Great ideas with the family for Labor Day

1. Freezer cooking

Perfect for a rainy Labor Day, organize your kitchen into workstations and have the family create meals to freeze for the months ahead. Casseroles, cookie dough, and pasta sauce work the best. You’ll enjoy the time together and the money savings!

2. Backyard camping

Get up early in the morning and head out camping -- in your backyard! Bring all of the supplies necessary for a day and night out and restrict going inside the house to emergencies only. Pitch a tent, roast marshmallows, tell ghost stories, and sleep under the starry skies. This is a perfect way to introduce kids to camping.

3. Talent show

Who knew Grandma was such a great dancer? At breakfast, introduce the idea for a family talent show night. Throughout the day, have someone make the program, while the performers have the day to prepare. Have your camera ready!

4. Try a new cuisine

Explore a cuisine that the kids have never tried before, like Ethiopian, Korean BBQ, Brazilian, or Japanese. Before heading to the restaurant, spend some time researching the region, locate it on a map, and find out a few unique customs.

5. Make and fly kites

Using a traditional kite pattern, paint and decorate kites using glitter, markers, ribbon, and whatever else you have on hand. Using plenty of string and a good gust of wind, fly the kites outdoors. Make it a competition and split into teams, challenge one another to see which kite stays in the air the longest.

 

Here are some great tips for your cross-country travels

1.) While your TomTom/iPhone/whatever else you use for a navigation system is great, an actual map will help you out when you're lost and without signal on your fancy GPS. Pairs well with a compass.

2.) No, we don't mean you should drive a Jeep Compass, but you should bring a real old-school compass. It always seems that you only get lost when you don't have cell service.

3.) The last thing you want on a cross-country drive is to be stuck on the side of the highway with a flat tire and no spare because you needed the room to pack all your stuff. Bring tire plugs and tire goo to help out in a pinch.

4.) Bringing a good co-pilot to share the driving responsibility, and keep you entertained while on the road. Plus someone's gotta help you when you're broken down on the side of the road.

5.) Out on the open road you never know what you might want or need to see later so a decent dash cam is a must.