Bing Travel How to Save on Family Airfare

Travel

Saving When Flying with Kids During Holidays

With Thanksgiving just around the corner and the Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Years holiday celebrations blowing right in behind, chances are good that your family or someone you know will be traveling this season. These days with the economy still stuck in first gear, saving money by making frugal decisions even on extras like trips and vacations are the norm, especially for moms and dads traveling with children. So it's refreshing to hear some upbeat news to maintain the holiday spirit that I'd like to share with you.

My Frequent Flier 10-month Toddler

Predicting a bit of holiday cheer for travelers -- particularly families with kids creating multiple expenses -- the Fareologists at Bing Travel have issued their preliminary forecast for the 2011 holiday travel season. Here's the good part: Bing expects domestic airfare and hotel room prices to drop slightly this winter translating into consumer savings.

According to Bing Travel

• Compared to 2010, domestic airfare is expected to be down 1.4% overall
• Plane tickets will average about $302 this season, as opposed to $306 last holiday
• Hotel seasonal costs appear to be staying virtually flat for three- and four-star hotels, but five-star hotels are down 8% from last year

“Given this summer’s sharp airfare and hotel increases, it’s a relief to see travel prices normalize, even going down in many cases this holiday,” says Kari Dilloo of Bing Travel who is also the mother of twin toddlers.

“Travelers looking to stay in the U.S. are likely to find some great trip deals this holiday especially if they plan ahead, Dilloo explains."When you are traveling with parents plus multiple kids smart travel buying can amount to spending hundreds of dollars less on your holiday or vacation expenses."

While the overall travel forecast is looking merrier and somewhat brighter this season, the biggest savings lie in the hands of those willing to let the destination and date dictate your holiday travel plans. In fact, Dilloo points out that a traditional white Christmas might not be available in Florida, but getaways to the Sunshine State and other warm-weather destinations are extra cheap this holiday season. Some examples: airfares to Fort Lauderdale, FL, are down 21% from last year and hotels in Las Vegas are down almost 16% this year.

How Bing Travel Can Help

The free tools and tips that  Microsoft Bing Travel offers are just what moms and dads traveling with children need to save time and money when shopping for and booking holiday trips. That's where Bing's Price Predictor comes in: it's an invaluable airfare prediction tool that shows whether the lowest fares appear to be rising or dropping and provides recommendations on whether to buy now or wait.

Tapping its proprietary technology, the Bing Travel site has the ability to analyze 225+ billion airfare observations. The result is that they can provide recommendations with a level of confidence and also give you a feel for expected price increases or decreases over the next seven days.

Similarly, their Hotel Rate Indicator helps traveling consumers find out at a glance if the offered room charge for a hotel is a good deal, based on historical rates. This price indicator is unique to Bing Travel and is available for more than 5,000 hotels in 30 major cities across the U.S. and applies to reservations up to 90 days in the future.

Bing, representing a new generation of search -- was developed to deliver results in a visually stunning way that makes it easy for users to find the information they need. Designed with today’s searchers in mind, Bing, a Microsoft company, provides intelligent tools to simplify tasks and help people make faster and better decisions.

Feel free to share your own experiences about shopping airfares and hotel rooms for your family.  Also, if you've tried Bing Travel, what do think of this relatively new service so far?


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Creative DIY Healthy & Fun Thanksgiving Appetizer & Dessert Recipe Food Crafts to Make With Kids

Good Food

Appetizers and desserts are synonymous with Thanksgiving. So to help you do something really creative with your holiday menu and presentation this year, here are a few really easy and wonderful healthy appetizer and dessert recipes for Turkey Day for family and children to craft together from Disney Family Fun.

Image from Family Fun

This Colorful Fruit Turkey can also double as either a table centerpiece for the main meal or you can use it as an accent on your dessert buffet. Alternately, you could do this concept with an array of bright raw vegetables such as carrots, various lettuces, celery, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, parsley and the like.   Directions

Can't get your kids to eat their vegetables? Try making this festive and creative appetizer with your children and maybe this edible crafty idea will change all that this Thanksgiving. This is a super nutritious recipe, too, since it's made not only with fresh vegetables but cholesterol free water crackers with low fat cream cheese for the spread. For this holiday, these might be suggestive of pumpkins, but I imagine for Christmas you could also make these to look like Christmas Tree balls! Directions

Image from Family Fun

Visit Family Fun for lots more creative Thanksgiving arts and crafts projects and recipes to make with your kids -- both edibles and festive home decor.

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Share your own favorite Thanksgiving edible creative crafts for kids by leaving a comment with a link to your favorite projects.

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Storm Wrangler Whimsical Fiction Picture Book Educates, Calms Children's Fears of Weather

Book Review

The charm of the American Cowboy and The West shines through in Storm Wrangler, the poetic and beautifully illustrated newly released young child's title. This book is written by Fulbright Scholar and American Library Association Award-winning author Coert Voorhees and illustrated by Mike Guillory, a talented Houston illustrator and designer, who are both heavily influenced by the Texas lifestyle in this work. As the tale unfolds, the fantasy story is told through the title character's persona as a meteorological cowboy style Paul Bunyan protecting all from the power of big, and sometimes scary, weather. No matter if it's lightening and a thunderstorm, a tornado, a hurricane, a blizzard or other type of fierce atmospheric phenomena, the friendly and fearless Storm Wrangler is depicted as a hero that kids will look up to and learn from.

One dark and stormy day in my neighborhood

iPhone Photo by Janis Brett Elspas, MommyBlogExpert.com

As a hard cover, large format picture book the story comes alive, intimately speaking to readers on every page, transforming fear into awe as amazing details about a variety of storms are demonstrated along with delivering the constant promise of calm that always comes after. Inspired by the author's son's own fears during Hurricane Ike in 2009, this tale no doubt will bring little heads across America out from under the covers whenever this is read. It's classified as children's fiction but it certainly is educational too, with a glossary of 20 weather terms included. 

Storm Wrangler Book Cover

iPhone Photo by Janis Brett Elspas, MommyBlogExpert.com

Distinguished child psychiatrist Efrain Bleiberg, MD, professor and Vice Chair, Menninger Department of Psychiatry; Director of Children and Adolescent Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine; Chief, Psychiatry Service, Texas Children’s Hospital has glowing praise for Storm Wrangler. Summarizing the mental benefits to toddlers and young kids this offers, Dr. Bleiberg says, “This is a wonderful picture book ... a lovely springboard to help children develop a sense of security."

Voorhees, also the author of the Young Adult title The Brothers of Torres, is currently at work on other novels. He is the mayor of Grammaropolis an animated website that also features a Top Ten Education iPhone app and a SiriusXM Children's Radio hit song.

Storm Wrangler by Coert Voorhees and published by Bright Sky Press, Hardcover 8.5” x 11”, 28 pages, color. $16.95, ISBN: 978-1-936474-07-3

Who hasn't been afraid during a storm at one time or another? I for one, still remember many a night as a kid seeking safety in my parents' bed from the crashing thunder.  Please leave a comment to reminisce about your own childhood storm fears or that of your child's and how you've dealt with it.

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FTC Disclosure: I received the Storm Wrangler to facilitate this book review. However, MommyBlogExpert did not receive any payment or other compensation associated with this post. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's main page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.

5 Fun Twitter Parties Ideal for Moms & Women With Great Prizes Still to Come This Week

Social Media

Looks like another smoking week for an abundance of Twitter parties that women and moms in particular will likely enjoy. Most of these virtual events have great prizes to win, as well as the opportunity of meeting other social media active women and mom blogger Twitter users. An added plus: you'll be connecting with some awesome brands, making these online get-together contests worth the hour or two that you participate in them. 

iPhone Photo by Janis Brett Elspas, MommyBlogExpert.com

Here's a partial list of the lineup for the rest of this week. I'll Tweet about any new parties I hear about, so make certain you're following Mommy Blog Expert on Twitter to get the inside scoop.

Wednesday, November 16

The #WhoDunIt Murder Myster Twitter Party hosted by Rachel Ferrucci and Doc Bonn and sponsored by Yes Video and The Big Toy Book. 11/16 @ 5 pm PST  RSVP Here

Fun and Wacky #ICKEEStikeez Twitter Party hosted by The Big Toy Book. 11/16 @ 6 pm PST RSVP Here
 

Thursday, November 17

Clever Girls Collective hosts the #JRWScents J.R. Watkins Naturals Twitter Party. 11/17 @ noon-1 pm PST.  RSVP Here

Social Moms hosts #RMLTE Real Moms Love to Eat Twitter Party. 11/17 @ 4-5 pm PST.  RSVP Here 

She Speaks Up hosts #HolidayFlavors Torani Twitter Party 11/17 @ 6-7 pm PST. RSVP Here


Coming Soon...
November 30, Daily Deals for Moms #DDFM Twitter Party 11/30 @ 6 pm PST. RSVP  Here

These are just a few of the parties you can join in for some fun, conversation and prizes. If you know of  additional Twitter parties going on this week or for the rest of November that you think should be added to this list, please leave a comment and share whatever basic info you have including products, hosts, date & time, prizes, and most importantly a link to RSVP/Info.

Party Hard & Enjoy!

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FTC Disclosure: I love Twitter parties and try and attend a few every week and am attending some parties listed as a participant. However, this blog did not receive any payment or other compensation associated with this post. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's main page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.

Heavy Duty Double Locker Shelf is the Ultimate Customizable Organizational Tool for Students

Organization

In high school juggling a demanding schedule of 7 or 8 courses with as many textbooks and binders, staying organized is essential to success. But that's often easier said than done in today's schools where bare bones lockers are the norm. Sure there are those wire grid shelves you can buy at dollar and office supply stores that can be added to a student's locker. The problem is these are typically flimsy, resulting in a single shelf one-size solution that may not fit the locker. What's worse is these inexpensive shelves can fall apart easily and collapse, sending the locker's entire contents tumbling. So when my family had the chance to test a new Double Locker Shelf solution from LockerShelf that is flexible, fits like built-in shelving and made to last, we seized the opportunity.

My youngest triplet shows off the Double LockerShelf he installed

iPhone Photo by Janis Brett Elspas, MommyBlogExpert.com

For this test, we received the 12" Double LockerShelf for review. True to the manufacturer's claim, this innovative patented shelf was quickly and easily installed in just four steps in about 3 minutes by my slightly nervous ninth grader on his first day of high school.

This product offers features not available in the grid type single shelf such as

• Functionality afforded by not 1 but 2 shelves for storage of books with the middle shelf sized to manage the bulkiest binders and larger heavy items.
• Strong and durable shelf components that are precision cut so a student can easily assemble and customize on their own without any tools or special building talents.
• Interchangeable shelves that can be added or removed after it is initially installed, as well as the ability to completely remove the unit and reuse in different lockers from year to year.
• Construction of 70% recycled hollow-core PVC that yields incredible strength of up to 150 pounds.

My 9th grader installs this LockerShelf quickly on the first day of class

iPhone Photo by Janis Brett Elspas, MommyBlogExpert.com

About the Product

The Double LockerShelf reviewed for this post, as well as information about other similar quality locker options ranging in price from $16.99-$39.99 plus shipping, are available on the LockerShelf site.

How do you or your child solve locker storage issues? Would love to hear from both parents and students on what works best for you and why.







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FTC Disclosure: I received the Double LockerShelf from LockerShelf Company to facilitate this review. However, MommyBlogExpert did not receive any payment or other compensation associated with this post. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's main page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.