Ahhhhh New York!! I have such a love/hate relationship with you!!! Due to the world being chaos right now and travel restrictions galore here in good ole New York, our usual February Break vacation plans drastically changed. With mandatory quarantines in place for NY residents, and those of us with a huge case of wanderlust having to choose which vacations to keep and which to cancel since now we have to tack on quarantine days as time off from work, staycations are looking more & more appealing to fill those gaps.

Last weekend we headed 45 minutes south of Jamestown to North East Pennsylvania. Home of the Holiday Inn Express Water Park Hotel. Since we couldn’t head south and chill poolside this February, this water park hotel was exactly what we were looking for. We could chill poolside all weekend long while not freezing to death since the fabulous pool was inside. Plus, no mandatory quarantine! 

The Holiday Inn Express North East Water Park is a swim at your own risk water park. This means zero life guards and there isn’t an employee keeping track of how many people are actually in the pool area. So depending on your comfort levels with crowds, this would be your deciding factor on booking your stay! If you look at the photos above, you can see that even on a weekend, the crowd size was less than other popular water parks in the area such as Splash Lagoon. We spent a weekend at Splash Lagoon over the summer and while we did have a blast, the place was more on the packed side! People are definitely taking advantage of such a fabulous local Holiday Inn hotel at a killer price, it’s not overly crowded and for the most part people respected others and kept their distance.

The Holiday Inn Express also supplies towels!!! I always consider this a huge win at any pool. Less things for this mama to lug around.

The pool area opens at 10am and will close at 9pm sharp! So you will have a huge window of opportunity to take advantage of the sweet water park!!! I have a feeling this is why the pool area is never complete chaos. People are in and out all day long at different times! If the pool looks at tad bit people-y, come back later! 

Would we book the hotel again is the question that blew up my Instagram DM’s this weekend. It’s always funny to me that whenever I post resort photos anywhere online, the question people are dying to know is if I would go again lol.... I guess photos can be deceiving and y’all want the real tea! 

The answer is YES!!! We are huge Splash Lagoon fans, and honestly my husband & I feel cheated that we never hit up the Holiday Inn Express Waterpark when my daughter was a toddler! Y’all know how much cash we could have saved?!?! This water park is PERFECT for kids under 12! If your kiddos are not ready for mega slides, book this hotel instead and save yourself some dough! We are actually considering coming back for my daughters 9th birthday in March, that’s how much fun my daughter had. Perfect staycation spot for all of you Western New Yorkers & North West Pennsylvania dwellers!

Anyone else have a child absolutely obsessed with the tooth fairy!!! It literally breaks my daughters heart that she can’t actually meet the tooth fairy. So I’m always trying to come up with ways to make the tooth fairy extra fun and special since she can’t actually meet one of the most mysterious fairies of them all!!! That’s why I came up with the Tooth Fairy Tooth Report, Door Hangers & Envelopes!

Just print when your child’s tooth falls out, or you could even plan ahead and have a stack pre printed! Then let your kiddo fill out all the details, make a cute envelope & hang an adorable door hanger on their door.

​Enjoy :)

Too soon?!?! I can’t help but think of Spring folks!!!! Ughhhh!!! This whole stay at home forever life is driving me insane!!! Usually I’m planning outfits for our February Break escape to somewhere warm, but not this year. Sitting in freezing cold NY thinking of spring and summer days it is!!!! #FirstWorldProblems

I thought it would be fun for the kiddo to color all things spring since coloring has been one of her quarantine hobbies, so we decided to share the fun with y’all!!! Just click on the download links below, print and color away!!!!! 

Just a few short weeks until Valentine’s Day!!! My favorite holiday when it comes to cooking and baked goods. Honestly, I wish Valentine’s Day baking would pick up steam and become just as big as Christmas!!! I just can’t get enough of pink, super cute and girly desserts!!!

Since my Christmas Waffle Iron Cinnamon Rolls werrr such a hit, I just had to make a Valentine’s set with my daughter. So cute!!! So easy to make!!! The best part? Valentine’s Day is on a Sunday this year so these cinnamon rolls will make the perfect breakfast option for the kids!

Serve & enjoy!

Hot Chocolate Bombs are all the rage right now!!! So obviously my lil’princess & I had to dip our toes into the crafting of these delicious things!!!!

Our very first bomb? Obviously we went for Unicorn Hot Chocolate Bombs!!!! So magical looking!!! Almost too cute to melt and drink lol....

To make your Hot Chocolate Bomb look like a fabulous unicorn, just pick up a unicorn cupcake topper kit from Walmart or any craft store and glue the pieces on with the melted chocolate! 

Yes!!! It really is that easy! 

Enjoy :)

Enjoy!

New year new responsibilities right?! Even those little princesses need to do chores! At least in my castle they do!!!

Want to know a fabulous of way to get those little girls excited about helping mom & dad around the house? Print them a super cute and totally glam princess chore chart.

Boom!!

My daughter got crazy excited when I gave her a peak of her Princess Chore Chart! She couldn’t wait to fill
it out and start cleaning! I can only hope this excitement sticks with her.

I just happened to provide a printable download below so you too can get your little Princess excited to help around the house. Just click the link below and fill out the blanks! Then every week come back and print a new one!

You can even get fancy with the Princess Chore Chart and laminate after you print. Then use a dry erase marker for a reusable chore chart! 

Happy Cleaning!!

Valentine’s Day!!! If you have been a reader of mine for awhile, you know Valentine’s Day is my all time favorite when it comes to creating content!! So much pink!!! All the hearts! I just can’t get enough of it!!!

One of my daughter’s favorite smarty pants activities when she was a toddler was lacing cards. I used to spend a small fortune on the Melissa & Doug ones until I realized you can just print your own. Even laminate them if you have a laminating machine. I used to make my hubby print & laminate at work lol... 

So course I had to post a few Valentine’s Day Lacing Cards for y’all!

Enjoy! 

I think it’s safe to say we all can use a health snack right about now! Between all those cookie and cheese trays, it’s safe to say my clothes are feeling a tad bit snug right now lol....

Over the weekend my daughter and I decided to make one of our favorite healthy snacks, peanut butter celery but a tad bit more festive!!!

Serve & Enjoy!

Rudolph the red nosed donut!!!!! Literally the cutest donuts EVER if you ask me!!!! A red DOT candy for a nose! Pretzels for antlers & I always have loads of candy eyes in my kitchen since I’m always trying to create new and fun kiddie creations in the kitchen. Such a fun breakfast idea for the kiddos. They can even make their own Rudolph!!! 

Serve & Enjoy!

Polar Bear Toast?!? Have you ever seen a cuter toast?!? So obsessed with the cuteness! My daughter and I actually made these awhile ago, but I wanted to wait until Christmas time to share. I know, it’s still November, but close enough right?!? 

Anyway, these are so easy to make! Perfect activity to get those kids in the kitchen.

​Enjoy :):) 

Take a slice of toasted white bread and spread whipped cream cheese on top.

Take two blueberries and place them on the toast as eyes. Take another blueberry and place it on the banana mouth/nose.

Serve & enjoy!

Cats!!! Literally my favorite animal!!!! Even though y’all see my pup Abby Cadabby all over my socials, I’m a crazy cat lady at heart. Cats will always be my number one.

I have been trying to figure out how to make a cat rice cake for some time. I was struggling big time on the whiskers. Everyone on Pinterest seems to use sliced apple strips, but that just seemed like so much work to me.... it’s one thing to cut a strawberry in half to make ears and a nose, but to cut perfectly sized strips? Naw! So happy I figured out that simple pretzel sticks would do the trick. Enjoy!

​

Enjoy!

I cannot believe it!!! For how crazy boring 2020 has been with everything closed and zero real travel, it sure has been flying by. October is pretty much over which means Thanksgiving is next on the holiday list!!!

My daughter is obsessed with Oreo. Like if we walk by Oreo at the grocery store, full in tantrum until I toss a pack in the cart. 

To fuel her obsession, I thought it would be fin to make Turkey Oreo! Super cute and easy to make! Just make sure to take your time sliding those candy corn into the cookies because if you do it too fast, cookie breakage galore. 

Enjoy!

Enjoy!!!

The Circus!!!!! We attend every year and I’m just heart broken that there will not be any circus festivities this fall/winter. We also love catching all of the Cirque shows when they come to town and ughhh.... who knows when shows will be traveling the country again. 

Since I don’t know a kiddo out there not totally obsessed with the Circus, I thought a circus activity pack would be loads of fun!!!! Watch a few circus videos on YouTube and then work on a few circus worksheets!!!! Sounds like one fun day of school to me.

​Enjoy!

Is it really fall if you don’t hit up a pumpkin patch with the family?!?! That’s exactly what we did last weekend since I’m all about the fall basic girl activities!

There has been a local pumpkin patch here in Jamestown, NY for about a year or two now, but we usually make the trek up to Buffalo to The Great Pumpkin Farm since it’s been our yearly tradition. With covid restrictions galore, we decided to hit up the local patch and shockingly we had a pretty festive time. 

Located in Busti, NY (Jamestown), this patch is a smaller sized property. Honestly, smaller patches are PERFECT for super little ones. Not overwhelming and fears of your kiddo getting lost are very slim. 

I would say you could easily do all of the activities this patch has to offer in about an hour, but I would recommend spending a few hours here to truly enjoy it. 

There is a cow train, bouncy pillow, petting zoo, side, hayride, mining, photo-ops and so much more.

3435 Baker Street Extension 
Busti, NY
​14701

Saturday’s & Sunday’s 10am-6pm

Admission is $10 for ages 3 and up. 
Kids 2 and under are free. 
Adults 65+ are $5. 
All veterans and active military with ID are always free ​