My first ever blog and intro to our virtual vacation!

Ok, so as first attempts go this will probably be pretty lame :) hopefully I'll get better as we go along! I've created this blog to try to showcase our summer vacation. Since it will be a virtual "Around the World" tour, we will be posting pictures and stories of the places we're visiting, the crafts we're creating to learn about the different cultures, and the food we'll be attempting to cook and eat! With two young kids (ages 6 and 7) and a ton of summer activities, sports, and camps going on, I'm not quite sure how detailed our trip will be!

In preparation for our trip, we have created passports, travel journals, airline tickets, and a semi-detailed itinerary!  We currently have a cardboard suitcase that will hold all our documents. I'm still working on decorating that one so not ready to post any pictures of it yet. But for each country we visit, the kids will be decorating their own passport stamps to put in their passports. We will also be learning about their national flag (they will color these and put in their journals) and how to count 1-10 and speak key phases in each  language. Now that should be interesting since I only speak English and who knows how bad I'll butcher those! But it should be a great learning experience for all.
For crafts, we will try to do something fun like making masks or jewelry, science experiments like making volcanoes and sugar crystals, and using clay to "build" (and I do say that lightly!) one of the national monuments from each place we visit. We will try to cook or eat something authentic from each country. Unfortunately both my son and I are extremely picky eaters so this particular experience should prove quite interesting!  I joked with my mom that when we "visit" Japan its going to be a night of ramen noodles...France will be croissants!
We plan on basing our bedtime stories around our vacation. Finding fables, fairytales, and fiction that are inspired by each country! Thank goodness for libraries, I just have to remember to reserve the books with enough time to have them delivered to our local library!
Alright so that is it for blog number one! LOL! So excited for our vacation to begin and I'll be back Monday after we "land" in Mexico!