Happy Sunday Everyone! It is so hard to believe that I’m leaving in 9 days and cruising in 10! I am trying my best to keep focused and not go into vacation mode so easily but we will see how that goes. I don’t make any promises though. Today’s topic is very much inspired by me traveling with my daughter next week and I’m hoping this can help some of you.
As most of you know I have a 6 year old little girl. She is my purpose and makes me so happy beyond words. My daughter is the type of girl that sees the world through rose tinted glasses. She is a very naive and pure soul. Her father and I are not together. Our agreement is to split breaks and holidays, rotating yearly. We always have to get creative with holidays to make sure she has the innocent experience that every child is due. It normally results in two of each holiday so she is a very lucky little girl. We’ve written letters to Santa telling him which day she will be with each of us and that she wants to celebrate Christmas with both of us.
This year, her dad has the Easter holiday. I was struggling with when to celebrate Easter with her because during the week this coming week will be so busy with work and finishing touches on packing. Yesterday I had a stroke of genius. I will be picking her up Monday evening after Easter from her dad and staying at an airport hotel that night since we have a 5:45am flight the next day. I’m setting her up to have some Easter fun on Monday night!
The idea that I’m about to explain could obviously work if you were celebrating on the holiday as well. As parents of young children, we still want them to have the magic of waking up to surprises from the Easter Bunny, Santa, the Tooth Fairy etc. I called the Hampton Inn & Suites that I will be staying at and asked if they could assist me with my idea and they were more than happy to help. So I went to the Dollar Tree and bought a smaller box style Easter Box and will be making her basket that way as you’ll see below. These are the components of my Easter Plan:
- Nautical Dress from TJ Maxx: I saw this dress on a clearance rack and I had to buy it. She was a little sad that this ship doesn’t have a formal night so she couldn’t bring her poofy dress. I know that she will love this dress to take with us instead!
- Frozen World Puzzle Book and Mermaid Coloring Book: Kids fly best when they are distracted and have many things to do. Between these adorable books, a couple toys and her tablet we will be set to go.
- Trident Berry Gum: My daughter chews gum properly which is why I went this route. The last thing you want is a kid with bubbled ears on a plane so it is best to have them chew gum or sucking on drink during take off and landing.
- Plastic Eggs: I bought a dozen plastic eggs that I’m going to fill with some dollar bills for her spending money and a couple little treats.
- Letter from the Easter Bunny: This will be handed out at check in to my daughter.
So the letter is going to tell her that I wrote to him and was hoping we could celebrate Easter at the hotel before we left. I’m shipping a box of the basket, eggs and letter prior as I have arranged with the staff. After our room is cleaned for our check in they are going to hide the eggs in our room and place her basket in there for me. I encourage you to never be afraid to call a hotel and ask for help. Working in a hotel I can tell you, we are so excited when we get to do fun things like this. We are in the business of selling an experience and the new Hampton motto is all about happiness.
I will post her reaction on my social handles (twitter, periscope, instagram and snapchat) so make sure you are following @haleewithaflair
Have a great week everyone!
