My Minivan is My Purse

Have you ever been to a baby shower or something where they played a "what's in your purse" game? I never win that game because I don't carry a purse. My minivan is my purse (but you can't bring that in to a baby shower).

To be sure, my minivan might look like something exploded in it (hey, I have 5 kids!), but I have just about everything you might need in there, and it's come in handy more than once! Some things were put in the minivan as a precaution, but most of it has become standard equipment because we "had a situation" (or more than one. . .).

Remember when we needed clean pants and underwear for G's muddy mishap? Not a problem!

And there was the road trip where F choked on a pretzel and threw up--then we needed a bucket and a change of clothes, countless wipes, napkins, and kleenex, plastic bags, and hand sanitizer afterwards!

I've got everything I can think of in my minivan. Kleenex, wipes, diapers, changes of clothes and socks, hats, sunscreen, bug spray, hand sanitizer, water bottles, snacks and containers, pens, CDs, magazines, books, toys, bags, an umbrella, emergency supplies, first aid kits, toilet paper, Tylenol, napkins, a bucket, a beach towel, a stroller, a baby carrier, jumper cables, and more!

What do you have in your minivan or car? Is yours as clean as a whistle, do you have everything under the sun, or are you somewhere in between?

Disney Tips

We had a blast at Disney World! I know some of you are planning a trip to Disney World soon, and others may go sometime in the future. I did a GREAT deal of research before our trip in order to save our family money (does that surprise you?!).

Yes, Disney World can be expensive, but there are many ways to dramatically cut your spending and do Disney on a budget. I'll share some of my favorite tips, and please, if you have more specific questions, leave them in the comments or email me and I will try my best to help. I'm all about helping people save money! :-)

• Tickets--I bought our tickets through UndercoverTourist.com through a special that was run by MouseSavers.com and got them at a great discount. I got 6 days at the parks for less than Disney's price of 4 days. Skip the ParkHopper option--there's plenty to do at each park to keep you busy for the whole day.
• Be "in the know"-- Several months before your trip, sign up for the newsletters at AllEars.net and MouseSavers.com. These often give insider ticket deals, people write in all sorts of tips that are helpful, and they have updated lists of scheduled ride closures.
  
• Food--Bring PLENTY of snacks into the parks. The kids were hungry about every 5 minutes! We realized it was because they were doing SO much more walking than normal and expending a lot of energy. (FYI-You ARE allowed to bring food and drinks into the parks--they do search bags, but it's not to avoid you bringing food in, it's for safety.) We ate breakfast at our hotel and also packed lunches for every day, which saved us A LOT of money.
• Leashes--I brought "leashes" or child harnesses because I was paranoid about the crowds and losing a kid (we had 7 kids age 5 and under). I used them most of the first day (which was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it was pretty busy), but after that, we only used one on M (the 2 year old who likes to wander), and only occasionally.
  
• Colored shirts--I thought these were EXTREMELY helpful in finding each other quickly. You don't have to go with tye-dye (my siblings weren't big on the tye-dye, but they humored me for a couple of the days), but this was a cheap way to make a large amount of coordinating shirts. They were $2 each for the t-shirts and $20 for the tye-dye kit which dyed more than 30 shirts.
  
• Pre-buy souvenirs--This is one of my favorite tips! You can find Disney merchandise just about anywhere for A LOT cheaper than in the parks. I found several of our sovenirs (including our autograph books) in the dollar spot at Target. My brother bought everyone Christmas ornaments (a family tradition) at Walmart before our trip. Contrary to popular belief, it IS possible to avoid the gift shops! Just be busy going on rides and having fun! If they ask for something, tell them you have a surprise waiting back at the hotel.
  
• Have a plan.....--You likely won't see half as much if you don't have a plan of the top attractions you want to visit. My favorite guide book was Walt Disney World with Kids by Kim Wright Wiley, which gives information about every ride in the parks. She also gives suggestions on which ones to ride first thing and which ones to get fastpasses to ride later.
  
• ...but be flexible--One thing we learned was that everything at Disney World takes a lot longer than you might think, even in the off-season. Even traveling to and from the hotel (we stayed off-site, though close) took a lot of time because the Disney property is HUGE. We found we had to allow at least 45 minutes to get from our hotel to the ticket gates each day (though MapQuest said it'd be a 20 minute trip). One day in the Magic Kingdom, I realized we forgot our camera in the car. Though we were in the front of the park on Main Street, it took me 40 minutes to get to the car and back because I had to walk out of the park, ride the monorail, ride the tram, get the camera, back on the tram, back on the monorail, and walk back into the park!
  

I have pages and pages of tips that I compiled before our trip. What to pack, resources, cheap things to do, attractions not to miss, and more. I'm happy to share these things with you, so just let me know if you want more information! I also have one unused adult ticket to sell--email me for information.

Potty Training While Traveling

Is it worth it to potty train either right before a big trip or even during a vacation? I think it is. Though M seemed ready to start the process of potty training, I seriously considered putting it off until after our 3 week vacation because I thought there would be more setbacks than victories. We decided to start potty training her a few weeks before we left. As with all potty training, there were a few setbacks, but overall she was doing great. We even took a short road trip as a "practice run" a week and a half before "the big trip" and she did really well, not having any accidents in the car.

We brought a potty seat with us, just in case, and we did use it on the short trip. On the long trip we didn't end up using it in the car, but we did use it in our hotel room so she could go by herself. We decided to use Pull-Ups for when we would be in the car for long periods, as well as at night and during our Disney days. Sometimes you are waiting in line for a long time with no bathroom nearby and we didn't want her to be on a ride and have an accident. We did have wet Pull-Ups during the trip, but overall she did great and it still saved us money on diapers. (Not to mention it saved us having to pack as many diapers!)

Mapping McDonald's

When we do road trips, we like to stop at McDonald's along the way because they have playlands so the kids can burn off some energy from all that sitting in the car (what we affectionately call "car butt")!

I discovered a nice resource a few years ago for mapping out which McDonald's have playlands along our route. Go here and click on McDonald's Trip Planner. Type in your addresses and hit submit. They will give you directions that you can print out (like MapQuest), but look between the map and the directions. There's a box that says "Show me the McDonald's along the way" and then I change the drop down box to within 0.25 miles because I want easy-on/easy-off locations. It comes up with a list of McDonald's locations along your route and you can see on the menu which ones have playlands. I mark them on our map so that I always know how much further to the next playland.

Packing List

Before we left on our last trip over Labor Day, I was talking to my friend Sara about all the things moms need to remember when packing for a trip. The list goes ON and ON, doesn't it? I start pulling things together like a week in advance (or more!) to make sure I don't forget anything, and through the week I write a list of last minute items I don't want to forget. And even so, as together and organized as I try to be, in the past I've forgotten things many times.

Sara said she has typed up a list of things to pack on her computer, and every time she is getting ready for a trip, she prints out the list and then crosses things off once they're packed. Put everything on there. You can always cross it off if it doesn't apply this time.

WOW! This might not be a new idea to you, but I thought it was sheer genius--don't rewrite your packing list each time, just print it off! Thanks so much Sara!

Not for the faint of heart. . .

Do you have a plastic ice-cream bucket laying around? Do you have one in your freezer waiting to be emptied? If not, go buy yourself a bucket of ice cream. Why, you ask? Well, you asked. . .

I keep an ice-cream bucket in our minivan at all times. 99.9% of the time it is filled with miscellaneous things like sunglasses, sunscreen, a bottle of water, etc. It's very useful for keeping things from rolling around on the floor. However, it has another very useful quality, for travel emergencies.

We took an impromptu road trip last week, and we were very thankful for the bucket on our way home. We were driving in the dark, in the country, in the middle of nowhere, when H started complaining of an upset stomach. I asked her if she thought she was going to throw up and she said, I think so! I quickly dumped the bucket of its contents and passed it to her, and she promptly threw up in it. All I can say is I'm so thankful we had the bucket. We've used the ice cream bucket several times for this purpose, because we know from personal experience that cleaning up throw up in a car is NOT pleasant. Need we say more?

The bucket can also be used for an emergency potty seat if needed. Thankfully, due to M's recent potty training, we had brought along our potty seat, so we didn't need to use the bucket for that this time.

Freebies for your Suitcase

Will you be traveling for the holidays? I like to order free samples of products to take on our vacations. They're usually just the right size for packing, and hey, they're FREE!

Here are some ideas of travel-related freebies. If there is a hyperlink, that means there's one you can request right now!

Deodorant
Lotion
Shampoo and Conditioner (and here)
Toothpaste and Toothbrushes
Razor
Feminine Products (and here)
Laundry Detergent

Another source for free travel items is the trial size section at the store. I blogged about getting free (or better than free) travel-sized items (like Shout wipes, detergent, and toothpaste) here.

My favorite places to get free samples from are Walmart and Freegrabber. You can subscribe to Freegrabber in a reader so that you will get notifications of any new samples out there. Save them throughout the year and you'll be all set for traveling!

What free samples do you take when you travel? Do you have any other travel tips to share or questions to ask? I'd like to do more posts on this subject with the holidays coming up. Let me know what you'd like to see!