Spring break is here this week and somehow I missed the boat on this one. It kind of creeped up on me - so needless to say - I don’t have much by way of plans. Once you have a family, a lazy, unplanned vacation becomes a thing of the past.

Nothing is worse and more stressful than a houseful of bored kids. Don’t you just cringe when you hear “Mom, what can I do now? - I’m bored.” Especially when there are only about 500 things on my own to-do list. I would love to hear your parenting tips on managing bored kids - that don’t include tv, Playstation etc.

Anyhow, the point of all this - is that summer is around the corner. And if I don’t get moving then spring break will just repeat itself. Family beach vacations are a fantastic way to keep kids of all ages busy and parents seem to enjoy them too. Maybe I am dreaming a bit too much about sun and surf right now.

The problem is that when it comes to planning family beach vacations, I tend to revisit the same destinations that we have been to before. I am not one for adventurous. So tell me, what places have you found that awesome for family beach vacations? Details, please! Do share your parenting tips!

A good set of travel packing tips is very useful to parents that are traveling with babies and young children. Once upon a time travel packing tips consisted of ticket - check, passport - check, something to read - check, ok - let’s go!

Once baby entered the scene, traveling became a lot more complicated. Between strollers, portable, cribs, diapers, baby food, toys, extra clothes, blankies, binkies - it’s a wonder that parents leave the house at all. I know I traveled as little as possible when my children were under 1 year old. It just wasn’t worth the effort and I usually returned from the trip more stressed out than when I left. So the best of my travel packing tips is - Just Stay Home!

But I know that many of you are more adventurous than I, and truth be told, I did end up leaving the house from time to time. Actually I have become quite adept at packing up a family of six - although traveling is still not my favorite thing to do.

But rather than rely on my travel packing tips expertise, I will point you over to Aruni’s excellent site - Entrepremusings, where she hosts a variety of Guest Baby Tips. If you recall, back in December I had the honor of guest posting my time honored parenting tip about keeping a baby food journal. This month Aruni’s Guest Baby Tip is authored by Maryam Ghaemmaghami Scoble, wife of Robert Scoble of Scobelizer fame.  Entitled “15 Tips for Traveling with Baby“, this month’s Guest Baby Tip outlines some great travel packing tips for parents to keep in mind. Covering everything from necessary baby equipment, to diapers and formula, to airport activities for children Maryam covers it all.

Now that winter break is upon some of us, with others planning vacations during the March spring break, these travel packing tips are very timely. If anything, these tips may just motivate me to leave the comforts of home and pursue some foreign adventure.

Now that spring sports have started, my kids and I spend a lot of time in our family minivan traveling from one activity to another.

My minivan has become a home away from home of sorts. I have learned that I must keep it well stocked so that everyone will remain happy.

The Top 5 things I must have in my Minivan are:

1. Food
   Snacks, snacks, and more snacks
   Because - full kids are happy kids. (One good choice is Cheerios Snack Mix - a healthier alternative than some of the other grab and go snacks)
2. Drinks
   Water, juice, and Gatorade
   Because - hydrated kids are healthy kids.
3. Clean Up Stuff
   Wet wipes, paper towels, anti-bacterial hand cleaner, and several empty plastic grocery bags for garbage
   Because - clean kids and cars make for happy mommies.
4. Sweatshirts and extra t-shirts
   Because - warm and dry kids tend not to complain as much.
5. Stroller
   Because - preschoolers don’t always want to walk or stay put.

This Top 5 post has been submitted to the Top 5 - Group Writing Project at Problogger.net.
Thank you, Darren, for running the project - what a wonderful opportunity to network with other bloggers!