Square

Experiment Nine: A Less Stressful Way to Visit Disney World with Toddlers

We just got back from our road trip to Disney World. After LOVING our road trip to Arizona last summer, we decided we wanted to road trip every summer with our girls. Our girls are in love with the disney princesses, so we decided to road trip it from Wisconsin to Florida with Disney as our destination.

When we made this decision, I started looking at the Disney website. Man is it overwhelming! All the different parks and all the different attractions within each park could take you forever to explore. With a 4 year old and two 3 year olds, I knew conquering all the parks was out of the question for us. On top of the energy level needed to explore all the parks in a short period of time, getting into the Disney parks is expensive - almost $100 per person.

In order to make Disney fit our budget, we decided we would spend one day visiting Disney. And in order to make our trip easy (bus transportation to the parks) and Disney themed, we stayed at the new value plus resort, Art of Animation. It was awesome for our girls. There is a great splash pad and a zero depth entry pool - PERFECT!!! We stayed in a NEMO themed room. We had 3 beds, a kitchenette, 2 bathrooms - we would stay there again.

With our resort picked out and booked, how do you visit Disney for just one day? For me, I had to think simple. Simple is less stressful and makes our time together more enjoyable. With our girls' ages and interests, we knew they would love to meet their favorite princesses. We decided this would be our sole goal of our trip - MEET PRINCESSES. 

With that in mind we decided to go with Magic Kingdom, focusing our time at the Fantasyland area. We got fast passes for Cinderella & Rapunzel, Belle, and Ariel. We were also able to wait in line to meet Elsa & Anna, Tinkerbelle, and Mickey Mouse. Our girls LOVED the Ariel Undersea Adventure ride as well. We also caught the fantasy parade at 3pm - AMAZING! And a ton of additional princesses and their princes were in the parade!

Their was one glitch to our plan to only visit Magic Kingdom. One of our daughter's favorite princess was Aurora and she was no where in Magic Kingdom. We searched and searched and found out that she was located at Epcot. Now what? 

In order to stick with our one-day-at-disney rule and within budget we decided to pay an extra $35/person and get a hopper pass to Epcot for the same day. In Norway in Epcot they have a character dinning with 5 princesses (Aurora, Ariel, Snow White, Belle, Cinderella). It was a more expensive way to eat dinner, but it completed our MEET THE PRINCESSES THEME of the day and we loved it. The food was great too!


We had an amazing day at Disney. I wouldn't have done it any other way.  Of course there were cranky moments - naps were missed - but we still look back and loved it all. The next day our legs were wobbly with fatigue and we enjoyed a relaxing day at the pool at our resort. 


There is a lot of Disney we didn't see, and that's ok. We hope to go back to Disney when the girls are a bit older - maybe in 5 years. Our focus can be on other areas of the parks then. We can enjoy discovering all that Disney has to offer at our girls' pace and enjoy the smiles on their faces as we experience the wonders of their imaginations come to life.

Side Note: Souvenirs get expensive. We decided the girls could each pick one thing (they each picked out a disney princess dress). We got an ornament to remember our trip. And I bought each girl a necklace that I am holding onto until Christmas as a Christmas present. We kept it simple and the girls cherish their dresses.

ROAD TRIP TO DISNEY:

Our road trip for our Disney destination was just as awesome. We planned our days on the road similar to our last trip to Arizona. But with the girls a bit older we were able to push bedtimes and be a little more flexible. Here's an overview of our trip on the road:

Day 1: 9am on the road, picnic in El Paso, IL, dinner in St. Louis, MO, hotel in Blytheville, AR

Strawberry Patch Park

Day 2: 9:30am on the road, lunch at McDonalds in Grenada, MS, play at the park in Madison, MS (awesome park - Strawberry Patch Park), dinner in Hattiesburg, MS (found out not a place you want to stop in), hotel in St. Rose, La

Day 3: 9:30am drove through French Quarter in New Orleans, drove along beaches in MS (awesome!!! want to return there some day!!!), picnic and park in Spanish Fort, AL (awesome dream park on Ember Lane), pizza and ice cream at Seagrove Beach, FL (cool vacation area on scenic 30A), quick stop to visit the beach in Panama City, FL, hotel in Tallahassee, FL.

Panama City

Day 4: 9:30am on the road, Picnic at largest live oak tree in FL, at Disney Hotel (dinner and pool time)

Little Talbot Island, FL

Day 5: Magic Kingdom & Epcot

Day 6: Pool Day at Resort

Day 7: 9am on the road, Picnic at Little Talbot Island State Park (awesome! great for sea shells!), dinner in Valdosta, GA, hotel in Mcdonough, GA

Day 8: 10am on the road, quick picnic in Chattanooga, TN, ice cream stop in Jasper, TN, stop in Nashville, TN to visit Family

Day 9: 2pm on the road, drove through Kentucky, stop in Champaign-Urbana for late dinner and hotel

Drive Through Kentucky

Day 10: 11am on the road to HOME

We had a great road trip. And now we are looking forward to planning our next summer road trip (thinking out to the west coast)!

Experiment Eight: A Less Stressful Way To Road Trip With Little Ones

Last summer we were faced with a big question: How the heck do we get from Wisconsin to Arizona with a 3 year old and two 2 year olds? My sister was getting married at a beautiful resort in Scottsdale, AZ in late June. We could fly or we could drive.

We had never flown with our girls before and the thought of checking carseats and the rest of our luggage was daunting. Driving would take longer, but we would already have our carseats in tow and space for the rest of our luggage. So decision made: We're Driving!

Oh Crap! Now with that decision made: How do we drive a mini van full of toddlers 26 hours (one way) without going crazy? Everyone we talked to had different responses....

• That sounds horrible!

• Do most of your driving through the night so the kids sleep.

• Just fly.

• Are you crazy?

I spent countless hours searching for answers on different blogs. I was looking for answers on how to keep our kids entertained in the car. Most answers I found included projects for me to set up ahead of time. While these ideas were super creative pinterest inspiring ideas, my only response was - HELL NO! I don't have the time or energy to do all this. And in the end I think the mini van is going to be covered in crayons, small magnetic/sticky pieces that ultimately don't end up sticking to the windows, and a scattering of other small toys they lose interest in after 5 minutes.

I talked to other people getting their personal stories of how they made road trips work - finding out their secrets to making it to their destinations. One mom told me that they would leave home in the evening and drive as late into the night as possible before crashing in a hotel. Objective - get as many miles in as possible when the kids are sleeping.

This sounded like a great idea. The winter before our road trip we ended up making a short notice road trip from Wisconsin to North Dakota for my grandpa's funeral. We decided that we would try this method of - drive as late into the night as you can! Our experience: DIDN'T WORK! Our kids fell asleep in the mini van - awesome! By the time we got to our hotel my husband and I were exhausted (about 11pm) and ready to crash. Only problem - our girls don't transfer from carseat to bed well. So they woke up and were wired until two in the morning. It was horrible. This method did not work for our family!

Now what?

We decided getting to our hotels at a reasonable hour to do our normal bedtime routine - bath, stories, prayer, bed would be best for us. With that game plan we would want to get to our nightly hotels between 7pm and 8pm. Decision made - check!

Next question to tackle: How do we keep the girls entertained in the car? We decided to go simple. We got the girls tablets from Barnes and Noble for their birthdays. They had time to master their tablets without our help before the road trip. Two weeks before we hit the road I took the tablets to the "Tablet Doctor" to get fixed before the road trip (aka: stored them in a cabinet). This made all their games and books on their tablets new and exciting again for the car. Other than that they had their blanket, a stuffed animal and a physical book. Done and done - check!

With those two questions answered, the next two questions on our list....

Meals and Naps?

We wanted to stick to a fairly tight budget and stick to things that were easy when it came to our meals. For breakfast, we decided to stay at hotels that offered a free continental breakfast. For lunch, we decided to have picnic lunches. We bought groceries for the car - bread and peanut butter, bananas and apples, gogurts and string cheese, fruit snacks and cheddar bunnies. We had bottles of water and were set. For dinner, we always planned on stopping at a restaurant - generally a panera bread or equivalent - easy, fast, healthier than fast food, and cheaper than a regular sit down restaurant. Done, done, and done - check!

Would the girls nap in the car? We hoped so, but with all that sitting would they ever get tired? Or would they get tired later, making our bedtime routine more difficult? Our hope was that they would crash after lunch (like a normal nap). We decided it would be a good idea to get some run around time outside the car at lunch time. We preplanned all our stops, using google maps to follow our route. For lunchtime we found a playground to stop at - have our picnic lunch in the shade and then let the girls play! It was great. Our girls loved having a playground to play at in every new state! Check!

Here's what our days looked like in general:

• In the car by 9am
• Drive approximately 2.5 hours 
• Potty break, Picnic at a playground, and Play (our stop was about 1.5 hours total)
• Drive approximately 3 hours
• Potty break, Early Dinner at a Panera Bread or Equivalent (our stop was about 1 hour total)
• Drive approximately 2.5 hours
• Hello Hotel (7:30pm)

Of course there were some days that were different. Sometimes their are no good stops after 2.5/3 hours and you need to drive a bit farther to get to a Panera. Sometimes our girls were finally asleep about 30 minutes before our planned dinner stop, so we kept driving and reevaluating at each exit if it was time to stop. Sometimes you really want to spend time at what would be a quick lunch destination so we preplanned to stop the day early and spend the night so we could have more time to explore. Sometimes we preplanned to stop our day early so we could have a relaxing dinner in the hotel with pizza and disney channel. Sometimes we would last minute change our route to sight see something cool. 

We preplanned as much as we could. We had a timeline with our planned stops for each day we were on the road. Google maps, trip advisor, and visiting city parks webpages (always good if you can get a picture of the playground) to make our stopping decisions. Before we hit the road we knew each day exactly what park we were going to visit, what restaurant we would eat dinner at, and what hotel we were staying at.

While our destination was our goal, we decided to make the most of our journey. We made our trip the whole package, loving every minute of our special time together - even though there were temper tantrums and sick kids part of the time.

Here is what our road trip looked like:

• Day One: 9am Leave Home, Lunch at a park in IA, Dinner in IA, Hotel in MO
• Day Two: 9am Leave Hotel, Lunch at a free zoo in Emporia KS, Dinner in KS, Hotel in Liberal KS
• Day Three: 9 am Leave Hotel, Drive through corner of OK, Lunch at a park in TX, Dinner & Hotel in Albuquerque NM
• Day Four: Off to the Albuquerque BioPark (awesome, awesome, awesome)!!!! 3pm Drive, Dinner in NM, Hotel in Heber AZ
• Day Five: 9am Leave Hotel, Picnic lunch at laundromat in Scottsdale AZ and to Resort
• Day Six and Day Seven at Resort
• Day Eight: 9am Leave Hotel, last minute detour through Sedona on our way to Flagstaff (coolest drive ever!!!), Lunch at park in AZ, Dinner and Hotel in Moab UT
• Day Nine: Visited Arches National Park (super cool) in Moab UT, Hotel in Moab UT again
• Day Ten: 9am Leave Hotel,  Lunch at park in CO, Dinner and Hotel in Denver
• Day Eleven: 9am Leave Hotel, Lunch at park in CO,  Dinner in IA, Hotel near Omaha IA
• Day Twelve: Off to the Omaha Zoo (It was so big and we were tired at this point in the trip - skip big/fun stops late on the way home), We were going to stay in Cedar Rapids that night, but the girls were all feeling sick and we all wanted our own beds so we drove late and got home around 11pm.

Awesome Tips For Easier Cheaper Road Tripping:

• HOTELS: Stay away from big cities - they are more expense. Its easier in and out and cheaper to stay in the suburbs.
• PARKS: If stopping at parks for little ones to play - stay away from big cities. They are so much more hectic to get to and park at. Stopping in small towns is faster and easier.
• SNACKS: No snacking in the car. Keeps the car clean and the kids eat well during the meals.
• STATES: We want to visit all 50 states with our girls. So we took one route on our way to Arizona and an different route on our way home to hit different states. If doing this, take the long way to your destination and the short way home when your are tired and looking forward to seeing your bed again!
• FUN STOPS: There are so many cool things to see when traveling, most of them are not toddler friendly. Stick to easy toddler friendly stops (parks and zoos). They will love it. And if they love it, you will enjoy it. Then take note of the things you thought were cool when researching your trip or while on the road for things to revisit some day.
• ICE CREAM: If the route you are taking one day is longer with no good stop 2.5 to 3 hours after lunch, stop for ice cream, and keep driving to get to your dinner destination. Ice cream always makes traveling more fun!
• DESTINATION: With road tripping in this style, make your destination a shorter stop (3 days max) This is mostly because your travel time is going to be limited. Depending on how far and how long you plan to be gone, you will spend a lot of time getting to your destination and back home.
• BUDGET: If traveling on a budget, road tripping is a great way to go. Driving is way cheaper than flying. Plan picnic lunches and inexpensive dinners. Stay at chain hotels (think Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Best Western) with continental breakfast. Plan for free or inexpensive activities: Playgrounds are free, Some small zoos are free, Albuquerque's Botanical Garden is free and awesome!
• CLOTHES AND SHOES: Pack lightly and only what you need to get through half the trip. My husband and I would re-wear our shorts, but have a clean t-shirt, and underwear for each day. Our girls had a clean summer dress for each day (luckily their clothes are tiny) and our 3 year old had lots of undies packed. We wore tennis shoes or sandals while we traveled. We re-wore the same pajamas each night. Half way through the trip we did laundry and were set to get home.
• POTTY ACCIDENTS: Pack beach towels to cover carseats incase of a potty accident. Then when you get to your hotel you can pull out the carseat, throw the cover in a washing machine at the hotel and be all set to hit the road in the morning. (side note: pick hotels with a washing machine and dryer onsite).
• ENTERTAINMENT IN THE CAR: If bringing tablets, still limit the time. When kids get bored they fall asleep, so if nap time is important, take a break from the tablet after lunch so they sleep and get a break from the screen time. We also just got some fun kids music for our next road trip that our girls are super excited for. So we are planning on having tablet time, music time, and quiet time (hopefully nap time). 
• TV IN THE HOTEL: We don't have cable at home so Disney is a big treat for the girls at the hotel. Another reason to cut the cable at home if you haven't already done so!
• RELAX: Don't try to fit too much into your trip. Do some fun things, but take your time so you come home rejuvenated instead of feeling like you need a vacation.