Your children can be great travel companions, but they can also create some challenges. Many parents are nervous about taking their children into a hotel, especially a higher-end hotel. Fortunately, there are a few simple things that you can do to make sure that your children get along fine and don’t disturb any of the other people there.

There are a number of factors that you will want to take into consideration. However, the most important step to take is finding a hotel that your children will be comfortable at.

What Type of Hotel Should Your Children Stay at?

Traveling with children doesn’t have to be stressful. However, you will need to plan your trip carefully and prepare for possible problems ahead of time. Here are some things that you can do to make your trip less stressful.

Choose a Hotel that is situated for Children

You will want to be careful when picking a hotel. Some hotels are more suitable for single travelers or honeymooners than families. Look for one that has all the features that will keep your children happy. Here are some amenities that a hotel should have for anyone traveling with children:

• Look for a hotel that offers complementary breakfasts. Food can get expensive so this will be a good way to save money.
• Find a hotel that has a cooking unit and large refrigerator. You don’t want to have to spend a lot of money going out to eat when you are traveling with the entire family.
• Ask the hotel what the typical demographic of their visitors is. You may not have any trouble keeping your children at a hotel that is typically frequented by seniors. However, your family may have a hard time staying at a hotel that is going to be filled with college students partying on spring break.
• Look for a hotel that has activities for your children to enjoy. Many hotels offer pools and other things to keep your children busy. These may be more essential when you are traveling in a city where you will be spending a lot of time in your hotel room, but it will be important anywhere.
• Try to find a hotel that is located away from busier roads. This is especially important if you are traveling with children under 7. However, you will be a lot safer staying in a hotel near a major highway regardless of your child’s age. You will all be able to sleep a lot easier if you don’t have to worry about traffic driving past your room all night.
• Ask if the hotel has thick blinds. Your children will be able to sleep much later if you can close the light out of the room.

You will need to find a great hotel that your children will want to travel at. Make sure that you choose a hotel where your children will be safe and not likely to get bored. This will make things much less stressful for everybody.

About the Author: Kalen is a technology entrepreneur who came back from a BNI summit throughout the Midwest. He stayed at the Quality Inn Hotel in Manchester Tennessee.

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Mother’s Day, a wonderful day to celebrate the important moms in your life – and a great excuse to get into the kitchen and whip up some magic.  If you look forward to holidays just so you can experiment with new recipes, techniques, and supplies, you’re not alone!  We all love cookies, and special occasions are tailor-made for those who love to make them.  This Mother’s Day, give the special mom in your life a sweet treat that shows her how much you care.

Basic Cookie, Spectacular Results

If Mom enjoys gardening and the great outdoors, create a garden cookie bouquet.  You can purchase sets of garden cookie cutters, or you can make do with what you already have.  Make your favorite sugar cookie recipe (chilling the dough before and after shaping will help the cookies keep their shape) and roll your dough about ½ again as thick as normal.

Cut your garden shapes; butterflies, flowers, ladybugs, watering cans, and seed packages are all cute ideas (and you can make ladybugs with regular circle cutters and seed packages with a square cutter or butter knife).  Insert wooden skewers or craft sticks into the bottom of the cookies and bake.  The thicker cookies will take a little longer to bake so keep your eyes on them to prevent burning.

When the cookies are cooled, use icing, decorating tips, colored sugars, edible markers, and candy bits to decorate in bright, summery colors. If the cookies are not going to be eaten right away, you can wrap each one with plastic wrap and tie with a ribbon.  Place a piece of Styrofoam or florists’ foam in an unused plant pot or galvanized pail and insert the skewers. Cover the foam with tissue paper, and voila, a gorgeous, delicious cookie bouquet.

A New Arrangement

If your recipient really loves chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies, or another variety that doesn’t lend itself to being skewered, think about different ways you can present your cookie gift to her.

• A gift basket starring cookies.  You can fill in your container with teas, coffees, fruit, and other goodies.
• Get treat bags and wrap each cookie individually. You can then write a sweet message on each.  This is great if you have children who want to make a special mom a treat.
• Use a fun container. Try a galvanized pail, a giant coffee mug, an elegant glass canister, a recipe box she can reuse, or give her cookie mix in a jar.

But you can also use cookies as the container.  Why not make cookie bowls and fill them with a little baggie full of ice cream sundae accoutrements like sprinkles or sanding sugar or serve mom dessert in one of these fun bowls?  You simply make your dough, flip over a muffin pan and form the dough over the cups. Bake and you have an edible bowl!

It’s the thought that counts, so be sure to put a little extra thought and care into your Mother’s Day cookies!

Attached Images:

•  License: Image author owned

Betty Ann Sherman is a writer and baker. She regularly contributes articles to the Gourmet Cookie Bouquets Blog, found at http://www.gourmet-cookie-bouquets.com/.

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There is a very common misconception that weight loss has to be painful, uncomfortable and hard. Now, while I don’t want to make little of the difficulties involved, it is clear that for many people, this misconception makes the whole process harder.

Over the years I’ve seen many people facing the same challenges and problems. In most cases, all it took was for them to change the way they approached the problem. Health, fitness and weight loss shouldn’t ever be a short-term thing. It should be a fundamental lifestyle change that benefits you for years to come.

Here are the 3 crucial factors which will help you on the road to long term fitness and health:

1.  You Don’t Have to Eat Less!

When most people set out to lose weight the first thing they do is cut down on how much food they eat each day. Now, although this will often result in short term weight loss, it will also make you hungry and low on energy. In most cases this results in you reverting back to old habits after only a few weeks.

A much better approach is to eat more of the right things. Green vegetables, beans, pulses and protein sources will all help give you the energy you need without giving your body the sugars and fast release carbohydrates that most processed foods will give. This way you won’t be hungry, will have lots of energy and lose weight over a much longer period. The best thing about this approach is that you will actually keep their weight off once you’ve lost it!

2. Don’t Avoid Fat

Fat isn’t always bad. There are many different types of fat. If you are looking to lose weight and improve your health then you should try and avoid ‘saturated fats’.  However, there are also many ‘good’ natural fats which you should still eat (in moderation). These fats make sure that your body maintains its ability to process fat and will also help your skin and bones to stay healthy. You will find natural fats in most meat and nuts.

3. Create Habits 

If you are serious about changing your lifestyle in the long term you need to replace your old ‘bad’ habits with new ‘good’ habits. Most people think that habits take years to create. In reality, you can make something a habit in only a few weeks, once it has become a habit it then takes years to reinforce.

To make a start, focus on eradicating one bad habit each week and replacing it with one good one. Start with something simple, like starting the day with a glass of water. Over time, all your bad habits will eventually get replaced with healthy, good habits and you will start feeling the benefits.

Don’t fall into the trap of following the latest crash diet. If you are serious about changing the way you look and feel, commit to achieving long term results. If you’re not sure where to start, just follow these three easy steps and take it from there.

Victoria is one of the UK’s foremost weight loss experts. She employs a highly effective combination of nutrition advice, hypnotherapy and neuro linguistic programming to help people lead healthier, more balanced lives. Victoria is the owner and founder of NuBeginnings, a boutique health, well being and weight loss retreat in the UK, and NuBeginnings France.

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