family Archives - Page 8 of 42 - Sunshine and Holly

Super Simple Kid-Friendly Vegetable Side Dishes for Weeknight Dinners

By sunshineandholly on April 16, 2019

When I was a newlywed, I LOVED to meal plan. There was nothing better than going through cookbooks and magazines and searching online for yummy recipes to try. (Thank goodness Pinterest wasn’t around back then – I would have spent way too many hours pinning a million recipes!)

But the novelty of meal planning wore off, especially after having kids. I hate spending all that time picking out recipes, shopping, and cooking, only to have my kids turn up their noses at what I’ve prepared. #momlife

These days I do my best to meal plan, but there are many nights where I still stand in front of the open fridge, looking for inspiration when I haven’t prepared ahead of time. But typically I have a meat and vegetable side dish planned for each night. I like to keep the side dish simple and easy – the less chopping, cooking, or dirtying up pans, the better!

Here are a few super simple kid-friendly vegetable side dishes for weeknight dinners:

10 Reasons We Love Disney’s Bay Lake Tower

By sunshineandholly on April 11, 2019

When booking accommodations for Disney, there are lots of things to take into consideration. Price, location to the parks, and amenities for example, but there are other things that can make an otherwise average hotel stay at Disney into an exceptional one. We’ve stayed at several different hotels over the years, both on-property and off, and our favorite so far has been the Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary Resort.

Bay Lake Tower is part of the Disney Vacation Club, a timeshare program run by Disney. However, there are ways to book Bay Lake Tower rooms without being part of the club. We booked a trip through DVCrentals.com and had a great experience! (And saved $$$ too! Find out more about DVC Rentals below.)

Bay Lake Tower offers studios, 1-bedroom, and 2-bedroom villas. There’s a pool with a water slide, access to the monorail, and (by far the best part in my opinion) the resort is WALKING DISTANCE to the Magic Kingdom. You heard that right! No need to wait in the long monorail or bus lines. It’s wonderful to be able to walk back to your hotel after a long day at the parks, and not waiting in the long lines for transportation.

A Letter to Me Before You

By sunshineandholly on March 21, 2019

Motherhood changes you. The person I was before I had children doesn’t exist anymore. I’ve been molded by my experiences, shaped into something new. Each day of pregnancy, each milestone of infancy, each moment of motherhood has carved and chiseled and scraped and sculpted me into who I am today.

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5 Reasons Your Kids Will Love LEGOLAND Florida Resort

By sunshineandholly on March 4, 2019

Disclosure: LEGOLAND Florida provided my family with complimentary admission for our visit. But all thoughts and opinions are my own!

My son, Graham, is a creator at heart. Ever since he was small, he has loved to build and make things. Don’t give him a coloring book – he’d much rather have a blank piece of paper to create what he sees in his imagination! Needless to say, Legos are his favorite toy. There really isn’t a better toy out there for creating and building. Over the years, Graham has built so many imaginative and inventive things with legos. He even had his own hashtag on Instagram for a while – #grahambuilds!

(That’s a fading temporary tattoo on Maddie’s arm – in case you were wondering!)

I’ve always wanted to take Graham to LEGOLAND in Florida. We decided to take advantage of the small break from school the kids had for President’s Day to take a quick trip down to visit. We had a blast! There was so much to see and do. We rode lots of fun rides, saw a really cool show, checked out tons of Lego structures, and spent some time building our own Lego creations!

Thinking about taking a trip down to LEGOLAND? Here are 5 reasons your kids will love LEGOLAND Florida Resort:

10 Tips for Staying in a Hotel with Kids

By sunshineandholly on February 21, 2019

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We’ve stayed in lots of hotels over the years with our kids. These days, we’ve got our routines down to a science, and our kids (mostly) understand the rules and what’s expected of them when we’re away from home. I’ll admit though, we stopped traveling for a while after Maddie was born. She just didn’t like to sleep in general, much less when we were in a hotel room. And toddler Graham was just too wild to keep calm and quiet! But now that the kids are older, we love taking trips together. I’ve got a few tips and tricks that make staying in a small hotel room easier with kids.

Check out these 10 tips for staying in a hotel with kids:

Luggage Carts Are Your Friend

Before kids, the hubs and I packed pretty light and would just carry our bags with us to our hotel room. But traveling with kids requires a TON of more stuff. We quickly learned to grab a luggage cart after we check into the hotel to make it easier to get all the luggage to the room. The kids love taking a ride too!

Unplug the Phone

The first thing we do when we get into the hotel room is to unplug the phone. TRUST ME on this one. Kids these days are fascinated by a phone that plugs into the wall. (Or basically, any phone that’s not a cell phone.) My kids always want to play with the hotel phone, which is fine with me, as long as it’s unplugged!

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