Tuesday, April 30, 2019

When in Rome





We had 2 full days of sightseeing in Rome before our cruise. We had lost a day of our trip because of the plane delays, so we made sure to make the absolute best of our time. Keeping in mind that we were traveling with 2 small kids, we planned out our days perfectly, Making sure we took much needed breaks, like gelato breaks ha! Because, you know, when in Rome!
 
The kids loved the strawberry gelato the most! Sooo good!
And messy ha! Good thing our Airbnb had a washing machine, because this mama used it! 



Our first morning there, we grabbed a quick breakfast and ate as we walked around the Spanish Steps. Taking it all in before jumping into a taxi to get us to Vatican City. I know transportation is easy to use in Rome as we were told. But we didn’t have much time to experiment and with 2 small kids jumping in a taxi was much easier for us. 



Vatican City!!  It was actually my second time there, I traveled to Italy with family when I was a teenager, and being on this trip with my little family now was soo special. 
This was an experience they will never forget. 


We purchased a tour from trip adviser with City Wonders. A skip the line, guided tour. Which was totally worth it. We met the tour group in front of the Vatican Museum. It was easy to find and our tour guide was so nice. They gave us earphones and a device, that way even if we walked a bit further or behind, we could still hear all the information. We learned so much! I think it was about $300 for the tour. Definitely worth it if it’s your first time. 





The Vatican museums are breathtaking. These pictures don’t do it justice. You NEED to see this all in person.



The tour was perfect for us, it gave us a lot of information but it also moved along fast and had a little snack break in between. My boys always need to eat. I think we were there for about 3 hours. The boys were facinated and didn’t complain one bit. We also went in February, and although there were crowds of people, it wasn’t as busy as their summers. 














Like I said, you NEED to see this in person. I have soooo many pictures of all the beautiful paintings and sculptures. Just unreal. 

We walked through the mueseums and out to St. Peter’s Basilica. The largest church in the world. 

Rome has like 900 churches 👀 maybe more? I’ll google that later haha. But A LOT of churches. MrK was paying attention to the guided tour and he fed me this information 😄


The boys loved the freedom of exploring new things. They were on their best behavior. 😅


The tour guide continued inside the church for a bit then left us to do our own thing. We could stay for as long as we wanted. We almost didn’t want to leave. The beauty and peacefulness of being inside the church was so welcoming. 












From here you could go up the steps to the dome, where you can see the city from above. I did this when I was 16, I remember it so vividly. I went on what it felt like the hottest day ever haha and I was so sick with nausea on my way down (ok maybe that was teenage drama) but anyway, thinking of carrying a 3yo up and down, didn’t feel like a good idea. We didn’t want to over do it with the kids. It was already an early morning and long day. Pushing them to their limits could ruin the experience, you know what I mean haha 


So we came out to the square and went into a few gift shops. Their great grandparents gave them some money to spend in Italy. They used the money to buy 2 little Angel ornaments taking their first holy communion (since this year it’s MrK’s first holy communion) they also bought their grandparents rosaries.💙

We walked around and took many pictures before getting more snacks! Ha! 







We had the perfect weather. 














The kids were awesome! We made sure everyone was hydrated and fed, we took breaks if needed. Bathroom breaks too! We then jumped back into a taxi and made our way back to the Spanish steps! We went back to the Airbnb to put our feet up and freshen up, then made our way back out into the streets of Rome.





More posts to come! 

Yummy Rome dinners, the Colosseum, Trevi fountain and la dolce vita of our trip in Rome.

Have questions on traveling to Rome with kids? Send me a message! Or DM me on my Instagram @aka_mama_t

Thanks for reading! 

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Traveling Europe with kids

Everyone thought we were crazy for traveling with the kiddos to Europe. Actually, I did too when my husband booked the trip 2 years ago! To my surprise, it was pretty smooth and the kids loved this trip! Mr K is 7 and Mr M is 3.

The hardest part of the trip was the 2 flights to get there! The flights were delayed and we ended up losing a day of travel. The kids didn’t care about timelines tho, they were loving the adventure. 


 I will dress them the same for as long as I can haha!




We had a layover in Germany on Valentine’s Day! So this was our valentines dinner, haha yummy!


We downloaded some Netflix videos and their favorite games. They slept a lot on the plane as well. This mama also packed their favorite snacks like goldfish, granola bars, raisins, lollipops. Especially if your kids have any allergies, you know it’s best to feed them products you know are safe. 

Mama  T Tip- bring all sizes of ziplock bags, that way it’s easy to pack unfinished food or separate the treats. The snack size ziplock bags were a life saver! 

Mama T Tip- I put their empty sippy cup in a ziplock bag in my purse. Then once we get in after security, I buy water to fill it up. Years ago I left water in the sippy cup as we went through security, the officer took the bottle opened it up (their gloves all over the bottle and god knows what else they touched that day) it grossed me out so much that I’m now always prepared! Empty all the sippy cups! Unless you have formula or milk for a baby of course, they allow that I believe. 

Travel time from the moment we parked our car in the park nfly to arriving at the AirBNB it was 24 hours! We were exhausted but still sooo excited! 

My husband booked the Airbnb right in the middle of the Spanish steps! It was the perfect location! The kids called it our Italy House. 

It was a 2 bedroom apartment with a kitchen, laundry, 2 bathrooms, dining room , living room and the cutest balcony! 

The elevator itself was soo fun for the kids. 




Seriously! Waking up like this was the best feeling ever! 



The weather was brisk but the sun was so bright and warm. The air was soo fresh and the sky was the bluest sky I’ve ever seen, at least that’s how it felt.


The kids woke up a little jetlag but the excitement was more than enough to get them up and going. 

Check out @aka_mama_t to see more pictures! 












We found a cafe nearby and bought the most delicious croissants. We bought like 4 of them! Plus some paninis. My mouth is watering just thinking of  them haha! I packed some of the left over for the kids as we headed out to sightsee! 










I think I’ll do a post on our meals alone! More of our Italy trip to come! Have a great weekend friends! Have any questions about traveling with kids? Leave a comment or DM me on my Instagram
@aka_mama_t


Friday, April 12, 2019

Catch up

My blog has always been sort of an online album with descriptions of all our memories. I still haven’t decided if I’ll continue on this way or change it up. I do love being able to read back on different stages of our lives and how far we’ve come; hence, growing towards a dream... my 10 years ago self  had many of the things I have today on my vision board! 

Back to being “back” since I missed sooo many months of posting, I’ll quickly add 100 pics below haha!! With short descriptions. Jusssst so I can have them logged here! Haha 
Then the next blog post I want focused on our February family trip. You can see many of the pics on my Instagram too. 

Ok here we go!
August 2018! Baby M turned 3!!!!
 This little 3 year old is full of energy but loves a good cuddle. He’s super sweet and loves singing. Especially Drake songs. Gods plan his fave! 







My birthday is in August too! This year (2018) I had a little weekend getaway with my mom, who shares the same birthday as I, and my sister and aunt! We went to two sisters winery and had soo much fun. I can’t wait to do it again this year! 



This summer we got a boat! Soo many of our weekends and weeknights we were on the water! 










Ok this post might be longer than I thought haha. 

We can’t forget our yearly traditions of camping! 

Last year was even more fun with baby M being older and loving the great outdoors. 






Over the summer we decorated the new home and had many family get togethers. 




We had our thanksgiving day turkey tradition. The kids love making the turkey all together. It’s a whole family event! 







Oh wait, can’t forget that Mr K also started a new school! He was so brave! I was so worried about the switch, but as always he shocked me! He loves his new school. 


Ok where are we. Hmm. Our fam traditions. TFC soccer, great wolf lodge, Santa! Christmas and New Years! 








Kris turned 7!!! It’s been Minecraft everything, everyday! 


Our unfinished backyard has a hill which was the BEST this winter! Soo much fun! 















Great wolf lodge is always so much fun. 


Santa! Haha baby M was still terrified. We all had to sit on Santa. 

Happy New Year! Haha. We hosted NYE at our house and everyone had a blast. 



Winter has been long! And cold! 



As I quickly summed up the last 9 months 🤦🏻‍♀️ I wish I would have blogged each of those moments with more detail! For now I just wanted to get up to date. Although I missed a whole lot! But you try scrolling through thousands of pics haha. Not easy! 

So that leaves me to my next blog post before I get back to regularly posting.

Our 2019 family vacay! 😘😘if you read up until now you are awesome. I’ll be back soon!