6 Tips on How to Prepare Your Kids for Moving Abroad
From a fellow expat parent, here are my best tips for preparing your little ones to become expat kids! Planning for a family move can be super stressful and feel like an overwhelming list of to-do’s! So when we talk about moving overseas to a foreign country, well that’s just a whole different ballgame guys. Language barriers, cultural differences, and endless paperwork are all-consuming! It’s easy to loose sight of what’s truly important – and that is how to best prepare your kids for their move abroad and transition into becoming expats. No amount of online research can truly equip you or your…
How to Celebrate Halloween in Barcelona As an Expat
Our expat family’s tips for enjoying the spookiest night of the year even while living abroad. If you don’t already know, Halloween is my favorite!! That crisp chill in the air, the rustling of freshly fallen leaves at your feet and the smell of a crackling outdoor fire nearby. So when we moved to Barcelona to become expats and realized Halloween isn’t that big of a deal, I panicked! How would we recreate a holiday that is growing enormously in the states but is overshadowed in Spain by Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead on November 1)? Before becoming expats, Halloween in…
30 Ways to Enjoy Barcelona with Kids of Any Age
Congratulations! You’ve finally made the decision to stop talking about that family trip to Barcelona and just do it. Now the fun of planning and organizing travel details begins. And if you happen to be traveling with little ones, the question of how to enjoy Barcelona with kids often follows. While this is truly a fabulous city to visit filled with rich culture, inspiring history, amazing architecture and delicious food you’ll want to have some creative ways to keep the little ones entertained. They simply won’t be moved by the Barcelona Cathedral the same way you are. Our three children are 8, 6…
How to Keep Kids Happy on a Rainy Day in Barcelona
Find out what cool places to go to and interesting things to do in Barcelona with busy kids on a rainy day. Barcelona is a vibrant and outdoorsy city full of festivals, outdoor restaurants, street performers, and days at the beach thanks to the incredible Mediterranean weather. So what’s a family with kids to do in this city on the rare occasion when it rains? While Barcelona only sees a handful of rainy days each year, getting stuck in one can be a real inconvenience. Take it from me, as an expat living here for almost four years. Compiling my list of 30…
One Thing I Hate About Being an Expat
If you look at photos and videos of our time living abroad, it seems life is bliss. And believe me, we DO love living life overseas. Exciting experiences, new friends, rich cultures – there’s so much to gain from living overseas! So what is the one thing I could possibly hate about being an expat? Oh, there is a “thing”, trust me! It’s something I should have anticipated all along, well before arriving in Spain. It’s something that, if it weren’t for this incredible experience, we could have actually avoided. And despite all this, in a weird way, I’m thankful for this “thing”…
5 Ways to Enjoy an Art Museum With Kids
Truth be told, we didn’t mean to visit the Kunthisories Art History Museum with our kids during a recent trip to Vienna. It just sort of happened! In an effort to include something child-friendly into our trip (since the city isn’t as toddler focused as Barcelona!), we meant to purchase tickets for the Museum of Natural History. An honest mistake, I swear! Both identical buildings, grandiose and awe-inspiring from the exterior, sit right across from one another in an area of Vienna called Museum Quarter Wien. In our haste to achieve smiling faces we quickly jumped online and purchased tickets – to the…
Tackling Jet Lag in Toddlers
The best tips for keeping toddlers jet lag free and parents’ stress free while traveling abroad. When I was in college (sooo roughly 20 years ago, gulp!) my parents took me to Australia on a business trip. It was an early graduation present. So friekin cool, right? It was the farthest I had ever traveled away from home (and still is!) 17 hours total in the air. The other side of the globe, really. And as far as my invincible college-age nose-pierced free-spirited self was concerned, the 10+ hour time difference was exciting! I couldn’t wait to sleep until noon and go to…
Expat Advice for Choosing an International School
When you are preparing to move abroad, the list of decisions and things to consider seems endless! And when children are involved, understanding what the best option is for their education is top on the list. In this featured podcast with The Expat Cast, I loved sharing my advice for choosing an international school for our two older children and a local trilingual school for our youngest. Check out more of the podcast on Choosing an International School here and my high-level tips below for making this big decision as an expat family. *Listen on the website, on an iPhone with the…
Stop Packing These 5 Things For Kids
Whether you’re preparing for a long road trip, a quick weekend getaway or an overseas flight, parents have a tendency to over-stress about what to pack for kids. After lots of travels with our family of five, I beg all parents to stop packing these five specific things for your kids! I promise, they’ll survive without them and you’ll be grateful to no longer stress about them. Trust me, as a mom of three little ones who tends to overthink EVERYthing. If you do a quick search online for “packing tips when traveling with children” literally hundreds of articles will pop up. Each…
