Staying Home Sawyer

Real Life Living on a Real Life Budget

DIY, Holidays!

You’ve Been Booed!

This year I’m not going to be left behind. And I’m not going to let you be left behind either. So here’s your friendly reminder to MAKE YOUR BOO BASKETS NOW!

Last year our neighborhood did the whole ‘you’ve been booed’ thing as usual, but last year we were one of the last ones to be BOOed. This left me scrambling to come up with stuff to put in another Boo basket (and also with not many options as to who to Boo next). Everything Halloween sells out so quickly, so get your start on it now!

Print these files for your baskets, and voila! You’re done. Now you can relax for the rest of the season…

Click here for the “You’ve Been Booed” door sign.

Click here for the “You’ve Been Booed” letter.

Click here for the “Hey Boo” print.

Birthday's

In N Out Birthday Party

It’s official! Quinn is ONE! I still haven’t even blogged about her birth story but hey, all in good time, right?

If I’m being honest, I’ve been mentally planning this In N Out (or shall we say, “QuIn N Out”) party for years. I just never knew what the special occasion would be. When we did an In N Out theme birth announcement for Quinn, I knew then when I’d get to use it!

Our family frequents In N Out at least once a week, so going with the themed birth announcement, and then continuing the same theme throughout her monthly milestone photos was right on par with our family.

But how to do a little twist on the classic red and yellow colors? Make it pink of course! So after enlisting the help of my creative friend, a mood board was born.

We put a little twist on the traditional In N Out placemat by changing the burger story to a Quinn story, complete with all the details about this newly one year old!

I knew we had to have custom cookies for this party, and I’m so glad I ordered them. Look how cool they turned out!

My friend does custom acrylic pieces, so she made this custom cake topper that really tied it all together!

I used felt to hand-sew hamburgers and toppings, along with french fries that we served out of the little playhouse in the yard. We got some extra wrappers from In N Out so they could serve them up in the right way!

I also handmade the giant Q pinata, and put a little spin on the classic fringe by bunching together tissue paper instead of using a fringe cutter.

I printed out burger outlines on cardstock, filled little bins with all kinds of craft materials, and let the kids fill in each topping with the corresponding color crafts to make a ‘craft’ burger.

We also had shirts made that had our In N Out orders printed on them! Those were probably one of my favorite things about the party, but we didn’t get any great photos of them!

DIY, Holidays!

Easy Fourth of July Crafts

If you’re in the same boat as me, you want to be crafty for all the fun holidays, but you run out of time to actually be crafty. So I’ve got you covered. Here’s a few fun crafts that won’t take you too much time, too much money, or too much of your sanity.

Craft #1

Deck out your sparklers with this easy, cheap project. Simply print this page, cut out the stars, and tape the sparklers to it. All you’ll need is cardstock, tape, a glue stick, and a little string. If you want step by step directions, watch my Instagram reel here.

Craft #2

Painted stars. These are as easy as they look. Just grab a pack of wooden stars (I found mine on clearance 3/$1.50 at Target), some paint, and go to work. I also sprinkled some glitter on them when the girls were done painting them. Pro tip: let your kids use their fingers. It’s more fun than paintbrushes. If you want step by step directions, watch this Instagram reel here.

When they were done painting them, I just cut their initials out of cardstock and used a glue gun to adhere them. Then I used them as place settings at a little ‘party’ we had for the Fourth.

Craft #3

This one is for you mama, or maybe older kids. Fourth of July bracelets! You could make them with whatever words you’d like to personalize them. These are the beads I ordered off Amazon, but you could order any clay beads. If you get into making these bracelets for every occasion like I have, you will need extra letters too, here’s the pack I ordered.

These are really easy to make. The elastic comes with the bead set, just string the beads on in any order you like, and double knot the elastic when you’re done. To make them even sturdier, I added a tiny dab of super glue to the knot when I was done!

Travel

Maui with Kids

Listen. Traveling with kids is not easy. I’m not here to tell you it is. Or to tell you if you just do xyz it’ll be so much easier. Quite honestly, it’s a lot of work. But since we all work hard every other day of the year, why not work hard on a beach in Hawaii, amiright?

My husband was a little more hesitant than I was to take our 8 month old and 4 year old to Maui. He reasoned it was just going to be so hard, and we wouldn’t enjoy ourselves at all. I’ll get to the part that he was right about later. For now, lets just enjoy these memories, shall we?

My feelings on traveling with my kids is this: I stay home with them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I’m always with them. They’re always a lot of work. I love these munchkins to death, but man by the end of the day, I’m exhausted. So why not be exhausted in Hawaii? While I can enjoy a little time on a gorgeous beach? And my children can have a life experience of swimming next to sea turtles? Or pushing elevator buttons like mine still talks about. You know, it’s the little things…

First things first, you need to make sure you have all the flight essentials for kids. Check out this reel on Instagram highlighting lots of fun stuff you can grab from the Dollar Tree. We also make sure we have plenty of snacks. When you think you have enough snacks, make sure you grab even more. You’ll never have enough.

Next, before you leave for vacation, you need to prepare. Matching swimsuits are a must. Some of our favorites for the girls are Sunguard Swim – they have so many cute matching suits. And we also had to have a mama & me matching set too, this trip we got them from MooRoo Swim.

We have been staying in an Airbnb in Kihei and we love the location. There’s a beach across the street and several restaurants right next door to the complex. We love that we can just walk to everything we need. There’s a convenience store a few doors down as well that carries just about everything. The one we stay in is small, but this complex has so many available of all sizes. There’s a pool for the kids, but we’ve only been in it once during all of our trips, because: beach.

Tips for Traveling to Maui with kids:

  • Bring an umbrella stroller if you have toddlers/babies: It’s so much easier to get them around, especially because you will have lots to carry to the beach.
  • DON’T bring your car seats. We never travel with our good car seats, and instead opt for renting them from the car rental place. This year, we did bring along a foldable booster seat for Sawyer that we borrowed from a friend (to save $$$). We never travel with our own because they get so beat up in the airplane, and we don’t want ours ruined.
  • Make sure your Airbnb has beach essentials: chairs, umbrellas, coolers, beach toys. If not, grab them at Walmart when you arrive and get groceries.
  • We also brought a pool float and some small beach toys with us in our suitcase. We grabbed a bucket and some sand toys at Walmart.
  • Right next to the airport is a Walmart, Target, and a Costco. Plan accordingly upon arrival to stop there and grab all the groceries you’ll need. I planned meals ahead of time and had a list ready to go, we were in and out of Walmart in 30 minutes. Side note: plan meals ahead. Food is expensive in Hawaii and anything you can bring with you is a good idea (think pasta and dry meals).
  • Bring lots of sunscreen and hats. We also opt for long sleeved swimsuits because the chances of them getting sunburned is much less. Nothing ruins a vacation like a horrible burn on the first day.

Things to do in/near Kihei:

  • Cinnamon Roll Place: Trust me. Get in the line, and get frosting. Their lattes are good too.
  • Monkey Pod: It’s just a short drive away. The burger is amazing, but it’s the Mai Tais that they’re known for. Bonus if you’re not the sober driver that night (plan ahead mamas).
  • Beach Street: It’s a little walk up shop that has everything from coffee to shakes, shave ice to acai bowls, and even breakfast/lunch sandwiches. Everything we tried, we loved.
  • Safeway: This is going to seem a little weird, but every night we got poke from the Safeway deli in Kihei. We ate it while watching sunset on the patio, and it was heavenly.
  • Maui Fish’n Chips: They have amazing fish ‘n chips! But the poke isn’t as good as the above mentioned Safeway.
  • Prison Street Pizza: This is NOT in Kihei, it’s in Lahaina, but it is 100% worth the drive (or just schedule a little day trip and have it while you’re there). It’s great pizza, New York Style, and it rivals the pizza we’ve had in Manhattan. Something else that’s a bonus: It’s not expensive! Yay for affordable meals in Maui.

Tips for Beach Days with Babies:

  • Lots of hydration: if they’re nursing, you’re in luck. If not (as our case), extra bottles. If they are old enough, lots of water bottles too. Ours likes to suck on the bottle itself, especially if it’s cold and coming out of a cooler.
  • Depending on age, pouches with pureed fruit.
  • Watermelon, strawberries, or blueberries (mashed).
  • Bring one of these pacifiers to add ice (or fruit) to. It will keep them hydrated.
  • We brought this portable high chair with us. It’s definitely a cool thing to have, but we didn’t end up using it as much as I had hoped (to make it worth packing and bringing with).
  • Just remember they will need to sleep a lot, so either be prepared to bring them back up to your condo, or hopefully they’ll nap right on the beach!
  • Remember that they’ll eat sand. Lots of sand. Don’t stress, it’s normal and all babies do it.

Sea turtles are everywhere in Hawaii. The first time we visited I remember making a list of the top beaches I’d be most likely to see ONE, without realizing I would probably see a couple every single day. This beach across from our condo is no different. At least 3-4 sea turtles swim by every day, just floating around the swimmers. It’s so fun for the kids to experience.

We vacation to sit at the beach. We don’t spend our days running from one adventure to the next, and our kids get to just relax. That’s what vacations are for right? Remember that your kids don’t need fancy things to have good life experiences. Just being in Hawaii is an experience, and one that they’ll treasure for years to come.

If you visit Kihei in the early Spring, you’ll also get to see a LOT of whales breaching. All day long they breach off the coast, and then towards dusk they come in closer.

I know Quinn won’t remember this trip, but she’ll always have these photos of her and her family enjoying Hawaii and spending this time together. For my mama heart, there is nothing more important.

The longest trip is the one going home. But now we are patiently awaiting our next trip! And for those of you who were still waiting to find out what my husband was right about, you can breathe now. He wasn’t right about anything. 😉