Bed Tent and Other Stuff

We've been busy thinking about our upcoming trip to Disney World...soooo excited! And we like to think of ways to make our trips easier. Sometimes that's packing breakfast foods and snacks, or vaseline for the feet to cut down on blisters, or bright bag tags to help identify our luggage at the claim, or larger sunshades for the strollers. A couple weekends ago we went camping and I got to thinking about putting Madeleine down for naps and bedtime in the hotel and it would be great if she could have her own place where we could not be seen for awhile...thus I came up with the bed tent idea. I wasn't sure what was out there commercially, but when I came home to search online I found plenty. However, most of them were twin size. And the beds at our resort are Doubles. And at 55 dollars I started saying..."I can make that". (Which is what happened last year with the stroller sun shade)

So, two sheets at 2.19 from the thrift store, a fitted sheet we already had at home, and tent poles from an old tent and voila...I give you THE bed tent. Yeah, it's not princess themed like the ones online...BUT it has a real cotton sheet instead of nylon and since my kid didn't see the princess one first she doesn't know the difference.









Now we are notorious for packing light, so packing this baby up might not be that fun...BUT it's just a couple sheets really and 2 tent poles. So, it's worth it. I think I'll make a bunch of bloomers like these ones I made and that way I'll cut down on clothes space.

For those of you that may be travelling by plane soon and want to avoid the terrible luggage fees that most airlines are now implementing may I suggest mailing a package to yourself or using an online store to ship goods to yourself. One in particular I was going to use is http://www.drugstore.com/. I found everything we needed - diapers, wipes, snacks, toothpaste, sunscreen, baby food, and a few other things for around the same price as I might buy it here, and free shipping over 25 dollars. I could have it shipped to my resort and not have to worry about packing that stuff, or paying the resort price to buy it. They sell travel sized toiletries too, and since I was going to buy it anyway, I figured "Hey, it's extra space in my bag!". Most of it I wouldn't need to pack back either. However, Alaska Airlines only charges for 2nd bags, and since Madeleine has a ticket, we can take 3 bags for free. Like I said, we're light packers, I'd rather just have 2 bags, but we decided that on the way there we can check a box with all our diapers and baby food and snacks in it and get rid of the box on the way home. With Disney's Magical Express we don't have to do much baggage handling, so it's really not a biggy. How about carrying on our luggage? Well, we used to ONLY do that till we had kids. It's a bit tougher with 2 little ones. Someday I'm sure we'll go back to that.

For the grandparents that might be reading...here are a few pictures. Madeleine actually woke up one morning this past week and told me that her and Annora needed ponies in their hair. And then after I put them in she sat down and said, "picture for grandma"...that would be what my mom is teaching her :)

Maddie is getting to be such a big helper! She loves feeding Annora her food. Unfortunately on this day it was bananas, and during the night Annora had a barf fest. Pretty sure she is allergic to bananas. Who is allergic to bananas? So...we're sticking to peaches and peas and watermelon.