Getting away as a couple is nice, but let’s face it, most of the time us parents are getting away with the kids in tow, still fun! But just a different kind of fun.

Whenever we travel we normally end up staying with family but once in a while sometimes you need that break to and just want to have a getaway with the kids, someplace fun but lets face it,hotels can be boring for kids, and finding a nice hotel that everyone will enjoy and be kid friendly is sometimes a task.

We decided to take a weekend away out to Chicago Illinois to visit hubby’s family, drive out to Schaumburg to take the girls to Legoland, and then make a trip out to Ikea while we’re there. We were lucky enough to have the Eaglewood Resort and Spa accommodate our family for a night.

When you hear the word resort and spa you really don’t think of ‘kid friendly’ but that thought process is just plain wrong, at least at the Eaglewood Resort & Spa. Located in Itasca we were super close to Schaumburg and Chicago at the same time, so it was the perfect middle ground.

We walked into Eaglewood and the lobby was just beautiful and large! To your left you had the reception desk for check in/out, and on the right was a beautiful fireplace along with comfortable seating. Check in was quick and painless and we were given our room keys. Eaglewood Resort and Spa is a pretty large hotel, we walked to the ‘green’ area and took the elevator up to our room. The rooms were in a tower, so it’s a circular hallway which the kids enjoyed running around and chasing each other in. Walking into our room, it was nothing special, pretty typical of a hotel. We had two queen beds, a flat screen T.V., desk & chair, dresser, night table etc. Typical things.

The bathroom was very small, but had 2 separate areas which was nice with a family of 4. We had an area which had the sink, mirror and counter top, and then a separate area with a door which housed the toilet, bathtub/shower. It was nice to be able to get ready to go out while someone else was using the toilet or taking a shower.

One of my favorite features of the room though was the balcony and sliding door, we had a beautiful view of the golf course and it was nice to be able to have a balcony to sit out on (had a small table and two chairs out there to use). The girls especially loved it, they were perfectly safe out on the balcony as it was all enclosed in, and private from the other rooms. The sliding door was also nice to leave open during the day to get some fresh air into the room.

Once we were settled in, we decided to head out to Legoland. The hotel is very close to a ton of different amenities, so there’s always something to do for just about everyone. After our day out we returned to the hotel to relax a little before dinner and bowling. Oh yea, did I mention Eaglewood Resort & Spa has a bowling alley!?!

While relaxing on the bed, we had a knock at the door, hubby answered and in walked a few gentlemen from the hotel with gifts in hand! A basket of fruit and granola bars, bottles of Pelligrino water, bottles of juice, chocolate covered strawberries, and a lunch box FULL of chocolate and candy. My kids were off the wall excited. All of this sent to us complimentary from the hotel!

We decided to take a walk over to the other building where the spa, pool, bowling alley and workout area were located. It’s not too inconvenient at least when the weather is nice to walk over, it’s just a short walk though the parking lot, but if it was raining, or in the cooler months, it’s not something you might want to walk out to. Unfortunately this time we didn’t get a chance to check out the spa, but a cool thing going on that night was a swim in movie! You could swim in the pool and watch a movie at the same time, they had a huge screen in the middle and lots of families swimming and watching The Lion King a the same time.

We however weren’t there to swim, we were excited to head over to the bowling alley. It’s a small alley with only about 6 lanes, but perfect. 10 pin bowling at a hotel, how fun! We played 2 games with the girls (I got smoked lol) and they had a ton of fun. I walked around the building checked out the amazing fitness facility, much more than just a treadmill and a few free weights. They had actual equipment! If we were staying for more than 1 night I would have definitely checked it out, it was like a mini gym, much better than most of the hotel fitness area’s I’ve ever seen.

There was also a room with a golf simulator for all those golf enthusiasts.
After a little snack, we headed downstairs to the Prarie River Restaurant where you could sit indoors, or outside on the patio with live music and a fire pit. We decided to sit outside as during our stay they also had the Sounds of Summer going on where they’d have different live bands every night. After looking at the menu I decided on the Rotisserie Chicken with Pomegranate Infused Oiive Oil, Braised Sun Dried Tomato Chickpeas, and Citrus Polenta. Hubby decided on the Jack Daniels Angus Filet with Gratin Potatoes, baby carrots, asparagus. The kids had the normal kids stuff, mac & cheese and hotdog with fries. We had some amazing bread and butter sent to our table along with the salads that came with our meal. It was hard not to fill up on bread for all of us as it was really good and fresh!

Our meal came, and the food was just amazing! We all enjoyed it, hubby’s steak was so tender it melted in your mouth, my chicken was super tasty with the polenta. We grabbed dessert to bring back up to our room as we were getting eaten alive by mosquito’s on the patio, I guess that’s the only downfall of dinner that night because the food was great.

Time for bed, this is where we weren’t so happy. The girls bed seemed very comfortable, and quiet. Our bed however, was squeaky, very squeaky. Any move made in the bed made a noise, and the bed overall just wasn’t comfortable, hubby woke up with a very sore back, this was probably our only complaint.

In the morning, we headed down to the lobby where you can find the breakfast buffet at Burnham’s. Amazing food! A huge selection for breakfast, healthy whole grain breads, fruit, yogurt, meats, eggs, hash-brows, oatmeal I could go on and on the list would be huge with the amount of food they had to offer! We were FULL for our ride back to Chicago.

We’re already trying to find an excuse to stay out there again, as a family hotel stay, I’d have to say by far this was one of the best experiences and places to stay with everyone. Next time I’d like to take a few ‘mommy hours’ and visit the spa. I’d also like to find a way to get out there for a romantic weekend alone with hubby.

Eaglewood Resort & Spa has a variety of packages to accommodate you as well, if you’re looking for something a little more special than just a hotel stay they have a lover’s package, golfer’s dream package and a shop till you drop package. All of the information for these packages or just to book your weekend away, you can visit their website at eaglewoodresort.com.

Check out what the girls thought about Eaglewood Resort & Spa….

SWEEPSTAKES *ENTER TO WIN*

How would you like to win a Shop Till You Drop package from Eaglewood Resort & Spa? Right now if you “like” them on Facebook you can enter to win a Woodfield Mall package ($159 value) which includes:

- Overnight Accommodations
- In Room Amenity
- Bountiful Breakfast for Two
- $50 Woodfield Mall Gift Card
- Passport To Savings
- Complimentary Shuttle Service

Just head over to their Facebook page to be entered, BUT HURRY the giveaway ends September 30th!

Post is only by the opinion of A Wrestling Addicted Mommy, other views and opinions may vary, please see my disclosure policy for more information. I was given a complimentary stay in exchange for my honest review.

This past July for my birthday my best friend decided to do something a little different for me… Took me to a taping of the new CBC show, In The Kitchen with Stefano Faita! It was a great surprise, and nice to do something I wouldn’t normally do, we headed to Toronto and sat in for a taping of Stefano cooking some YUMMY food!

Here’s my husband, myself, Stefano Faita and my best friend…

Super easy quick recipe…

Ingredients
1/4 C chopped onion
1 tsp butter
3 tsp flour
2 tsp curry powder
1/8 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 C fat free chicken broth
1 C milk
Chicken Breast or Tenders (I used tenders)
1/2 C Raisins
1 Apple Chopped

Directions
Saute the onion in the butter until soft. Add the flour and spices. Stir in the milk and the chicken broth, bring to a boil until thickened. Add the chicken, raisins and apple and cook until heated through. Serve over rice.
Number of servings 4.

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Mandatory Entry:  Leave me a comment letting me know what you do to keep your skin looking younger.

(Please remember to leave a comment for each extra entry done)

~ Follow my blog publicly via Google Friend Connect
~ Subscribe to my blog via RSS reader or Email Subscription (1 extra entry for each)
~ Follow me on Twitter then tweet about the giveaway (can be done daily) comment with the link to your tweet..

You can use the following to tweet:

Win a Minus417 Professional Nail Care Kit from @wrestlingaddict http://bit.ly/nUbDeF #giveaway (ends 9/27)

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~ Share this blog post just leave your username/link and where shared. (1 extra entry for each, this includes Facebook, Google, Stumbleupon, “liking” this post, digg etc.)
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Giveaway ends 9/27/11 at 11:59pm ET and is open to those with a U.S. Mailing Address.

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Information and Giveaway prize were all provided by KMR Communications. Post is only by the opinion of A Wrestling Addicted Mommy, other views and opinions may vary, please see my disclosure policy for more information.

With two kids, saving for college is always something we think about, especially when our girls are already talking about what they want to do when they’re older. We’re not rich, far from it and in today’s economy it’s just so hard for us as parents to make sure we save enough for everyday life and emergency’s, sometimes saving for a college fund is just hard to come by.

There’s always some small ways to save just a little though to make sure that our kids have a future to look forward to, lord knows that I don’t want them to be in far more debt when they come out of college like we both have. It’s not a lot, but it’s a small way of saving, think about all of the pennies you can collect in a year, round up all the change you find around the house, in your purse in your pocket, collect them all in a jar and at the end of the year, take that savings and put it into an account just for your kids!

Rebates! Any of you take those mail in rebates, send them out and collect the money? Instead of spending it on something else, why not put them into a savings account for your kids to tuck away.

Saving for kids college can be as simple as stashing away $5 per kid a week makes a dent in an account and a brighter future. Think of that candy you bought them, the ice cream you took them out for, things you didn’t really need to do, you could have put that away for their college education!

There are so many easy ways to stash just a little bit away, saving something is better than saving nothing it all! You can even look into opening a 529 account for each child rather that just a regular savings account. A 529 account will allow you to save for their education and offer a tax advantage as well. Normally with these accounts there’s an age limit to when they can access the money too! If your children decide against college for whatever reason, they can still use the money in the account but will be subject to a 10% tax penalty for not using it for education.

I’ll allow my kids to have a choice, but with the way things are going these days, the more education they can have the better job and money they’ll make in the future!

At their young ages, my one daughter (8) wants to be a fashion designer or a vet, the other (5) wants to be a professional dancer. They’ll both need money for education in any of those careers if they want to succeed, so I might as well start saving now!

Post is only by the opinion of A Wrestling Addicted Mommy, other views and opinions may vary, please see my disclosure policy for more information.