Along our Florida family travels, we have really picked up some wacky reminders of our trips! Here’s just a sampling of the kitschy souvenirs my kids have brought home to clutter our shelves. They have totally given up on the idea of a keychain or T-Shirt.   

THE  SHARK – from an Orlando gift shop.  Brandon fell in love with a shark (yes, a real live – well, real dead – shark in formaldehyde). It is so gross to me, but to him it was like finding the golden ticket. He HAD to have it. I did promise him he could choose one small reminder of our trip. I just had no idea there would be an 8-inch dead shark in blue formaldehyde sitting in his room for a year. It was a nice “Show-and-Tell” item until the boys decided to open the jar to see what it FELT like and the blue-dyed water spilled all over my carpet and I had to tell Brandon I had to get rid of it. He thought it was his PET!

(We ended up getting him a dog! Her name is Lexi and I’ll blog about her soon.)

A COCONUT POSTCARD from Fort Myers at the Winter Estate of Thomas Edison – Sure. That makes sense. How could anyone resist sending a giant coconut (already postmarked) to grandparents up North?

(It had absolutely NOTHING to do with Thomas Edison, but the kids thought it was “cool.”)

JUGGLING STICKS FROM “CHINA” – We stopped to check out the glow-in-the-dark Buddhas (Jack collects them) in “China” when we were at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center. Brandon decided that he wanted to try (and buy) Chinese juggling sticks. My 6-year-old will NEVER give up if he wants to learn a new skill. When we were in “China,” he put that determination to work and learned to juggle long rubber sticks. We spent an hour juggling. (The sales woman was the most patient woman at EPCOT!)

SAND GLOBES -- The kids used to collect snow globes. Sitting on their shelves are snow globes from Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and Costa Rica (thank you grandma and grandpa!). But, now we are true Floridians with our very own Sand Globes.

The Ritz-Carlton, Naples, introduced my kids to the alternative to a snow globe – a sand globe filled with beautiful tiny shells and a tiny pretend turtle.

(They now sit on the shelves amongst the snow globes, collecting dust. Every once in while the boys fight over which one is his because the globes look exactly the same. Brandon’s turtle is a slight shade of darker green.)

When we were at the Nickelodeon Family Suites by Holiday Inn in Orlando, the kids had arcade cards that racked up points for prizes; we told them that their prizes would be their souvenirs since we had already spent money on the games. So, thanks to my brilliant idea, I now have 2 GIANT BLOW-UP SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS BASEBALL BATS. 

(They whacked each other over the head the whole ride home, but I saved some money by not going to the gift shop!)

SUGARCUBE DICE: We always bring our Monopoly Game on road-trips. The boys can sit and play quietly for hours so it's some good down time in the hotel room. On one of our trips, we forgot to pack the dice. Desperate times called for desperate measures -- and creativity. (I knew I went to college for some reason!) So, I made them two dice out of sugar cubes and a permanent marker. 

(We returned from that trip months ago and the dice are still in the Monopoly box. Hopefully, the ants won't notice!)

My Expert Advice for Souvenir Shopping: Personally, I recommend something delicious and edible so you don’t have to find more shelf space! A giant Mickey Mouse lollipop or saltwater taffy are usually big hits!