Tag: labor day weekend

Nanny Approved Travel Tips

Published on by clairebooherLeave a comment

We want to wish everybody a happy and safe Labor Day Weekend! As many of us will be traveling, we’d like to help you prepare for long journeys with your little ones.

Road Trips

Travel during nap time or bed time: Let your child fall asleep in the car and enjoy some much needed peace on your journey. Even consider letting your child wear their pajamas and bring their favorite stuffed animal.

Have plenty of snacks and a lunch plan: Always make sure to have your children’s favorite snacks in the car. Let them pick out what they would like so they know what snacks are available. Planning ahead for lunch can avoid a lot of headaches when everyone is hungry and you are desperately looking for anywhere to stop. Even if you pack sandwiches and stop at a road-side stop, make sure your children know that is the plan.

Screens and car sickness: While it can be tempting (but effective) to give your child their tablet on a road trip, it can also cause motion sickness. If you are bringing any kind of device, make sure your child takes breaks to look up from their screen and avoid nausea. Or avoid screens all together and let your child listen to their favorite music or find a podcast. HERE are some great children’s podcasts to enjoy! (NOTE: Looking down to read can also cause serious motion sickness. Choosing an activity that allows your child to look out the window is always best.)

You’re going to stop more than you think: While we can all plan and prepare, little kids are unpredictable. They need to go to the bathroom more than us. If you are nursing, you will need to stop to safely feed your baby. If you are trying to reach a destination by a specific time, be sure to give your self lots and LOTS of room for stops.

Don’t forget about the road trip games: We all have our favorites whether it be the license plate game or the alphabet game! Pick up some Mad Libs from the store and enjoy the silliness. HERE is a great list of games to play in the car that can involve the whole family.

Air Travel

Set expectations: Airports are very overwhelming for adults let alone children. Make sure you explain to your little ones what they can expect. Let them know if you are taking a shuttle bus. That they will have to go through security and remove their shoes. Also explain to them the rules on the airplane. It is important they fully understand the pilot and flight attendants make the rules and everyone, even adults, must follow them.

Let them explore: There will be plenty of time to sit still when children are on the plane. While you are waiting for take off, walk around the airport. Let them stretch their legs and potential burn off some energy. Austin International Airport has expanded to include a Toy Joy store, a Lego vending machine, and other fun activities.

Bathroom Breaks: Using bathrooms in an airport terminal is always a must. Airplane bathrooms are tough. If you have children who are in the middle of potty training, the airplane is not the place to practice. Let your toddler ride in a diaper to avoid some extra stress. For older children, always be sure to go before getting on the plane, halfway through the flight, and once you land.

Airplanes can be scary: Airplanes are incredibly noisy and can be a shaky ride. For little ones it is a good idea to bring some noise cancelling headphones to help deal with the loud noises. It’s also a good idea to have your child bring something to comfort them if they get scared, like a favorite stuffed animal or blanket.

Airplane Activities: The most important things to remember about airplane activities is to avoid toys that cause a mess. If your child likes to color, bring coloring books and crayons, not makers. Use sticker books that have reusable stickers. There are also some great activity books for flying. And for your fidgety little ones, load up on fidget toys!

Traveling with littles ones is always stressful. But preparing ahead can help take some of the stress off of you and off of your children. We hope everyone has a very happy and safe Labor Day weekend!

Pinballz Arcade Lake Creek

Published on by clairebooherLeave a comment

If you are looking for an activity to escape the heat this Labor Day weekend, try a trip down memory lane to Pinballz Arcade!  Pinballz’s Lake Creek location has expanded from their namesake pinball machines, to an epic play zone with go-kart racing, ax throwing, bowling and other awesome activities.  You will probably enjoy this place as much as your kids do!

Getting to Pinballz Lake Creek is pretty simple.  It is tucked back from the highway, but very easy to get to and find parking.  Once you get inside, you are pretty much left to your own devices.  Kiosk machines line the front where you can get your gaming card for the day.  If you want to do the go-karts or any of the other larger games, you do have to sign up with someone.  Otherwise, you are on your own! 

All of your standard arcade games and pinball machines are to the left of the entrance in a bright colorful line!  It may be hard for you or your kids to keep your focus with all the bright lights beckoning you to each game.  A lot of the games you can play with your kids, which everyone gets a kick out of.  If you’re a competitive parent, you might need to continuously tell yourself, “It’s only a game.  It’s only a game.”

Past the first round of arcade games is the eating area.  It is nice and spread out.  It is easy to move tables for the size of your group.  The food is standard concession stand food.  It is not good or bad, and it keeps you full.  One nice accessory I have always appreciated about Pinballz, is the cup holders at every single game! 

If you really want to be nostalgic, past the eating area is a large cluster of classic arcade games like Asteroids or Galaga.  It is pretty cool to see what old school games they have collected.

Tips:

Cost  The nostalgia of playing arcade games comes with the cost of playing arcade games.  Remember as a kid your parents would give you some money and tell you not to spend it too fast?  Then the money was gone in about 15 minutes!  Pinballz is unfortunately not immune from the arcade money vacuum.  Every so often they have deals with two hours of unlimited playtime or half off games.  But every game play cost money, and they don’t have an unlimited gaming card like Dave & Busters or Chuck E Cheese.

Meeting Spot  Pinballz at Lake Creek has gotten huge over the past year.  Even before they added their go-kart racing, it was hard to keep track of little ones running by arcade games.  The large eating area is where most parents set up camp.  It is a good idea to stake out your meeting place before you wind up the kids and let them go!

Food and Drink  No outside food or drink is allowed at all!  I walked in with a Gatorade bottle and they made me throw it away.  There is pretty good food and drink to buy.  But don’t expect to bring water bottles or snacks for the day.

So should you make the trip to Pinballz Lake Creek?

0-3 (Proceed with Caution)

Pinballz Lake Creek does have a really nice play area for the smaller kiddos.  The games are their size and easy to navigate.  It is only one little section in a giant area.  While they can definitely accompany their older siblings and have a good time, outside of this little area there isn’t a lot for this age group to do. 

3-6 (go now)

While this age group may also be too small for a lot of the activities, there is still plenty for them to do.  Lots of games for them to try or lots of claw machines for them to get frustrated with.  This age group will have a blast!

6-10 (go now)

Head to the bank, pull out that pesky retirement fund and go!  These kids will be in heaven!  They can do so much throughout this whole area.  They can do almost every single activity available.  They might have to wait a while before they can do ax throwing, but most parents are okay with that.