Road Trip from New Jersey to I-95 South

Our family of 5 including our 9 month old baby boy, went on a road trip for spring break 2014 to  Outerbanks, N.C., Orlando and to Savannah. It was pretty much a 2 month preparation.
Here are some money saving tips, so your family vacation won't empty out your wallet :)

Booking the hotels through expedia.com a month and a half prior to date will save you a couple of hundreds. I recommend a hotel that has a breakfast buffet, (embassysuites.com) so you can have brunch at the same time and you will have more time to roam around.
Booked a mini van through budget.com You will save more if you choose " local rates". I needed a minivan, cause our 7 seater SUV, will be to cramped up from all of our stuff. With the mini van, I had enough leg space, while taking care of our baby  in the back seat !
Bought the theme park tickets through disney.com and universal.com on the week before  the travel, so we can skip the long lines at the parks and the credit card bill will reflect for the following month :)
Bring packs of bottled water, juice and soda.. and snacks. You are allowed to bring it inside the theme parks anyways... And you won't have to spend $8 for soda !
Ponchos !! you can definitely get it from local dollar stores instead of paying $7 for one. It will definitely be of great use.. Which we actually did use for 2 days, due to scattered showers in Orlando.
Stop by the Visitor Centers for all your destinations, you can easily get some coupons for Trolley tours which we used Oglethorpetrolleytours.com in Savannah, GA. Wrights Brothers museum discounts in Outerbanks, and Gatorland discounts.

For the kids entertainment.. And the parents sanity .. Here's a list of things I found helpful for our travel.

1. portable DVD player for the backseat.. And don't forget to rent a couple DVD's from redbox which is available all over. It was really convenient to find several gas stations along the way.
2. Tablets, iPods , diary of a wimpy kid book series.
3. During the trip, we asked our 10 & 9 y/o boys to have electronic free time and played a game of searching for license plates we rarely see in the east coast.
4. Frisbee for the beach
5. Flashlights/ wands for the theme parks and was used for ghost crab hunting at night on the beach of Outerbanks.

Overall, our trip was not stressful as I thought it would possibly be, with all preparations ahead of time you will enjoy your trip one day at a time!

First Birthday Party Ideas

The baby of our family will be turning 1 in 4 months.. I am already getting a head start in planning his first birthday celebration. I know he wont remember a single bit of this significant milestone, but I still want it to be as memorable as it could possibly be.

I have been showing some ideas to my husband, who thinks its pretty cool, were planning it early. He even pitched in the idea of a carnival themed party, so we can have cotton candy to snack on.

one thing for sure, its going to be outdoors cause its in July. A backyard party is great! - no struggle to disinfect and clean up the house. 

Jacob's Minecraft party

My boys have been so obssessed with the Minecraft game for a while now.. Jacob requested to have a Minecraft themed party to celebrate his 9th birthday... 

"Ghast Piñata"

18" x 18" box

white tissue paper

glue

filled with chocolates, toys, rubberband looms, candies, and paper fillers.

"enderman head"

18x18 box

black & purple construction paper

glue

"Creeper Balloons"

green balloons

sharpie

"Minecraft Cupcakes"

Go to printable minecraft cupcake toppers.

popsicle sticks

glue

Creeper Pail - for the utensils

Creeper Goody bags

Creeper water bottle- printable minecraft water bottle labels.

little bundle of joy

Have been in hiatus for awhile., was busy with the addition of our 3rd child. For every life changing experience, we learn to adapt in every possible way .. And hoping on the side to get back to the usual routine. Having a baby after almost 8 years, sets you back a little, but makes you an expert! La lot of worries during the conception, due to high risk issues, but less worries when the baby arrives. Less worries about the babies cries, reflexes and developmental milestones.

It's a lot of fun and stress at the same time,  but it's all worth it, in my opinion. Having a family...and 3 boys, gives me a reason to live :)

Princess Jasmine Birthday Cake

Princess Jasmine as requested by the birthday girl, Sahana, who turned 3. There were only limited choices for Princess Jasmine., this is the best one i got.

Jason's Star Wars cake

thanks to the williams sonoma star wars cookie cutter., i was able to use it to cut it out using marshmallow fondant. I was planning to use sugar sheets for the black color., however, its tough to cut the small pieces., i used the black fondant instead.

Thanksgiving Dessert

Once in a while., we break away from the norms of thanksgiving dessert... my family had the pleasure of enjoying Brooklyn's finest cheesecake from Junior's and a flavorful array of french macaroons from Ladureè in NYC.. no plane tickets needed to get the authentic french specialty :)