Taking a Vacation... without leaving the house

Yesterday, my family was scheduled to travel to Florida on vacation, but our trip was cancelled due to Covid 19 restrictions. We were all looking forward to our vacation and to spending time with my extended family. Because we were all a little sad, we decided to plan a "fake vacation" at home. We put up some decorations, decided on a fun menu and planned a special activity. It was a simple celebration, but we ended up having a wonderful evening.

We started by putting up some decorations to transform our house into "fake Florida".

I draped the chairs and table with beach towels and hung some dollar store leis from the light fixture.

We also dug out photos and photo albums from past trips. Reminiscing about past vacations is always a lot of fun.

We had this foam core shark head from a past birthday party, so we dug it out and put it to use.

We also decorated with a pool noodle palm tree, a cardstock yellow sun, and some pictures (of oranges, flamingos, and alligators) coloured by my kids.

Once our decor was in place, we planned our special menu and activities. 

We had milkshakes in Disney mugs with cocktail umbrellas.

I also made snack packs for the kids. (These are the treat boxes the boys traditionally pack in their carry on bags when we go on special trips, so they seemed like fitting snacks to serve.)

Then, we hung a bed sheet in our living room, set up our projector, and gathered to watch a movie and a YouTube video of Disney fireworks. It wasn't the same as being there, but we still enjoyed it. (You can find the video we watched here.) 

We are hoping to go on a real vacation soon, but for now, we are making the best of our current situation. Taking a vacation without leaving the house really is a fun way to spend an evening as a family. I wonder where we should go next! 

♥
Gina (aka East Coast Mommy)

Check out the little video we made to show you a bit more about what we did...