Art Supplies for Toddlers

Monday, May 30, 2016

With two toddlers keeping them busy and entertained can be exhausting. We spend a lot of time doing 'art' activities. Wyatt loves playing Play-doh, coloring, and painting. And Stella likes eating Play-doh and crayons.


These are a few things that I always make sure we have on hand in our art drawer.


Washable Paint | I love to do crafts with the kids' hands and feet so this is perfect for activities like that.
Color Wonder Markers & Paper | We just recently got into these and they are great for Stella. I don't have to worry about her coloring all over the table or herself. Or eating them.
Crayons | Obviously crayons are a great and easy art option, especially for Wyatt. Stella is still into eating them so they're not as great for her, but she'll get there.
Dot Paint | We love "dot dot paint"! It's such an easy paint option for Wyatt. He doesn't have to monitored to much and it's a relatively clean paint option.
Play-doh | Play-Doh is probably Wyatt's favorite activity. He loves to use plastic cookie cutters to cut out shapes.
Glue Sticks | Honestly, I just realized how well Wyatt can handle glue. I have some pre-cut shapes and I let him glue them on construction paper. 
Construction Paper | We keep lots of construction paper around. It's great for coloring, folding, gluing, and someday we'll get to cutting. 
Markers | Wyatt really enjoys coloring with markers. I love the little pictures that he draws and the stories that go along with them.
Easel | We have this exact easel and it's so great! It folds up nicely and sits on the table when we want it out. It has a chalkboard, white board, and paper. 

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An iPhone Photo Dump

Thursday, May 26, 2016

I've been using my "real" camera so much lately that I haven't been sharing as many of my phone pictures. These are a few gems I found while I was scrolling through.



{one} Checking out the sailboats on the lake before the wedding.
{two} Wedding ready.
{three} Friday morning errands.
{four} Enjoying a celebratory popsicle. 
{five} Ready for church.
{six} Testing out the lawn mowers on a family date.
{seven} These two at the doctor. 
{eight} Sissy loves her 'sitty'.
{nine} Big boy getting his teeth cleaned.

Love these two...just a little bit.
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#Seesummerbetter With Warby Parker {Home Try-On}

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

A couple weeks ago I shared about a great online glasses company, Warby Parker. (You can find that post here.) One of the great things I shared is that Warby Parker offers a Home Try-On option, which is especially great for moms! So I took advantage and wanted to share about my experience. 
First off, they have so many great options and it was so hard to pick just 5 pairs of glasses to try! I narrowed down my options and ordered them on a Monday, and they were on my doorstep by Friday!

They arrived in this great heavy duty box, with a return shipping label included! 
LEIGHTY in Striped Sassafras

{one} These were by far my most favorite! So comfortable! I have a hard time finding glasses that fit my face; they're usually too wide and they always want to slide off. These fit perfectly! 
 LEIGHTY in River Stone Blue Fade

{two} These were the same style as above, LEIGHTY, but they felt larger on my face when I looked in the mirror. Again, they were really comfortable and I actually liked color combo more in person. 


STREETER in Hickory Fade

{three} The STREETER were too large for my face. Like I mentioned before, they always felt like they were going to slide right off. The color on them was really pretty, though.


ANDERS in Crystal

{four} I actually kind of liked these. They were a small frame and they fit really well, but Sean immediately didn't like the "clear look". 

STOCKTON in Whiskey Tortoise

{five} I wasn't too sure about the round look, but they were comfortable. I liked the tortoise print, which is usually my go-to anyways. 

All in all, the Home Try-On option worked out really well! I will definitely try it again in the future when I'm on the hunt for some new glasses. It sure beats taking the kids to help me pick out glasses! 
I should also mention that they also have sunglasses that are available for home try-on as well! Just in time for summer!
Linking up for What I'm Wearing Wednesday
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**I was not reimbursed by Warby Parker for this post; I enjoy sharing great products with you all. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
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Potty Training Success...Finally!!

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

I'm finally ready to say that Wyatt is finally completely potty trained. We are officially a house free of pull-ups. Sorta. But more on that in a minute.


Wyatt's potty training journey started for us back in January. You can read more here, but basically he was ready...to pee in the potty. He was potty trained pretty quickly and was really good at peeing in the potty, or in anything. We did not have very good luck with getting him to poop in the potty. We ultimately made the decision to wait until we thought he was a little more ready. 
Fast forward to two weeks ago. Basically we were at the point where Wyatt was wearing pull-ups at nap-time, bedtime, and whenever he needed to poop (he was very good at telling us!). Sometime around the beginning of May he started waking up in the mornings, and after naps, completely dry. We decided that he was ultimately ready to give-up pull-ups, and I was ready for the task of getting him to poop in the potty (or so I thought). 

Below is basically a summarization of how it went. And let me just add, when I say he didn't want to sit on the potty, I'm saying like screaming, crying, yelling--didn't want to sit on the potty.
Friday, May 13--First night without a pull-up. No accidents.
Saturday, May 14--Day 2, no pull-ups. Didn't poop and didn't want to sit on the potty.
Sunday, May 15--Day 3, no pull-ups. Pooped in his underwear during nap-time. Didn't want to sit on the potty.
Monday, May 16--Fought hard on not wanting to poop in the potty. I cut a hole in one of Stella's diapers (we had no pull-ups). He wore the diaper and pooped while sitting on the potty. (Daddy went after work and bought more pull-ups.)
Tuesday, May 17--Again, really fought me on not wanting to sit on the potty. I got him to sit on the potty and poop while wearing a pull-up. (Still no pull-ups at nap-time or bedtime, and no accidents.)
Wednesday, May 18--Did not want to sit on the potty and poop but he FINALLY did it!! Received a sticker and ice cream. And daddy took him to the store for a prize!
Thursday, May 19--Pooped on the potty while we were at a friend's house. Did not fight me too hard and received a Popsicle.
Friday, May 20--Held it most of the day but did poop on the potty, and got ice cream afterwards.
Saturday, May 21--Willingly (at my request) sat on the potty and "tried" multiple times but didn't poop.
Sunday, May 22--Told me he needed to poop but then said he didn't need to. I told him to try and he pooped. Again, he got ice cream and a sticker.

We finally made it to the point where he now tells us when he needs to go and takes the initiative on his own. He still gets a little nervous when he first sits down and tries to get out of it, but we just ask him to try. 


It's such a nice feeling to not have to worry about potty training. Oh, wait. After all that, now Stella is potty training. SMH. I won't go into a lot of detail yet but she has pretty much potty trained herself.
Moral of the story, your child will eventually be potty trained. It may not all happen at once but it will happen. And then, if you're like me, you'll start all over on another kid.
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{FIVE} Favorite Moments of the Week

Friday, May 20, 2016

TGIF!! I guess. Sean has had two days off in the last two weeks (both were Sundays) and he'll actually be working all of this weekend (including Sunday). I'm a bit exhausted. We're also in the final stages of potty training Wyatt. So, yea, it's been fun around here. And just so you know before you start reading, this should be titled: Five on Friday, The Potty Edition.


{ONE}
To start off, like I said, we're in the final stages of potty training Wyatt. I'm not going to go into a lot of details because I'm not confident that we're finished, yet. But we've been without any pull-ups for three days now, so we're doing OK. Well, I'm not, but the process is going OK. Hopefully I'll be able to share more next week.

{TWO}
So to go along with numero uno, we've been bribing the shit out of Wyatt. Literally. On Tuesday he had a really good day so Sean told him he'd take him to the store when he got home to pick out a toy. Wyatt talked & talked all afternoon about some Paw Patrol toy that he wanted. What did he bring home?? Three balls (a Princess Sophia ball, 4-square ball, & a soccer ball) and some amazing soccer socks!! smh He's a mess.

{THREE}
Our week has been really low-key, other than that above. It's been pretty cool and cloudy so we haven't been up to a whole lot. Plus I don't want to get too far from the house, in case we need a potty.

{FOUR}
In cased you missed yesterday's post, Wyatt had his last day of school yesterday. They had an end-of-year program, which I finally found a video of, and it's hysterical. Wyatt was full of character and energy the entire 5 minutes. 

{FIVE}
And just so Miss Stella isn't left out this week. Her new favorite outfit is her "Selsa" dress. And you have to play "Let it Go" pretty much the entire time she's wearing it. She also refers to all other princesses as "Selsa". 


Hope you all have a fabulous weekend! We're attending a wedding on Sunday afternoon...with the kids. Should be interesting. And I'm hoping to sneak out at some point and get a pedicure...by myself. As always, you can follow along on SnapChat (ash_dorey).


 
DARCI | NATASHA | APRIL | CHRISTINA
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School's Out for Summer

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Wyatt had his last day in the two-year-old class today. Cue the tears. 
As you can tell he was not sad about it. At all. Although, I'm not sure he fully understands that he won't be going back to Mrs. Brittany's class ever again.




 All of the classes put on a little program and the 5 year olds had their "graduation". 
As you can see Wyatt was not shy, at all. He was jumping and singing and yelling at me through the entire performance. It was quite entertaining.



We have loved having Mrs. Brittany as our teacher this year! Wyatt has learned so much and has really blossomed into a social butterfly. He's also made some new friends this year and I know he'll miss them this summer.  

And I think Stella is going to be really upset when she realizes that she won't be in Mrs. Brittany's class next year. But she will at least be in Mrs. Dana's. Really cue the tears.
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10 on Tuesday || California

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Coming up in a couple of weeks, not only do I turn the big 3-0, but my precious husband is taking us on a trip to California. This is a trip that is very special to us. We had originally planned to take this trip in 2012 but we could not due to the unfortunate death of my father-in-law. 
So today I thought I'd share 10 stops we're planning while we're out there.
  1. Golden Gate Bridge
  2. Yosemite. 
  3. Waterfalls in Yosemite: Vernal Falls, Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite Falls
  4. Tunnel View
  5. Half Dome
  6. Lake Tahoe
  7. Sierra Nevada Mountains
  8. Glass Beach in Fort Bragg
  9. Pacific Coastline along Route 1
  10. Giant Redwoods

If you've been to any of the areas where we will be, I'd love to hear if there's something you strongly suggest we should see! Or if there are any places (besides In-N-Out...duh) where we should eat. 



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{FIVE} Favorite Moments of the Week

Friday, May 13, 2016

First off, happy Friday the 13th...is that a thing?? 
I know I say this every week, but for real, this has been a crazy week! Last Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday consisted of migraines. Yea, not fun. But that's a whole other story for a whole other day. But I'm happy to be feeling better this week! So here's a little re-cap of what we've been up to.

{ONE}
Our Mother's Day was pretty simple and great. I was served breakfast and coffee, and then we got ourselves ready for church. Wyatt requested Sonic for lunch, so that's what we ate. Ended up with a migraine Sunday evening, but was given an entire hour to myself, followed by Klondike bars, and a hot shower.


{TWO}
Last Friday Wyatt had his first dentist appointment and he did amazing. He sat there the entire time while she counted, cleaned, and even used the little sucker thing in his mouth. I was impressed. Anyways, they apparently give you ice cream coupons at the dentist?? Seems like a complete oxymoron to me. They gave one to Wyatt and one to Stella, and they have both been cashed in!

 {THREE}
My mornings alone with this one are numbered. It's almost summer and then next year she'll be gone on Tuesday and Thursday mornings too. Which I'm not complaining about. But I have enjoyed our time alone together.
Doesn't 19 months look good on her?? 

 {FOUR}
Speaking of my time with Miss Stella, we planted some flowers this week. I have what I like to call a black thumb, so we'll see how these flowers do.

{FIVE}
Sean and I had two dates this week! We went out on Saturday (after an afternoon with a migraine) to celebrate me for Mother's Day. Nothing says mother's day like a night out of the house, am I right?!

 And then on Tuesday we went to Sean's "graduation" and dinner in honor of a Leadership class he has been taking. Great things happen with great leaders! 



 
DARCI | NATASHA | APRIL | CHRISTINA

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