From One Mother to Another: Travel with Kids Made Easy

This giveaway is closed.
The winner is Lil' Ms. P from A Mommy Talks.

Thanks to all who entered!

Update:

Meg is the winner of the My Busy Kits giveaway. Congrats!

Thank you to everyone who entered. There was so much interest in this giveaway, My Busy Kits has decided to offer a second person a busy kit of her choice. Therefore, we are extending the giveaway for another week. The second winner will be randomly selected on Monday, October 19.


Good Luck!
When my children were younger we did not take many long road trips. However, now that they are a bit older, we have been traveling more. We try to visit family (11 hour trip) twice a year and take several shorter trips throughout the year, as well.

To keep my kids busy on long trips, I have always packed bags of things for them to do. This usually works well. However, it is one more thing to plan, pack, and unpack. The bags also take up a lot of room in the car, which is a problem when we have already had to pack luggage, toiletries, and food. This is where My Busy Kits come in handy.

If you are not familiar with them, My Busy Kits are compact activity kits for kids. They are filled with all sorts of small toys, games, projects, and activities to keep kids busy on road trips and airplanes, during church services, waiting at restaurants and doctor's offices, etc.

I was recently sent the following Busy Kits to review with my children.

The Airport Kit

Click to see contents.

The Busy Kit for Boys
Click to see contents.

The Busy Kit for Girls
Click to see contents.

I was so excited when these arrived to my house. Not only are they totally fun (and I knew my kids were going to love them), but also because we were about to go on a trip to DC. Now, I wouldn't have to pack any travel bags!

Here's what my kids thought of My Busy Kits...


As you can see, they loved them. And I loved them, too. The Busy Kits kept the kids entertained the entire 3 hour ride to DC, while we waited at restaurants, and on the ride home!

When we returned home, I packed all of the supplies back into the bags neatly and put them away. We will definitely be using them again for our fall trip to the Poconos. Now we are spoiled, we will never want to travel with our Busy Kits.

The founders of My Busy Kits are offering one of my lucky readers her/his choice of one Busy Kit. To enter this giveaway, visit the My Busy Kits website and choose the kit that you would like if you win. Then come back here and tell me about it in a comment. Be sure to leave a valid email address.

For extra entries:

• Follow Keepsmesmiling on Twitter.
• Subscribe to Keeps Me Smiling Blog.
• Follow my blog.
• Subscribe to my blog.
• Tweet about this giveaway and leave your Twitter name in the comment. You may do this once a day.
  

*Please leave a separate comment for each of these that you do.

The winner will be randomly chosen on Monday, October 12 and contacted by email.

Thanks for entering and Good Luck!

Exploring DC

Last weekend we went to Washington DC. Some of our family had come up from Charleston, and we met each other there. It was great to visit with family while exploring a new city.

Day One

We checked into our hotel.

We stayed at Embassy Suites- Washington DC - Convention Center, and I highly recommend it. It was the perfect location. We were able to walk almost everywhere.
The rates were reasonable. Staff was helpful and courteous.
The breakfast buffet was loved by all and FREE.


Then, the kids just HAD to check out the hotel pool.

After some splishing and splashing, we met our family at their hotel for dinner.

Day Two

We went to the National Museum of Natural History.

Our favorite exhibits were The Sant Ocean Hall, The Hall of Mammals,

and the dinosaurs, of course.

The kids had tons of fun in the Discovery Room,
a room for children and families that features hands-on activities using real museum objects.


Here are some of the sites we saw on the walk back to our hotel.

The Capitol Building

A really interesting sculpture park.
What do you think...Pizza Cutter?

Then we had dinner at Ella's Wood Fired Pizza. So yummy and kid friendly, too.


Day Three

Breathtaking.
Invokes a sense of peace (even with three littles).
Inspiring.