My 22 Hour Travel Day with the Boys

Last Monday at approximately 4:15 PM Tae, Eli, and I boarding a flight to Germany.  Said flight happens to be about 11 hours and it was not our final destination.  Needless to say, it was a long day!  I know I am not the first momma to fly with her kids and most certainly not the first to do it alone, but let me tell you, it is quite a feat.  With a husband or without, for 2 hours or for 10 these moms/parents need awards.  Or some form of compensation for services rendered.  How about I just leave my paypal address at the bottom of this post for those of you who feel really sorry for me. :)

But since most of you lucky people don't have to have 20 hour travel days with two kids and no help, I thought I would put together a little post of our experience.  I tried to video as we went along to give you a little idea of our journey.  Tae is a trooper.  He has been flying internationally since he was 5 months old and it is old hat to him.  Eli has also been flying internationally since he was 5 months old.  He, unlike his brother, has a little more of a difficult of a time.  He may or may not have rolled around on the floor at the airport whining and yelling no... at no one.

So there is snippets of our journey.  Sorry the quality is not that great, they were all taken with my iPhone.  I just wanted to capture our travels for something fun to share with you all and also something to have for our family.

I think I am going to follow this post up with travel tips.  One with kids and one without.  Actually the post about traveling without kids would be pretty short.  Take three Tylenol PMs and wake up at your destination.  Not that I have ever done that before...

Any travel questions for me?  Anything you would like to see answered or suggestions given?  I would love to hear them!!

 

Faces

You might have read that I had a little bit of a rough day the other day.  Adjusting to living in another country is kinda difficult sometimes.  I do speak French, but not perfectly and sometimes it is hard and intimidating making your way around.  

But seriously, having my family together, under the same roof (normal for some, but not always for us) makes it all worth it.  

Look at these beautiful handsome faces that make up my family...

my super awesome hubs working his tooshie off for us and always supportive in my craziness

Tae starts school Monday!  Let me tell you, this boy is brave.  He is having to do things that would intimidate adults.  I am so proud of my little man.  He is living in a country not his own, going to school in a language he doesn't know, and trying to make friends with kids he's never met.  And he does it.  With flying colors, I might add.  And no, I don't think my kid is better than yours, I'm just one proud mama that he shines through the hard stuff. 

The Pinterest Linkup is open still! I'll feature some next week, so link up!  It will be up again on Thursday next week, so get those projects, recipes, fashion efforts, hairstyles moving!

I linked this post up to one of my favorite friend's real life linky.  Let's be real, peeps...

Cultivating an Adventurous Spirit in your Kids

As most of you might know, we have arrived in France safe and sound and are trying to make the adjustments needed to feel more at home here.  I have been watching my kids to see how they adjust, espcially Tae because he is more aware of our situation, and honestly they have done quite well.  Tae is already trying his French on our neighbors even though all he remembers from last year is bonjour, ça va and au revoir.

It got me thinking, why is Tae adjusting so well?  Besides me being super mom, of course (HA HA), what helps Tae through our crazy life changes.  He has people back home that he loves to death and misses like crazy and yet, he is happy here.  He still misses them and talks about them, but he is excited to be here.  So how do you cultivate an adventurous spirit in your kids?

Here's what I got for ya:

1.) Travel.  I know that not everyone can travel internationally (we most definitely wouldn't be if it weren't for Lavar's job), but try to think outside of the box.  Do you live close to a major city? Travel to a more intercultural section and try to experience that.  Taste their food, try their language and really try to experience it. If you don't have this opportunity and can't travel, bring it to you!  Pick a day once a month and decide on a culture to experience and have a day of that culture.  It might help broaden your world a bit too!

Train Station in LA

2.) Stretch yourself.  I know a lot people like their little bubbles.  Trust me, I know those people.  The ones that feel sorry for me and my life.  But there is a whole world out there to experience and even if you don't want to experience it, you don't want your kids to be ignorant of it.  Try to stretch what would be comfortable for you to show your kids a little more of the world.

Train Station in LA

3.) Try new things.  You don't have to travel at all for this one!  You can camp in your backyard, try a new resaurant, make a new style of food.  Present it to your kids in a positive, fun way and make it exciting for them and they might be interested in trying it too!

Beach camping

4.) Be Creative.  Let your kids choose something to do.  It might be something you've never thought of but a fun adventure.  Do something you've never done or if you've done it, put a new spin on it.  Google some ideas you might want to try or cheap/free things to do in your area.  Then do it your way.

airport in Madrid

5.) Be Spontaneous.  Surprise your kids after school with a fun, new activity.  Or surprise them on a Friday afternoon by pulling them out of school early and whisking them away to beach camp for the weekend.  Or just go for ice cream, whatever works for your family.  Make it fun!

6.)  Make your own adventures.  For our family, we have a pretty adventurous life which already helps cultivate Tae's (and hopefully Eli's) adventurous spirit.  Some things might be a little too much for your family or you might find that there are some things you want to work towards and that's okay.  Do what works for you.

7.) Have a fun, adventurous attitude.  Kids feed off of what we give them.  If you try to create an adventure but you are not into it or don't want to do it, you're kids will know.  And this kinda defeats the purpose, doesn't it?  Like #6, if it is within what works for you and your family, hopefully you will have a fun, exciting attitude towards it and your kids will too.

So, how do you try to cultivate an adventurous spirit in your kids?  How do you present the world to them?  And coming from a family of experiencing three cultures daily, I hope it's with an open, loving mind!

Favorite from September

I saw this challenge over at The Paper Mama and because {like most mothers} I think my kids are the cutest there are, I thought I would enter.  I recently took this picture on our plan ride home to France when we were stopped in Madrid.  There was a play place in the airport.  Genius.

If you want to check out other links, here's the button.  But if you have seen mine and already think he is the cutest, I totally understand.  :) 

 Happy Weekend!

My 22 hour flight with 2 boys

We did it.  All our stuff {that we need} made it into the suitcases and now we're here. 

So here is a little window into the world of traveling/moving internationally with two small children.  And if you've been reading my blog long, you know that by small, I mean young, because in no way are my kids small.

We left for LAX at 2:00pm Wednesday afternoon.  Four suitcases, 4 carry-ons, 1 car seat, 1 stroller, 2 kids and a momma, we were ready to go.  Well as ready as we could be.

Trying to sqeeuze orselves into an elevator... We almost made it!

So we kinda have a tradition. We check all our luggage in and walk upstairs have have some food and relax before I have to start my awesome journey. My parents always take me to the airport and it's become kinda a thing of ours.  I think it's funny/super awesome that we travel enough to make it a tradtion.

The funniest {well, funny now, looking back} is when we had to go through security. I have two kids who just said bye to their grandparents and weren't happy about it. Needless to say, I was sad too, I like my parents. So I am struggling to get all my luggage onto the security check thing and Eli makes a run for my parents. After running after him, letting him say bye one more time, and then getting back in line, Tae now wants to say bye again. But Grammy and Papi, who have realized at this point it might not be a great idea to be standing by because the boys will keep running to them, had left. So Tae ran to say bye and they were gone. Ok, one person crying

Finally everything is on the scanner.  Computer is taken out, no one is wearing shoes and it is time to pass through.  I go first with Eli.  BEEP BEEP. Whoops, forgot to take out my cell phone "you have to go through again, ma'am."  I had over my cell phone and walk through again.  Phew, we're good. I put Eli down to wait for Tae.

Tae's turn.  He beeps too.  What they heck?  Oh ya, he took my european cell phone earlier and put it in his pocket to have one too.  Tae, hand me the cell phone.  But as I did this, I put my hand through the security again to grab the phone.  "I'm sorry, ma'am, you're going to have to go through again."

"what??  ugh, okay."  So I walk through again, without Eli, hand over the other phone and get ready to go again.  Wait, why is the alarm going off.  No one is even walking through.  What is going on?

"Ma'am, you're going to have to get your kid.  He is setting off the alarm."  I look down and Eli is stuck between the sensor and the pole crying, trying to get his binkie.  Who knows how his binkie got there, but of course it did.  I literally had to drag Eli out of there.  2 people crying.

BEEP BEEP BEEP.  Yep, I beeped again.  I have NO IDEA what set that beeper off, but I do know that it set me off.  Now we are 3 people crying.  wow, all three of us crying within the first 15 minutes, do we get some kind of award or something??

Then nice security man tells me; "Ma'am, we're going to have to pat you down." 

"That is fine, whatever, I just want to get through." I mumble, between sobs.

"Just let her through, Joe, she's fine."

THANK YOU!! 

Then there was a lovely lady who talked to Tae the entire time after when I was trying to get my things and I think it helped him a bit.  She lied to him and told him she would be flying the plane, but whatever.  He'll never know...

Okay, so we made it.  Between loading up all our stuff to make a bathroom run, to breaking the toilet seat covers in the airplane bathroom, we had some experiences.  But all in all, we got on the plane and got ready for the long flight ahead.  That means snacks...

We had a 4 hour lay over in Madrid.  Guess what they had there...

A full on, free play place!!!!!!!!!  The boys were in heaven.  Eli was cracking up and Tae was loving it.  And guess what, I read a little.  I just can't even tell you how special that was.

And so here we are.  Exhausted and still adjusting, but happy.  Happy to be in France.  Happy to see daddy {who had to leave for a game today, BOO}.  Happy to have a new yard to run around and play in.  Also excited for the new opportunities we have waiting for us this year.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers, they were appreciated and most definitely helped.