Tales From a “GREEN” Minivan

Meal plan that is!

Lately I’ve been procrastinating and one thing that’s been suffering is my lack of meal plan. Each week I try and sit down with the grocery store flyers in hand and make up the week’s meal plan taking advantage of items that are on sale. I try and make up a plan to cover 5 nights and tend to wing it on the weekends. Last week I didn’t make a meal plan and everyday at 4:45pm found myself staring aimlessly into the cupboards, fridge and freezer trying to figure out what to make. Two nights I resorted to take out -luckily it was very inexpensive as I took advantage of some coupons and deals that were on but it’s something I want to stop doing. Not only can it be pricey, but it’s unhealthy too!

My pantry, freezer and shelves are not bare, but I can’t seem to pull it together last minute. My friend and co-worker Helen and I were discussing this last week and she mentioned she was going to do up and emergency meal box- maybe some pasta and a jar of sauce with some frozen meatballs in the freezer, so on these chaotic days when the meal plan is not working out then you’ll have something you know is there.

Tomorrow I’m going to roast a turkey in the morning and try and plan some meals for the rest of the week around that. I know there’s some great leftover turkey recipes in the Main Dishes section of Canada Cooks that I’d like to try out.  Wish me luck as I foresee this as another busy week for me!

I said to the kids that all I wanted for Christmas was to have some really great family photos taken of all of us at the resort. I’m 99% of the time the one that’s behind the camera so I was hoping to be in a few pics as well.  I’m so happy that we decided to do this and the photos turned out great and it was very economical to do. We only had to pay for the prints that we bought ($10 for 8x 10) and there was no sitting fee. So for a mere $100 we got some beautiful memories to last a lifetime!  I can’t wait to scrapbook them! Maybe this is just what I needed to motivate me to delve into the Digital scrapbooking world!

Here’s the link to the entire gallery slide show:

Barcelo Maya Beach Resort- Christmas 2009

It was so funny after the shoot we noticed this sand/snowman about 20 feet from where we had our photos taken on the beach!

We even had perfect strangers want to capture a few shots of us on our Christmas attire after the shoot!  We great memories we’ll have forever now, I’m so happy we did this!

After a few days of lousy weather we were able to spend some more time at the beach. Because it cools down in the evenings, the water in the pools is quite cold, so we have preferred swimming in the sea. This morning the boys decided to try out the kids club they offer here. Kids 4-12 yrs can go to scheduled activities from 9am- 1pm then again for the afternoon until 5pm and evenings from 7pm- 8:30pm. They met a few kids, but decided that one morning was enough for them and after lunch decided to hit the beach with me while Andrew and Finn napped.

Mackenzie was in a rush to hit the water and forgot to put sunscreen on her back and ended up with her first ever sunburn. Finn seems to be fresh meat for mosquitos and has a few bites, one happens to be right next to his eye and is almost swollen shut, and Andrew has not been feeling 100 % since last night.

After naps we hit the beach again while Mackenzie decided to stay back at our rooms. I’ve been slathering her burn with lots of moisturizer in hopes that it will heal quicker. We did bring her rashguard swimshirt like the boys so hopefully once the sting is gone she’ll want to head back out again. I’m really glad I brought as many swimsuits and swimshirts for the boys as we’re going through them so quickly. I huge thanks to my sister in law Tracy for lending me some my nephews suits as well.

I also picked up some great rash guards and matching hats from Please Mum before we left and they were all on clearance! They have a built-in 50 SPF and are long sleeved, which is great these fair boys, I also loved the green color!

Am I ever glad we flew out when we did as snow is reeking havoc in the major Northeastern Airports! We haven’t watched a lot of TV, but we did happen to catch the weather updates on CNN. Unfortunately the residual effect has been hitting us down here as well, we’ve had two days straight of overcast cool weather and I didn’t really pack for cooler weather, especially for myself. It seems when I was emptying and repacking I forgot a stack of my t-shirts, so I have 3 for 10 days! I did pack some Tide but it takes for ever to dry things due to the humidity. I may have to use the laundry service at the resort.

Even though the weather has been cooler the kids still want to play in the water. One amazing thing about this resort is the kids water park at the Colonial side of the resort. There’s also one at the Palace that we got to check out as well. There’s a train that travels from one side of the resort to the other every 10 minutes. We decided to see the luxury side of the resort called The Palace. I was little nervous as I wasn’t sure if we were permitted to be there as we’re guests of the Beach/Caribe Resort. We hopped off the train and walked up the grand staircase into the lobby. The had a very majestic Christmas tree that towered over 2 and a half stories!

Once we exited the lobby there was a beautiful Gazebo overlooking the beach. I think I’ve seen some photos of this used for Wedding ceremonies, I can see why.

Next we walked over to the kids water park at the Palace and I think it may be gauged more for younger kids than the older ones. The boys really liked the look of it especially the sea serpent! The other thing cool about the Palace is the lounge chairs that are built right into the pool. They would be really nice on super hot days.

We managed to walk through the Palace complex with our olive green wristbands without anyone escorting us out and quickly landed at the Tropical in front of giant Jaguar, there is also a nightclub here with the same name.

On the way back through we met up with some of the Unofficial Barcelonites that are here vacationing with their families. I was hoping to find a few teens for Mackenzie to hang out with, but that was a bit of a bust. Mackenzie was in a bit of a mood and the other girls seemed to be very shy as well. We stayed and chatted a for a bit until the boys got restless then headed down to the pier to see if we could see any fish.

  After last nights early slumber, the Finn, Liam and Kenz were up before 6 am. Finn rolled over and hit the light switch with his legs and woke everyone in their room. Ciaran was snuggled in with us so he slept in a little longer. Normally getting up this early would be an annoyance but this morning it was a lot of fun as Santa had arrived!

You see Santa was actually taking a vacation too before the Christmas Eve Rush and was also in Mexico! He knew we were going to be here too, so he brought a few things the kids would enjoy in our 10 days here, he explained this in a letter left for us. He brought some inflatable mattresses and tubes, sunglasses, beach toys, sunscreen and Bubba Keg mugs for mom and dad.

After the excitement of Santa, we headed to our first Breakfast buffet then off to the beach. I have to say that this beach is one of the nicest I’ve been too. The water is super clear and the sand is so fine. We were able to walk out very far with out it getting too deep. I got to do a stretching/beginner yoga class right on the beach while Andrew frolicked with the boys at the shore line.

Overall I would have to say this is a great resort, I feel almost like I had a little inside knowledge though as I had frequented a site called the Unofficial Barcelo Maya- insert link here) for a few months before we arrived. This is a site maintained by fans of the resort who have researched the Resort and are frequent vacationers here. We plan to meet up with a few of the members of the site in a couple of days.

It was another early night for the boys and after they were asleep Andrew and I took advantage of one of out a la cartes and went to the Bali Hai Thai restaurant while Mackenzie stayed up and kept an eye on the boys. We took one of our two-way FRS radios with us just in case she needed us to come back. Andrew ordered the Pad Thai and I got the Green Chicken Curry and it did not disappoint. I love Thai curries and this one was absolutely delicious! I think Mackenzie would really like it as well, and I may try and take her later in the week as well.

We booked family photos for afternoon of Christmas Eve and that evening the Spanish a la carte restaurant for the whole family. The buffets have been great but it’s nice to try some new foods as well.

Once again what could have been a real negative turned into a positive. I arranged for a wakeup call for 4:45am so we could catch the 6am shuttle from our hotel to the airport. The shuttle drops you off at the P4 terminal then you have to take an AirTrain (a monorail type train) to the departures terminals. We managed to get everyone up and down to the lobby by 6am, but the shuttle was full! The front desk clerk saw the urgency in my face and called a taxi for us and told them to get here fast! I started to panic again when it took almost 15 minutes to arrive. Our driver was the best, he told me that we’d get there before the shuttle as he was going to take us directly to Continental Airlines departures.

We arrived there and time was still tight as we had to have our passports verified. I took one look at the line and felt like hyperventilating again! We got to the end of the line and the agent asked us what flight we were on and they moved us up to the front of the line! The next thing I knew we were through security and on our way to the gate! Getting through security was much quicker today since the kids were all wearing slip on shoes.

The flight from Newark to Cancun was uneventful, Finn slept for about 2 hours, Liam played the inflight games, Mackenzie watched some shows and we all enjoyed some breakfast. Once Finn woke up his favourite part of the flight was the turbulence! He kept giggling, “More bumps, more bumps!” About half way through the flight the flight attendants passed out the Customs and Visitor info cards. I think it took me close to the rest of the flight to complete all 6 of them!

We arrived to a sunny 30 degrees in Cancun, we cleared Customs pretty quickly once we realized the the line entitled Express, was not so express and got into another line. Once through Customs you enter what I’ve heard referred to “The Hall of Sharks”. There are time share representatives, tour excursion sales people and others are trying to sell their wares. I knew about them and was told to keep walking straight through as all of the ground transportation was on the other side.

We found the representative from Trafictours who told us they were waiting for another family from our flight also staying at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort. I was really pleased when I heard this as I had read that using the the airline transportation can cause delays getting to your resort due to many stops on the way. A few minutes later we were in the van and our driver told us he didn’t mind stopping at 7-Eleven for some snacks or Walmart for Sunscreen etc. We stopped at 7-Eleven but I didn’t want to hold up the other family by stopping at Walmart too. I would have liked to as Ciaran has 3 huge canker sores and I would have liked to stopped at the pharmacy there. Can you believe there was no pharmacy/drug store anywhere inside the Jersey Gardens Mall, I think whoever opened one would make a mint being so close to the airport.

We arrived at the resort just before 3pm and other than a little mix-up with not getting our keys, we were pleasantly surprised we got our requested connecting rooms. One room has 2 queens beds and the other is a king-size bed. Our room is located close to the buffet and theatre and not far from the pools and beach. We explored around around while we were waiting for our luggage to be brought to our rooms, found the playground and the kids water park. We grabbed a bit to eat at Captain Morgan’s Grill and Liam was so excited about the bacon wrapped hotdogs, two of his favourite foods wrapped into one!

Room 1:

Room 2

After dinner (and after dark) we hit the kids water park and the kids played until it started to pour. Exhaustion soon set in and they were out by 6:30 pm! Which gave me time to execute my secret plan. Here’s a sneak peak:

They day before we left I decided that the easiest footwear for the boys would be their Crocs. They were pretty grimy from a summer of use so I wanted to wash them. In the mad dash out the door after finding out our flight was cancelled they got left behind sitting on a towel on the kitchen counter. The only other footwear we packed for them was their hiking boots for while we’re in New York City. Hiking boots on the beach not so good!

We knew our primary mission when we arrived in Newark was to get checked in at the Country Inn & Suites and then get to the Jersey Gardens Outlet Mall to find some Crocs for the boys. We really like the County Inn & Suites chain as we can book one room that will accommodate us all. We dropped off our 4 BIG bags in the room and we walked over to the mall.

Have you ever tried to buy summer footwear in the middle of December? People looked at me like I was crazy! Have way through the mall we found a pair on clearance for $9.99 that would fit Ciaran, and desperation set in as I would never have bought these normally. My BIL’s will get a kick out of these:

Then just as were were about to give up we found a pair for Liam and Finn, we had to pay full price for these ones, but I was just happy to find something! Finn’s are bright rubber ducky yellow and Lima’s are a newer style two-tone navy and turquoise. Phew..crisis averted again!

Sometimes even when you plan months in advance the slightest little thing can throw everything off. I personally prefer to travel last minute as I’m a bit of a procrastinator and even if I book something months in advance I wait until the last minute to get things completed. This trip was actually fairly stress free, and everything was falling into place until my phone rang at 11pm just as we were headed out the door to head to Halifax for our 6am direct flight to New York City’s JFK Airport.

I think my heart skipped a few beats when I heard the words “Your Flight scheduled for tomorrow morning has been canceled!” After I stopped hyperventilating I contacted American Airlines and they assured me that they could reschedule us with Air Canada, but the problem was that Air Canada does not fly into JFK Airport they would have to route us through Laguardia or Newark Airports. When I heard this I was actually quite happy. One stress I had was that we were booked into JFK, but the next leg of our trip to Cancun was leaving from Newark Airport. These two airports could not be any further from each other than they are. I had already arranged transportation via limousine, which would have been fun for the kids, but a flight landing in Newark would be much more appealing after travelling all night! I contacted the limo company to see about rescheduling for the return portion of our trip (they have a 24 hr cancellation policy) and they happily agreed.

After this initial hiccup even thought things were not going as planned they were falling into place. Instead of a direct flight to JFK arriving at 8am we were now flying from Halifax via Toronto and arriving in Newark around 2pm. As soon as we got on the road towards Halifax around midnight we saw why the flight from American Airlines did not land! Who would have thought thick fog would be a weather problem in the middle of December, I was much more worried about snow!

We arrived at the Halifax Airport very early for our 7:45 flight, which turned into a blessing as it took the agents almost an hour to get our American Airline tickets switched over to Air Canada flights. After finally getting through security (not an easy feat-Travel Tip for Parents- remember that hiking boots like to set off the security scanners and since they have to be tied they were a pain in the butt) we had a few minutes to spare at the gate and then we were able to board.

We decided to pre-board only because we were using the CARES- Kids Fly Safe Harnesses for Ciaran and Finn and wanted to install them before other passengers arrived as you need to flip the seat tray in the seat behind you to set them up. The kids were really well behaved as as the time started to pass it looked like our 7:45 am flight was not going to be leaving anytime soon. They was some sort of broken part on the aircraft that did not affect the safety of the plane that had to be documented by safety officials before it could be cleared for takeoff. By 10:00am the kids were getting restless as were the many of the adults passengers.

It seems that they are a law that prevents flight attendants from serving anything using the carts in the aisles before takeoff. They did however come around and serve water and a Dairy Milk bar. I can now see why people have been trying to get these passengers rights bills passed. Luckily there were no outbursts but you could see people getting antsy! It was a bit of an inconvenience and the kids were starving, but once we were finally airborne we were able to purchase something to eat. We ended up arriving in Toronto around 11:30 and had a 12:45 flight to Newark, again after clearing security and customs we arrived at the gate just in time for boarding. We we supposed to have a 3 + hour layover at the airport. Andrew always being the optimist said, “Well we could have left on time from Halifax then chased the kids here for 3 hours, I think having the kids seated on the flight for three hours much less tiring after a night with no sleep!” I tend to agree with him!

Well not this kind of white!

More like this…

WHITE SAND!!

We’re going to Mexico for Christmas, more specifically Riviera Maya! Andrew and I have been talking about going away for Christmas  for a couple of years. 2010 will be very busy work wise for him, so it made a lot of sense for us to take advantage of some extended time off around the holidays with the kids not in school. I cashed in some Airmiles to fly us to New York City and then started the  planning.

I love to plan trips, I’m sure in another life I must have been a travel agent. This time was a little different though as I started planning in September. I’m normally planning last minute trips to get a great deal. You need to be frugal when planning trips for a family of 6. We started out thinking we may visit some friends in Grand Cayman and rent a house or house swap with some other friends from our home town. There’s some great sites out there for rental properties like www.homeaway.com and www.vacationrentals.com and I found a few for reasonable prices, but when you add on renting a van for 10 days in Grand Cayman and the fact you’d have to make all meals, it was starting to sound like a lot of work!

When I cashed in my Airmiles I figured getting us to a destination in the US would give us more economical options for travel and I was right! I’ve always been scared away from all inclusives as most don’t cater to larger families like ours and have rooms that can accommodate us all and if they do these family suites are always astronomically priced.I figured getting 2 rooms would be even more costly, but what a pleasant surprise it was actually less expensive to book 2 regular rooms than one family suite. We put in a request to the resort to have connecting rooms so hopefully that will all work out!

The next hurdle was figuring out what to do for Christmas presents. We had already made the decision that we were not going to go overboard this year for gifts. Home renovations this summer taught us a big lesson, the kid : toy ratio in our house is slighty -no heavily off-balanced. The kids will get some gifts while we’re there and Santa is planning on filling their stockings and leaving some beach toys. I gave him a tip that they were all on clearance everywhere at the end of September (another good advantage of planning early).

After our 10 days in Mexico we’ll be staying in NYC for 4 days! The kids love New York City and I can’t wait for them to see that magic of it in the wintertime. I probably would have only stayed for a day or two, but we were at the mercy of Airmiles and booking Holiday travel with them is normally unheard of so we were lucky to get the dates we did.

I hope to be blogging occasionally if I can get a stable internet connection.  You can also follow me on Twitter for quick updates: www.twitter.com/CaraLeaMiller

Yesterday while volunteering at our local Car Seat Safety Clinic, I got to hold a tiny newborn while his mom was busy with my fellow technicians. As I held this little seven pounder it brought me back to when my four were that small.  It seems so long ago that my youngest Finn was a newborn.  He’s quickly approaching three years old, where did the time go?

The first year of a baby’s life goes by so quickly yet when you’re in the midst of it seems to drag along and be never ending. The sleepless nights, teething, extra laundry, back to back nursing sessions and the countless diaper changes all seem like a distant memory now. If you’re in the midst of it all now and are burned out try and remember that you will get through it.  I made it through four times which still amazes me!

So my advice to you don’t rush the milestones with your babies. Enjoy this time with them knowing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Don’t be in a rush to start those solids (many doctors are rushing these too early), or move baby to the next stage car seat (unless they exceed the weight or height limits of course) or don’t think you are doing something wrong because your baby is still not sleeping through the night.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned being the mother of four is that no two babies are alike. They will all do things on their schedule, now is the time to savour those quiet late night feeds and folding little onesies really isn’t that bad at all!  Trust me as your kids grow so do their clothes and your loads of laundry! Take the time to document this first year, take lots of photos and videos and write about this first year of your baby’s life.  I wish I had done more of this with my children.

So did holding that wee newborn give me any pangs for a number five?  Not on your life!  Finn’s name is short for Finn-ished!

Here’s a shot of Finn minutes old and now at almost three.  Believe me when I say the time has gone too fast!  Where did my baby go?