Florida Prepaid Scholarship Contest- 10 Will Win 2-Year State College Scholarship

My three faces of Florida Prepaid College Plan

Its that time of year again! Open enrollment time for Florida Prepaid time! I have shared before, and I will share again why I am passionate about this program...its those three in the photo above. Those kids, my babies...they are going places, and with Florida prepaid we can afford the places they go a little easier. I can only imagine how hard it would be to have multiple children in college at once, so we are trying to offset that battle and have at least some of it paid by the time my babies go. We can only afford to purchase one year of university each, at a time, so right now my oldest will have one year paid for, the middle child will have three years paid for, and the princess should have her complete bachelors degree paid in full if we keep on this track!  

How would you like to win a scholarship for TWO years of Florida prepaid for your kids? 

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  Florida Prepaid is giving Florida families the opportunity to win one of 10, 2-Year Florida College Plans. 

Ten Florida families will win two free years of college from the Florida Prepaid College Foundation,which is launching its Florida Prepaid Scholarship Program. The annual scholarship program runs between September 19, 2017 and October 10, 2017. There are tons of ways to get many different entries, and over 50 different prize packages! Man, how nice would it be to tell your kids you had their first two years of college paid for, just by entering a contest? So enter, share with friends and family so they can enter, and keep coming back to the site every day to learn more and get extra chances to win!

Florida Prepaid Twitter Party and Open Enrollment

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Bloggin' Mamas & the Florida Prepaid College Board. All opinions expressed are my own.

It is that time again! Open Enrollment time for Florida Prepaid! Why does this excite me? Because education is something that I am passionate about and because my three kids are part of the Florida Prepaid plan themselves! Florida Prepaid makes college affordable with many pricing structures that work for all incomes, and guarantees our children college tuition even paid for, even though it may be much more expensive when they attend. We are currently doing the one year plan, and my oldest will have at least one year paid for, my middle will have three years paid and my youngest will have all of her college paid for if we continue on this path until high school graduation. If you have a bit more money available, or if you have less children there are other options available like paying all four years in full, or paying for the four years of college at once instead of one year at a time like we are doing. There is also the 2+2 option, which I love! This gives your kid a great foundation of having the community college background, but then attending the University afterward. Even better, students on this plan are guaranteed admission to a University when they have completed their state college requirements.

Your Child is Worth the Investment with Florida Prepaid #startingisbelieving

I have shared before, but here I am sharing again because I feel this is SO IMPORTANT to share with you! Florida Prepaid is the way to go to plan for your kids financial future. I realize raising kids is expensive, and hard work, but this is one thing that you definitely need to invest in. I get it, I totally do. We have THREE kids, and the oldest is 9. Considering he will be an early to graduate because of his birthday, we only have 8 more years to plan for his college. Thankfully because of birthday money and other stuff we have saved, we do have what I would say is approximately a year of university saved for him, but that wont go too far and that year will be over quickly! We have now signed him and his two younger siblings up for Florida prepaid. We can only afford to do one year university for each child at this point through Florida Prepaid, but that is one year closer to getting towards our goal of having the bulk of their college paid for. 

You might not know what the program is all about. There are so many different options to choose from. You can purchase one year of community college, one year of state college, two of each, or all four years! You can do this with monthly payments or you can do this by paying in bulk, and the cost will be set at today's rate rather than the rate it might be in ten or even 18 years. What is better is the kids have up to 10 years to use this after their projected start date. That is amazing because it took me until I was 21 to get serious about college, so I know that might happen with them as well. Everything my husband and I read told us we had to do this. We never thought in a million years that we would be able to afford this program for THREE kids at once, but we are just paying for one single year of university at a time for each child. My oldest might not have his entire education paid for by the time he gets there, but luckily we do have some money put aside in an account and we can at least get him two years of university paid for, and that is a big help!! My younger two should be completely paid for by the time they get there if we just keep plugging along! It is exciting to us to know that we can afford and provide a valuable education for our kids. 

Open Enrollment for Florida Prepaid College Ends 2/28!

These are the newest faces of the Florida Prepaid College program. Years ago we had checked into it but decided against it because we thought if we moved away our son would be forced to come back to Florida to come to college, and to be honest, "mama doesn't have time for that!" I want to keep my kids close to me and really hope they go to college close by and I was under the mistaken idea that he would HAVE to use it in Florida but that isn't true. Nope, the money amount that Florida Prepaid covers can be used at school nation wide. In fact, there is an added bonus. If we do move out of state and our son does decide to go to school here- he will still get IN STATE tuition fees. That is a HUGE savings!! If our oldest doesn't go to college or if he gets a scholarship, we could change the beneficiary to his younger siblings. Since we are only paying for one year of university at a time, he will probably have made his decision about college and scholarships before his siblings are ready to go, so we can definitely transfer it over then! If none of our kids decide to go to college (ummmm, they better!) then you can cash out the amount paid in. 

Discovery Cove, Orlando Review

This past weekend, my husband, eight year old son and I had a chance to explore Discovery Cove, Orlando and I am so excited to tell you about it! I have to say, this was seriously one of my absolute favorite experiences that I have had related to this blog, or really in my life. Discovery Cove impressed all of us so much, and we had a terrific day together!

We first arrived at 8:45, which we thought was prior to opening but that was not the case. Apparently, they start letting people in at around 7:30, but you cannot start swimming until 8:30. I was a little bummed because you get your ticket to experience the Dolphins based on a first come, first serve basis, so I thought that we would not be seeing the dolphins until late that afternoon, but that was not the case at all. We ended up with passes to see the Dolphins at 9:50, so not a long wait at all! We then were greeted by a personal guide, Tina, who escorted us to the cabana that we had reserved for us.  This cabana was stocked with snacks and drinks. It was nice having an amazing place to get out of the sun and just relax for a while! It had a fan going too, so it was a great place to cool off from the hot Florida sun. Since our swim with the dolphins was so soon after we got there, we had just enough time to grab a wet suit for the boys (and a vest for myself because my pregnant belly would not be fitting nicely in a wet suit) and head to the fully equipped bathroom to get changed. I mention fully equipped because there are showers, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, clean towels and even a blow dryers for you to get cleaned off at the end of the day.  We then headed to the Dolphins and got to experience Roxy first hand!

Gatorland in Orlando, Fl is Great Fun for the Whole Family!

This past weekend, the weather here in Florida was magical! We were lucky enough to head down to Busch Gardens in Tampa, and then the next day we swung over to Orlando to Gatorland to check them out! I had never even heard of Gatorland, and did not really know what to expect of the place. I also am phobic about alligators so it is strange that I even decided to go there, but I love my son, and my son loves reptiles so I took one for the team! Astonishingly, I LOVED Gatorland and my husband and son did as well!

"Gatorland is a 110-acre theme park and wildlife preserve, combining “Old Florida” charm with exciting new exhibits and entertainment.  The park opened as a roadside attraction in 1949.  Today, it provides affordable-priced family fun with thousands of alligators, crocodiles, an aviary, breeding marsh with observation tower, petting zoo, nature walk, educational wildlife programs, Gatorland award-winning gift shop, Florida’s best train-ride, restaurant, Gator Gully Splash Park and one-of-a-kind reptilian shows including the Gator Wrestlin’ Show, Gator Jumparoo and the Up-close Encounters Show."

We LOVED Christmas Town at Busch Gardens, Tampa!

I was provided tickets to visit Busch Gardens free of charge for review from Busch Gardens and Mom Central.

We are a family that is often on the go! We love theme parks and to stay busy! We especially love to explore Florida, and what our beautiful state has to offer in the wintertime, because as any true Floridian will tell you, we hibernate in the summer! This was very true this past weekend when we were able to head down to Tampa and enjoy Busch Gardens. This weekend temperature was a lovely 68 during the day, and it dropped to around 50 by the time the park closed. It was the PERFECT weather to enjoy riding roller coasters and then enjoy the Christmas Town after dark! 

This time we headed to Busch Gardens, we left our toddler with my Mom so we could all fully enjoy the roller coasters. My seven year old son JUST made the height requirements for ALL the rides, so that meant a day full of adventure for us!! We were able to ride a LOT because the lines were pretty minuscule. I think the longest we waited in one line was 30 minutes, and that was at Cheetah Hunt, which is near the front of the park, so it gets a lot of people checking it out. After every single ride, my son said that that was his new favorite. At the end of the park he could not tell us which one he loved most, so suffice it to say, he did loved our visit and the coasters!! 

My husbands and my ride of choice was SheiKra, maybe it is because we are getting older, but this ride is a bit "smoother" feeling than others and did not bump us around as much. While it is pretty scary and offers lots of drops and thrills, it was very comfortable, and I could have rode it over and over again. Cheetah Hunt is the newest coaster, and boy is it fast! It is the longest coaster in the park, but somehow it did not feel that way to me. Perhaps that is because it is as quick as a cheetah! I refused to go on Falcon's Fury because I do not like the sensation of being dropped, but my hubby and son loved it! They said it was a ton of fun, and my son loved being face down hurtling to the earth (eeks!) The Gwazi was a lot of fun, and this wooden style coaster is more mild compared to others in the park. My son loved it, and I loved the wooden planks because it made it feel more like a train ride. However, it does shake a bit more than others and the vibrations made my back itch. I could only go on Montu once and to be perfectly honest, I was inhaling the peppermint oil afterwards!! All of the loops and drops made me feel a little unsteady on my feet afterwards, but my husband and son rode it twice in a row. There was literally NO WAIT on this ride, so they walked right back on as I sat on a bench and watched from the sidelines! While I am not big on being upside down on a coaster, for some reason the Scorpion offered a much more pleasant roller coaster ride for me, despite being upside down! Maybe it is because it was so speedy, or that it was also one of the smoother rides, but I enjoyed the coaster as much as my son and husband did! Kumba is a massive roller coaster! It offers huge drops and lots of loops and twists! It is amazingly thrilling, but did make me a little unsteady on my feet afterwards! That night after a day filled with all of these coasters, I felt like I was still on the ride as I lay in bed! I've not had as much fun as this in years and loved riding on these with my boys! 

Nick Hotel Introduces Their Summer of Shell!

We were recently invited back to the Nick Hotel because they are offering the Summer of Shell! This summer from May 23- September 1 Nickelodeon Suits Resort is offering lots of interaction with The Famous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and pulling out all stops to make this summer fun for kids of all ages! I know I was a huge fan of the Turtles as a child, so I was very excited to introduce them to my son (and nephew pictured.) We had a ton of fun at this special TMNT Retro Weekend Event. We were able to meet the original voice cast for the Turtles, and had photo opportunities with the Turtles and April! 

So, if you have a little one who is in love with the Turtles, you might be asking yourself what this Summer of Shell is all about. The Summer of Shell is offering lots of fun activities and features including:

• TMNT themed rooms. Due to a limited number of rooms, you cannot order this online yet, but will be an upgrade that you can ask about at the check in desk. Online booking of the TMNT rooms will be available soon. 
• Turtle Themed Dinner Shows, Antonio's Pizza-Rama Dinner. On Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays you can now learn new Ninja moves and meet your favorite turtles! 
• Guinness World Record Attempt: August 9, 2014 there will be an attempt made at the lagoon for "Most People Dressed as a Ninja Turtle in One Place." All guest are invited to attend. 
• All NEW TMNT poolside show: Turtle Power. This interactive experience will be so fun for all children, and shows just how lean, mean and green the Turtles can be! Located at the Lagoon Pool on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday.
• There will also be glow parties, games, "dive" in movies and plenty of other TMNT encounters throughout the summer! 
• Brand New TMNT Art at the Lagoon.

Nickelodeon Suites Resort Review- A Vacation in Itself!

I often think that my children are lucky to grow up in Central Florida. They get to experience things on a regular basis that other children only experience on vacation. As often as we have visited Orlando, we have never experienced Nickelodeon Suites Resort, even though I have heard awesome things from friends! My two little boys, my Mom, and I were lucky enough to receive two nights at the Nick Hotel for review purposes on Mother's Day. It turned out to be as big of a treat for my mom and I as it was for my boys. We were treated to an awesome two room suite, the character breakfast, and we even got to attend the live Double Dare show!