Not everyone lives in Wine Country, though, so how do you bring a little bit of the holiday spirit to the wine lover in your life?  Here are five gifts sure to bring a “cheers” to the lips of any wine aficionado.

1. Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator – Simply hold this easy to use aerator over your glass, and pour the wine through.  Pour slowly, though.  If you go too quickly, the wine can spill out the sides.  Otherwise, we find this aerator easy to use and it’s compact size makes it convenient to store.  Even if you’re not a wine expert or even a regular wine drinker, it’s interesting to try a glass that’s been poured through the aerator and compare it to one that hasn’t.
2. Oggi 4-Piece Wine Bottle Corkscrew Set – Simply place the foil cutter on top of the bottle, squeeze and twist to reveal the cork.  Then place the corkscrew over the end of the bottle, squeeze the grips to hold it, push the lever to drive the screw into the cork and pull the lever up to remove the cork from the bottle.  Makes it much easier to open all those wine bottles at your next holiday party!  The stand makes for convenient storage – no more poking yourself on sharp corkscrews as you rummage around in a drawer.
3. Luigi Bormioli Esperienze Crystal-Glass 88-Ounce Decanter  A decanter is a very nice way to present wine, and will also serve well to aerate it.  It’s also very useful if you don’t want people to see the wine bottle – say, if you’re doing a wine tasting party and want to judge the wine without being swayed by its bottle.
4. 
   Looking for some more wine to fill those Wine Skins, at the Cloudy Bay Winery, New Zealand

   Wine Skin Leak Proof Traveler – We discovered these while wine tasting in New Zealand.  Basically they’re a wine bottle-shaped bubble wrap envelope, complete with a self-stick fold over tab – just in case.  We brought back five bottles of wine from New Zealand using these, and every one made it in one piece.  These would make a great present for a wine lover who’s planning a wine tasting tour, or to go along with a gift of wine for a wine buff who will be traveling for the holidays.

5. Chrome Plated Champagne Bottle Saver Stopper – Planning to pop open a bottle of Champagne to celebrate the New Year?  Keep the bubbles in the bubbly with this Champagne stopper.  Of course, some people like sweet Champagne, while others like their sparkling wine on the dry side.  Which would be why we have two of these.  You can never be too prepared.  Include one of these along with a bottle of sparkling wine and your sure to be a wine lover’s favorite elf.

The post Holiday Gift Guide for the Wine Lover appeared first on Ian and Wendy's Travel Blog.

Maybe it’s just that we are coming at them with fewer pre-conceived notions of what we want to do?  Or maybe it’s just that now we’re trying to balance what we want with what we can reasonably expect a 3 and 1-year-old to put up with?  But we’ve traveled with our kids before and never had this much trouble, so it doesn’t seem like we can blame it on them.

Our route has changed so many times we’ve lost count.  We’ve planned, re-planned and rearranged.  We thought we finally had it all figured out.  I was putting the finishing touches on our calendar, and asked Ian what time our flight home was.  That’s when we realized that our flight was a day LATER than we’d planned for.  Much better than a day earlier, but still.  REALLY?  This is not the first time we’ve traveled, people!  {Sigh}

So, for what it’s worth, this is our current thought.  We think.  Maybe.  We would be very, very grateful for any input.  Really.  Seriously.  Especially if you could make sure we counted days right…

View Larger Map

Day 1 – Fly to Munich.

Day 2 – Arrive Munich.  Stumble onto subway and attempt to feed our children before we collapse at our hotel.

Day 3 – Attempt to explore Munich.

Day 4 – Ditto

Day 5 – Pick up rental car and drive to Salzburg.  Explore some of the sights.

Day 6 – Continue to explore Salzburg.

Day 7 – Drive to Krems via Melk and it’s Abbey.

Day 8 – Take the bus/train to Melk and return to Krems by boat down the Danube.  Attempt not to lose any children overboard.

Day 9 – Spend the day wine tasting in the Wachau Valley, ending the day in Vienna

Day 10 – Spend the day exploring Vienna, trying not to be bitter our son’s not old enough to see the horses yet.

Day 11 – More of Vienna

Day 12 – Vienna

Day 13 – Drive to Bojnice, Slovakia and see the castle.

Day 14 – Drive to Bardejov and see its square and at least one wooden church along the way.

Day 15 – Drive to somewhere in the Spis area.  Levoca?

Day 16 – Stay in the area, see the castle.

Day 17 – Drive to Bratislava

Day 18 – Explore Bratislava

Day 19 – Drive to Hallstatt

Day 20 – Explore Hallstatt

Day 21 – Drive to Berchtesgaden (boat on the Konigsee)

Day 22 – Drive the Grossglockner Strasse from Bruck to Heilingenblut (there are playgrounds along the way – YAY!)

Day 23 – Drive to Innsbruck and explore what we can.

Day 24 – Drive to Liechtenstein.

Day 25 – Explore Liechtenstein and drive to Fussen.

Day 26 -  See Neuschwanstein Castle and return to Munich.

Day 27 – Fly home. {Sob}

So?  What do you think?  Are we crazy?  Is this do-able?  What have we missed?  What should we change?  Is there a better way to do this route?  We are open to any and all suggestions including hotels and restaurants.  The only thing we’re sure we don’t want to do is the Sound of Music tour.  ;)  Any other recommendations would be warmly welcomed!

The post Getting Ready to Travel With Kids to Austria and Slovakia (and a slice of Germany and Liechtenstein) appeared first on Ian and Wendy's Travel Blog.

So I have some tough choices to make.  I have a high school friend coming to visit this weekend.  She’s in need of some R&R and her husband’s packing her off to Wine Country for the weekend.  Now, they’ve been here before.  They spent some time exploring Napa, and had a great time, but they’ve never been to Sonoma County, which is, ahem, real Wine Country.  Yes.  She’s expressed a desire for some more Napa wine, but also is excited to check out Sonoma County.  As her tour guide, I’m happy to oblige.  I mean, what are friends for?

We actually live on the eastern edge of Santa Rosa – the largest city in Wine Country at 150,000.  Given where we live, we’re actually closer to Napa (which usually means the Napa Valley, and not just the town of Napa) than to some of the Dry Creek Valley wineries or those around Cloverdale, even though those are Sonoma County like we are.  So, it’s not a distance issue.  But the gap between many Napa wineries and many (but not all) of those in Sonoma isn’t a geographical one.  Napa is far better known.  People who really aren’t wine aficionados have heard of Napa and that’s where they head.  While we have our fair share of wine tasting limo tours and buses here in Sonoma County, there are still plenty of small, family run wineries where you can still taste the wine right next to the barrels its stored in.  Napa wineries tend to be flashier.  And pricier.  So much so that I’ve actually written before about how wine tasting in Napa Valley made us homesick for Sonoma County.

Rows of wine grapes are nestled in amongst the hills.

So, which wineries will we be visiting on our tour of the best of Sonoma County wine?  Well, I’m having a hard time trimming down the list to something that approaches do-able.  Or reasonable.  Such that she’s relaxed and yet still able to remember her visit to Wine Country…  So far, these are the wineries I’m considering:

We will start our tour with a quick stop in Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley to check out Lynmar Estate Winery’s beautiful views and gardens and sample their excellent wines.  Just up the road, our second Russian River Valley stop will be at the lovely Martin Ray Winery, home to some great red wine and surprisingly for us, some rose we love.  Next up, I’m thinking we’ll toast Wine Country with some champagne at Korbel Champagne Cellars before heading north to Dry Creek Valley and Armida Winery.  The lovely deck there offers stunning views and shady tables from which to enjoy their awesome Zinfandel while you munch on a picnic lunch.  Everett Ridge Winery is right around the corner and offers stunning views from its stone patio to complement their lovely Riesling – an uncommon wine in Northern California.  Heading further north, I’m not sure just how many more wineries we can manage in one day.  But then, it’s been a while since I’ve been wine tasting without kids along!  On the list of contenders are the Dry Creek Valley’s intimate Mounts Family Winery,  Francis Ford Coppola Winery, home to a ton of movie memorabilia, Sbragia Family Vineyards with its stunning views, and Fritz Winery – home to some of the most amazing Late Harvest Zinfandel we’ve ever had.

Wine grapes ripening on the vine in Sonoma County, Northern California’s Wine Country

Row after row of wine grapes stretch out along the road in Sonoma County Wine Country.

On second thought, I might just need to talk my girlfriend’s husband into letting her stay a week…

If you’re thinking about a trip, Holidaycheck’s hotel reviews is a great place to start your hotel research.

The post Weekend Getaway in Wine Country appeared first on Ian and Wendy's Travel Blog.

For Father’s Day we went wine tasting (and why not when you live in Wine Country, surrounded by more than 200 wineries?)  We’ve spent a lot of time exploring other areas of Sonoma County like Dry Creek Valley (with wineries like Armida and Fritz) and the Russian River Valley (with wineries like Hanna and Balletto).  Recently we’ve moved to north east Santa Rosa, so we thought we should check out the wineries closest to our new home.  So we spent the day exploring the Sonoma Valley / Kenwood area.  We started our day at Chateau St. Jean and then had a lovely time at Kunde Winery, followed by a  relaxing picnic.  To finish off our day, we left behind the glam tasting rooms and manicured gardens of our first two stops and headed just down the road to Loxton Winery.

Picnic table with views of the vineyards at Loxton Winery

Loxton winery has absolutely nothing for sale except wine.  There are no branded t-shirts.  No coasters, olive oil sets or cookbooks for sale.  There are no elegantly planted gardens, although there are some chairs and a picnic table set in the shade of an oak tree from which you can take in the lovely views of the vineyard and the Mayacamas mountains in the background.  The tasting room is actually also the wine storage room, so you’ll do your sipping next to the barrels.  It’s all very kicked back and relaxed.  And free.  The way all the tasting rooms in Sonoma County used to be.  It was a lovely change of pace from our first two stops (even though we’d enjoyed them too).

We tasted the:

2011 Sonoma White (Sonoma Valley) $16 – 100% Chardonnay with almost no new oak, this white wine was a fruity, easy to drink start to our tasting.

Sonoma Reds – Lot 5 (Sonoma County) $16 – This is a blended red wine with Syrah, Zinfandel, and a little Pinot Noir.  It hasa small bite and a finish we weren’t crazy about, but overall it was an easy to drink good light summer wine.

2008 Zinfandel – Hillside Vineyards (Sonoma County), $25 - We didn’t find this Zinfandel fruity or jammy enough for our taste.  It was a simple, light, drinkable red wine.

2008 Syrah – Cuvee Ellen, (Russian River Valley), $28 – A little hint of spice.  Not too exciting.

2008 Cabernet Sauvignon – McGraw Vineyard (Sonoma Valley), $28 – This wine just wasn’t bold nor fruity enough for us.

2009 Port (Sonoma Valley), $28 – A sweet end to our tasting and a highlight of the wine we tried.  A bottle of this came home with us.

Sit back and relax with beautiful views of the vineyards and mountains.

The vineyards at Loxton Winery

The wine ages in barrels right where you taste at Loxton Winery

View of the vineyards from one of the picnic areas at Loxton Winery

Boxes of wine grapes stacked next to Loxton Winery

The post Loxton Cellars – A Nice Change of Pace in Sonoma Valley appeared first on Ian and Wendy's Travel Blog.

We recently moved into a new home.  The house is pretty new and most of the work we’ve been doing is cosmetic.  The backyard, however, was another story.  Picture the Sleeping Beauty forest.  Without the castle, the princess or the prince.  Or any magic.  It was as if they’d planted a whole bunch of stuff and then just left it.  The first time we saw the house, the back “hedge” was over 40 feet tall (12 meters).  Crazy.  By the second time we saw the house, they’d chopped it literally in half.  Also crazy.  And, naturally, dying.  Because even being the inexpert gardeners we are, we know better than to hack a plant in half.  (Unless it’s a rose, in which case they like that kind of treatment).  Oh, and did we mention that the “hedge” was planted in a 3′ (1m) ditch at the back of the yard?  Perfect for our 18-month-old to fall in…  Yeah.  So, re-doing the backyard was very high on our list when we moved in.

So a new retaining wall has been built, the trench has been filled in, and this morning they planted the trees.  We’ve chosen a whole bunch of new ones.  Living in northern California means you can grow citrus, but you can also grow peaches, and cherries and other things that like cold over the winter.  We’re optimistically planting a pomegranate with the hope of getting fruit.  Flanking it are two olive trees – a Manzanillo for green olives, and a Mission for black ones.  Olives grow well in our Mediterranean climate with the bonus that they are evergreen.  The additional bonus?  They bring back so many memories of trips past.

Row after row of olives blanket the countryside in Tunisia.  We ate olives for breakfast in Oman and Turkey.  We munched on olives and other mezze in a Nabatean tomb turned bar in Jordan.  Dark black olives drizzled in olive oil dotted our salads in Greece.  Visiting the sacred Mount of Olives in Israel was amazing as was driving through row after terraced row of olives in the West Bank.  And now a small sliver of that is growing in our backyard.

Church of all Nations, Mount of Olives, Israel

Terraces of Olive Trees, Hebron, West Bank

Olives Waiting to be Processed, Houmt Souk, Tunisia

The view from Um Qais, Jordan to Syria, with the hills dotted with olive trees.

Wadi Musa, home to Petra and this fabulous Nabataean tomb turned Cave Bar and its fantastic mezze of olives and much more.

The post An Olive Tree Grows in California appeared first on Ian and Wendy's Travel Blog.

We LOVE roses.  (Ok, Wendy does).  So, when we found out that San Jose had a public rose garden, we got very excited and couldn’t believe we were just finding out about it.  We had visions of a leisurely stroll through hundreds of blooming bushes, bursting with color.  We’d soak in the heady aroma while we researched which new specimens we’d like to add to our collection.  Given that we just moved and are starting all over again with no roses at the moment {sniffle}, this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  With visions of the great times we had picking out the perfect roses at the International Rose Test Garden in Portland and the Botanical Gardens in Wellington, New Zealand, we set off for the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden.

Finding the rose garden was a bit tricky, but we did finally manage to find a shady parking spot.  The parking lot isn’t big, but there was plenty of space on the Saturday afternoon we were there.  Parking and entrance to the park are free.  The rose garden is actually just part of the larger Guadalupe River Park and Gardens.  There is a sign with a map of the garden.  The roses are divided by the year they were introduced and organized in rings around a central courtyard with benches.  It sounds lovely and peaceful, doesn’t it?  Well, here’s the thing.  Actually, a few things…

Checking out the roses at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden

The gardens were pretty over run with weeds when we were there.  Taking care of so many roses is a lot of work.  Work that’s done by volunteers.  We can only assume that there aren’t enough of them, or that they just don’t have enough time to devote to the garden.  The roses also badly need to be deadheaded, which means that many of them weren’t blooming (though they should be).

The Rose Garden is right in the flight path for the San Jose International Airport

Even if those problems were addressed, though, there remains the issues with the location.  It’s right on a busy road, and there was a lot of traffic noise even on a Saturday afternoon.  Even that wouldn’t be so disruptive though, if it weren’t for the planes overhead.  The garden is right next to the San Jose airport, which is fairly busy.  Not only is it right next to the airport, though, but it’s on the flight path for arriving flights!  On the plus side, our children were very excited by the constant appearance of very low flying planes directly overhead…  In fact, this was their favorite part of the rose garden.  {Sigh}.

Roses at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden

Roses in bloom at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden

Roses grow in the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden

The post The San Jose Heritage Rose Garden appeared first on Ian and Wendy's Travel Blog.

We’ve had an UPPAbaby Vista since our daughter was born three years ago and continue to love it.  You can read our reviews: Updated! Traveling with the UPPAbaby Vista Stroller and UPPAbaby Vista RumbleSeat Review – Great double stroller in seconds!)  We added a RumbleSeat when our son was born and really appreciate how easy it is to use as a double stroller.  The one thing we’ve been missing is a cup holder.

We were recently given an UPPAbaby Vista Cupholder, which is the replacement for the original design which was TERRIBLE.  Well, we’re sorry to say that the updated one fared little better for us.  We broke our first one within two days of use.  So, we ordered another one, thinking we must have done something wrong or just gotten a lemon.  It broke on the first day we used it.  It connects to the stroller frame with a tiny plastic bracket.  Knock your drink – even very gently – and the plastic “teeth” that hold onto the stroller frame break.  Ridiculous.

The little "teeth" on the UPPAbaby Vista cup holder bracket consistently break off with the slightest of pressure.

Luckily, we’d ordered an UPPAbaby Vista Parent Organizer at the same time.  It is super easy to “install”.  Just wrap it around both sides of the stroller frame and it velcros to itself.  It took less than a minute and no reading of instructions.  Just the way we like it!

We weren’t too hopeful about it at first, though. The pocket for the water didn’t seem like it would be deep enough to keep our Thermos from falling out.  (And we love, love, love our Thermos.  It made our list of 10 Great Christmas Gifts for the Travel Lover in Your Life.  We are SO not prepared to give it up).  We took it out for a walk around Spring Lake and put it through its paces.  The trail is paved, but really hilly.  The Thermos stayed put through them all!  If you’re partial to wider bottles, though, you’re out of luck.  They won’t fit.  :(

Wendy loves being able to slip her phone into the perfectly sized pocket.  It makes it super convenient when the kids do something cute, and you want to snap a photo, or just if you’re trying to answer your phone!  There’s also a super convenient zippered pocket for your keys.  No panicked looking for them somewhere in the bottom of the stroller again!

The handy zippered pocket on the underside of the UPPAbaby Vista Parent Organizer is great for keys and other small valuables.

Now, some people have complained that it’s hard to recline the seat when it’s in use.  We have the seat forward facing, since we also use the RumbleSeat, so that’s not an issue for us.  However, the seat seems to recline fine, provided you raise the handlebars to the highest position.

One fringe benefit of using the UPPAbaby Vista Parent Organizer?  Our Skip Hop diaper bag doesn’t slip off the side, and neither do our Mommy Hooks or our Skip Hop lunch bag!  (And yes, we really do have all that dangling off our stroller handle!  Everything is right where we need it!)  So, will the Parent Organizer solve all your storage needs?  Um, no.  BUT – it will hold your water and keep your most important valuables within easy reach, and that’s all we needed!

The post UPPAbaby Vista Cupholder and The UPPAbaby Vista Parent Organizer appeared first on Ian and Wendy's Travel Blog.

We recently went to see family and friends in Toronto (which is Wendy’s home town).  We have two little kids, one of whom is a three-year-old little girl, so a visit to a castle seemed a natural choice.  The castle is actually really quite modern, having been completed in 1914.  It was built by Sir Henry Pellatt, a wealthy local businessman.

Now, we weren’t expecting Casa Loma to rival some of the castles we’ve seen in France, but we were hoping for something more along the lines of Hearst Castle – where antique elements have been blended into a modern building.  Sadly, Casa Loma didn’t compete with any of those, for us.  It’s a very lovely, very elaborate home.  Certainly nothing like our house looks like, but not really a castle, either.

Touring the building took us a couple of hours, but then we had two little kids with us.  (Things tend to go faster without them).  There are a number of rooms open on the first and second floors.  There is also a very narrow spiral staircase that can be climbed to the attic turret for views out over the city.  You can also go down to the basement, if you haven’t explored enough.  All those stairs (and elevators that can’t accommodate a stroller) mean it’s definitely Ergo time.

The post Casa Loma – a Wanna Be Castle in the Heart of Toronto, Canada appeared first on Ian and Wendy's Travel Blog.

We would argue – yes!  Of course it’s worth it!  Why?  Well, for starters, travel is what we do.  Just like taking walks, our favorite restaurant or my obsession with roses – we did all these things well before kids and don’t see why we should stop now.  Travel makes us happy, and surely that’s as good a reason as any to continue to do it?

Ok, so we love to travel – but why do it now if our kids can’t even tell the difference between a museum and a trip to the mall and won’t remember any of it anyways?  Sure, our kids may not be getting out of it what we are, but does that make the experience worthless?  After all, we’ve enjoyed touring ruins from Rome to Jerusalem, but we hardly get out of these ancient sites what someone with a PhD in ancient history would.  Neither of us is an expert in religious studies, but we’ve felt privileged to have visited holy sites from many of the world’s religions.  From Muslim mosques in Morocco and Turkey, Jewish synagogues in Israel, Bahai temples in Israel and India, Sikh temples in India, Catholic cathedrals in France, Buddhist temples in Thailand and Malaysia, a church in Jerusalem shared by several different Christian faiths and a holy site that is both a mosque and a synagogue – we’ve sought out spiritual places all over the world.  While we hardly take away from the experience what a devout follower of those religions or a scholar of them would, it’s still worth it to us to experience them.  There is always someone who would find whatever you’re doing more meaningful than you do – that doesn’t make it worthless for you to have seen it.  We feel the same way about our children seeing the world.  Sure, they don’t “get” the whole story of Casa Loma or many of the other places we’ve taken them, but for us that doesn’t make the experience not worth bothering with.

We hope travel will be a part of who they are.  It may well be possible, but it is difficult to travel without realizing that they way you do things isn’t the only way.  Or even the best.  At the very least, you learn that there are different ways to approach the same problems that we all face.  And different ways to see the world.  You learn that the world is a big place – with loads and loads of people – most of whom aren’t nearly as lucky as we are.  You learn that not everyone’s taps have clean water running out of them.  That most of the world has never heard of “toddler food” or “kid friendly” meals.  And that what we consider “cutting back” is most people’s dream of luxury.  We hope it will help to encourage our children to be flexible, and to instill in them a sense of gratitude for all the many blessings in their lives.

“But they won’t remember it anyway!”  Well, true.  Even at three, it’s doubtful that our daughter will remember the travel she’s doing right now.  Even a year or two from now, it’s quite possible that she won’t remember these experiences later – at least not so far as being able to talk about them; remember them as discrete experiences.  But then how many of us remember being held as a baby?  How many of us remember being picked up and held when we fell learning to walk?  How many of us remember learning to walk?  Learning to tie you’re your shoes?  Learning to read, even?

While we may not consciously remember these experiences, they are without a doubt woven into who we are.  They may not be stories we can tell, but they have left an indelible mark on the people we are today.  And that is what we hope travel will become for our children – an integral part of who they are and what they do.  As natural and effortless as putting on their shoes, or walking, or talking.

The post Is Travel With Baby Worth It? appeared first on Ian and Wendy's Travel Blog.

But what if I told you there was a super lightweight toy that cost next to nothing to make, was super easy to boot and was {drum roll, please!} washable?  Um, yeah, but I’m not crafty we hear you protest. That’s okay – we’re not either! Flannel boards (sometimes called felt boards) have got to be the easiest thing in the world to make and require basically no crafting skills. If you can iron, cut and glue, you’re golden! So let’s get started.

Iron your flannel if it’s wrinkled.  Cut out a piece of cardboard that suits your child’s lap.  Then, lay the cardboard on your flannel and cut around it, leaving about an extra inch or two all around.  You don’t need to measure and straight-ish lines are more than good enough.  I decided to add a felt pocket on the back to hold the pieces.  So I wrapped the top further down to make sure that the whole thing would be covered when I added the pocket.  It’s totally up to you if you want to add that step (or just use a gallon sized Ziploc bag to store your sets in).  Then, just wrap the flannel over the cardboard and hot glue (or duct tape) down.  Voila!  You have now created a flannel board.

Getting ready to wrap the flannel around the cardboard.

To add a pocket, use your glue gun to hot glue around the edges of a piece of felt, leaving enough slack that it forms a pocket like so:

Felt pocket on the back of the flannel board to hold the pieces.

Next, you’ll need some pieces to play with. Choose some images your child will enjoy. Thanks to the internet, there’s pretty much no limit to what you could go with. We’ve made sets of Angry Birds, Strawberry Shortcake, Cars, Hello Kitty, Care Bears and more.  (If you check out how much these felt board sets would cost you to buy, we think you’ll see why we’ve been motivated to make them ourselves).  Grab a bunch of kitchen images and your child can spend that next flight being the new Iron Chef. Have a car enthusiast? There’s no shortage. Budding princess? There’s loads of images that would work. Print your chosen images onto the iron-on-transfer sheets following the instructions.  Iron them onto the felt. (We’ve used the cotton setting just like it said in the instructions despite the felt being polyester. It’s never melted/singed). The transfers take a little patience, but if you follow the instructions they should work out great.  One thing we do differently is to ignore the advice about not using an ironing board.  Heck – it’s our ironing board’s only chance of being used!  We find it a convenient height, so we just use a wooden cutting board so that the surface you push against is good and hard.  It’s always worked well.  Make sure you push down and don’t slide the iron from side to side – doing that can smear the image.

Make sure to press straight down and not slide from side to side like you would if your were ironing. Assuming you iron… ;)

When the felt has cooled, slooowly peel back the paper backing.  If it won’t come off easily, or if the image still seems to be stuck to the backing – iron some more.

Make sure to press straight down and not slide from side to side like you would if your were ironing. Assuming you iron… ;)

Then, just cut out your pieces and you’re ready to play!  So, there you have it. A super cheap, lightweight, easy to make at home endless supply of new toys that will match your child’s changing passions and is washable to boot!

All cut out and ready to be played with.

We keep ours, er, our children’s stored in zip loc bags, but then…we keep everything stored in zip loc bags!  They do really keep the pieces organized and contained easily and the pocket gives you an easy place to keep different sets.

Pieces are easy to store in sandwich sized ziploc bags.

Made some of these yourself? We’d love to see your creations!  Happy travels!

The post Felt (Flannel) Boards – Cheap, Easy DIY Travel Games That Are Great for Travel with Kids appeared first on Ian and Wendy's Travel Blog.