tips

Year of the Staycation: Find Staycation Ideas from Tons of Participating Bloggers

May 22, 2013 by Sandra 1 Comment

Yesterday, I shared Staycation ideas for Naperville, Illinois. Today, you can go through this amazing list to see if there’s a blogger covering your local city or a city near you.

Mid Atlantic

NW (or all), Connecticut :: Parenting Miracles
Boston (or all), Massachusetts :: Maven of Savin
Central, New Jersey :: Our Good LIfe
Adirondak Mountains and Central, New York :: For This Season
Buffalo/Niagara Falls, New York :: Ann’s Entitled Life
Syracuse, New York :: I am THAT lady
Erie, Pennsylvania :: Growing Kids Ministry
Greater Harrisburg, Pennsylvania :: Family Balance Sheet
Hershey, Pennsylvania :: Good Deal Mama
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania :: Beyond the Cover
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania :: The Coupon “High”
Poconos, Pennsylvania :: Bucktown Bargains
Scranton, Pennsylvania :: Bucktown Bargains

Midwest

Des Moines, Iowa :: Make the best of everything
Aurora, Illinois :: A Savings WOW!
Central, Illinois :: The Homeschool Scientist
Chicago, Illinois :: Chicagoland Homeschool Network
Naperville, Illinois :: The Sensible Mom
Schaumburg, Illinois :: Ravings By Rae
Fort Wayne, Indiana :: Simplified Saving
Indianapolis, Indiana (Metro Area) :: In Good Cents
Muncie, Indiana (Central IN) :: the daisyhead
Northern Indiana :: So Dough Savvy
Kansas City Area :: Kansas City Mamas
Metro Detroit, Michigan :: Saving Dollars and Sense
Grand Rapids, Michigan :: Give Me Neither
Oakland County, Michigan :: Bargain Shopper Mom
Minneapolis, Minnesota :: Creative Couponing
Rural Minnesota (either Southern our Lake Country) :: Mommysavers.com
St. Cloud, Minnesota :: Frugal Finders
Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas :: Kosher on a Budget
Springfield, Missouri :: Getting Freedom
Cincinnati, Ohio :: Family Friendly Cincinnati
Columbus, Ohio :: Cleverly Simple
Dayton, Ohio :: Savings Lifestyle: Dayton
Mansfield, Ohio :: The Traveling Praters
NE Ohio :: Raising Lifelong Learners
Northeast Ohio (Canton, Akron, Cleveland) :: Sisters Shopping on a Shoestring
Black Hills, South Dakota :: Little House Living
South Dakota :: Moms Mustard Seeds
Oshkosh, Wisconsin :: Adventures of a Stay at Home Mom

Mountain

Phoenix, Arizona :: Mom Endeavors
Scottsdale, Arizona :: Saving For Someday
Tucson, Arizona :: Desert Chica Ramblings
Colorado Springs, Colorado :: The Greenbacks Gal
Denver, Colorado :: Bargain Blessings
Helena, Montana :: The WiC Project
Omaha, Nebraska :: Mom Endeavors
Reno, Nevada – Lake Tahoe (Northern Nevada) :: Saving in Nevada

Pacific

Fresno, California (Central Valley) :: NerdFamily Blog
Los Angeles, California :: Savings.com
San Diego, California :: Good Cheap Eats
San Diego, California :: Life as MOM
Portland, Oregon :: Frugal Living NW
Seattle, Washington :: Thrifty NW Mom

South Atlantic

Arkansas :: Discovering Arkansas
Washington, DC :: Kidventurous
Clearwater Beach, Florida :: Bargain Briana
Jacksonville, Florida :: Saving The Family Money
Southwest Florida (Ft. Myers area) :: Chaos Is Bliss
St. Augustine, Florida :: Simply St. Augustine
Tallahassee, Florida :: SwagGrabber
Atlanta, Georgia (metro area) :: Hodgepodge
Atlanta, Georgia (metro area) :: The Couponing Couple
Annapolis, Maryland :: The Happy Housewife
Hagerstown, Maryland :: Cheryl Pitt
Asheville, North Carolina :: Paradise Praises
Charlotte, North Carolina :: from our front porch lookin’ in…
Raleigh/Southeastern, North Carolina :: Upside Down Homeschooling
Upstate South Carolina :: The Tween & Me
Charlottesville, Virginia :: How to Have it All
Richmond, Virginia :: Teachers of Good Things
Smithfield, Virginia :: Walking in High Cotton
Virginia Beach, Virginia :: The Coupon Challenge

South Central

Coastal Alabama :: Meet Penny
Huntsville, Alabama :: The Traveling Praters
Northern Kentucky :: Simply Sherryl
Chattanooga, Tennessee :: Living Chic on the Cheap
East Tennessee (Smoky Mountains, Knoxville) :: Finding Joy on the Journey
Nashville, Tennessee :: Montessori Tidbits
Arlington, Texas :: Grocery Shop For FREE
Austin, Texas (Hill Country) :: Ponder the Path
College Station, Texas :: How to Homeschool My Child
Dallas, Texas :: Surviving The Stores
East Dallas, Texas :: Funky Faith Girl
Fort Worth, Texas :: Coupons & Freebies Mom
Houston, Texas :: MomsToolbox
Houston, Texas :: MyLitter
Katy, Texas :: Moms Confession
McAllen, Texas (Rio Grande Valley) :: iLoveMy5Kids
San Antonio, Texas :: Melissa’s Bargains

Staycation Tips and Ideas: Naperville, Illinois

May 21, 2013 by Sandra 7 Comments

Today, I’m teaming up with other bloggers to share ways to enjoy a Staycation in your city and on a budget. Tomorrow’s post will include links to all of the other bloggers who are involved in sharing Staycation posts and the cities that they’re covering. There’s a good chance you’ll be able to find a blogger who is covering your city or a city near you.

I live in Illinois, so I’m sharing ways to have a great Staycation in the city of Naperville, Illinois.

Naperville is an amazing city that’s full of character and fun things to do. It has a wonderful park district, and our family enjoyed many happy times together when we lived in Naperville a few years ago. There’s truly no shortage of ways to enjoy a Staycation in the city of Naperville.

Staycation Tips & Ideas for Naperville, Illinois

One place where you can find family friendly activities is at the Naperville Public Library. Pick up an activity guide when you enter to find out what’s going on this summer.

It’s also a great place to check out free movies for a Staycation movie night. Besides that, the selection of books available for summer reading is enormous. When I can’t find a book at my local library, I’ll check the Naperville library’s system; we’re reciprocal borrowers. Oh, and the summer reading program is fantastic.

The Naperville Riverwalk is can’t-miss free entertainment. Walking the Riverwalk is fun, relaxing, and best of all, a memory you’re sure to remember.

From the City of Naperville’s website:

The Riverwalk “features 1.75 miles of brick paths, fountains, bridges, meeting and event places, outdoor sculpture and artwork, recreational facilities, and celebratory memorials.The Riverwalk is a preferred destination and an ideal place to stroll, unwind, and reflect.”

Don’t forget to bring your camera! 🙂

The Brunswick Zone in Naperville is offering kids bowl free days.

The Frontier Kite Fly Festival

On June 2nd from 10am – 4pm, there’s a free kite festival at the Frontier Sports Complex. Bring your own kites, marvel at the gigantic kites in the sky, enjoy hands-on activities, games, and more!

The Naper Settlement

The Naper Settlement is an outdoor history museum, and it’s free for Naperville residents.

What are some of your favorite ways to enjoy a Staycation in your city?

Disney World: 10 Tips for Rainy Days

May 17, 2013 by Sandra 10 Comments

Today, I’m sharing ten tips for navigating Walt Disney World on a rainy day.

And I’m bringing these tips to you in a video. 🙂

I hope you enjoy it!

P.S. You can read all of my Disney World posts here. I’m currently recapping our most recent trip to Disney World.

A special thanks to MomTV for sponsoring this fun Disney video! I love Disney World and can’t wait until our next Disney vacation. I promise I won’t forget to bring the ponchos! 🙂

Make Potty training less stressful with GoodNites Disposable Bed Mats

November 19, 2012 by Sandra 4 Comments

With five children, we are no strangers to potty training.

But one thing I’ve found to be true for our family, is that nighttime training has been more of a challenge for our boys than it ever was for our daughter. Our daughter was completely potty trained day and night at two years old. Our boys have taken a lot longer than this, and we still deal with bedwetting on a regular basis.

Basically, our washer and dryer get a workout.

But we’ve found a great potty training tool to make our lives just a little bit easier when it comes to nighttime training. It’s a tool that is helping us keep the bed sheets out of the dirty laundry basket on a regular basis, and instead, spending more time on a dry mattress.

Huggies Disposable GoodNite Bed Mats.

They’re making a big difference in our family.

We buy them easily online at Walmart.com. My husband goes to pick them up the next day, and the boys have fun helping me put them on their beds. And when I say they have fun, they really do. 🙂 They like helping to remove the sticky adhesive on the back of the bed mats and get them set up on their mattress.

Here’s what they look like on our toddler beds.

Both of our younger boys are still in toddler beds, although Isaac will be graduating to a twin-size bed in the near future. These bed mats would fit nicely on either size bed or mattress. As you can see, they cover most of the crib-size mattresses we use for our toddler beds, and they would have no problem fitting nicely on a twin mattress.

Our boys have been doing a good job of keeping these bed mats dry, but if they do have an accident, we simply remove the bed mat and replace it with a fresh bed mat. No more having to wash their sheets every single time they have an accident. Why? Because these mats keep their sheets dry. 🙂

I know we’ll be using these bed mats for a longtime to come. Our boys are using them now, and we have one more child after them to potty train, who is currently still in diapers — our sweet Elisabeth.

Let’s hope she follows in the footsteps of her older sister and is completely potty trained by two years old. I can hope, right?

Are you currently potty training your kids? If not, at what age where they completely potty trained where you no longer had to deal with bedwetting?

I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Huggies. All opinions are my own. #HuggiesWalmart #CBias #SocialFabric