Disney {the road trip}

Dillon is getting super excited about going to Disney and so am I!!! He asks every day if its time to go see "big Mickey" yet, and we go over how many days until we leave and "daddy's coming too, mommy's coming too, Dillon's coming too." The only thing I am a little nervous about is the trip down and back. D is pretty good in the car now, but we have never driven THIS far with him. My mind has been ticking about all the activities to collect the past few weeks to keep him busy as much as possible. We are leaving super early Monday morning and hoping we can occupy him with breakfast, lots of playing, videos, more eating, Iphone apps, lunch and then maybe we can get a nice long nap thrown in there (say a prayer for a LONG one, lol). Then, it will hopefully be time for dinner when he gets up, more playing and then arrive in Orlando! While out shopping, Dillon and I have hit up the cheap stores to look for little activities...I didn't want to spend a fortune on new toys/stuff for him that he will probably just ruin or loose on the trip. The goal is to bring some new stuff to get his attention and some things he already has that are his favorites. To my surprise, Dollar Tree had a TON of Mickey stuff...score!! My new favorite "cheap as dirt and awesome toddler toy" store is Five Below. Couldn't believe all the cool stuff I found! Here is a start of what we have so far...I'm sure this will only get us through a couple hours, haha! 

I will label everything and where I found it in case you may need ideas for keeping your sanity fun road trip activities!

 

(please excuse the cell phone picture in dark room)

Left to right, bottom to top:

1. Red Tube-This is a mini M&M jar with a lid that snaps off, I'm going to fill this with pennies for counting, tracing, and throwing in the fountains at Disney.

2. Marble game-This is a container of oats with a cross slit into the lid for pushing marbles through, just a fine motor game to keep him busy. Marbles are from Dollar Tree.

3. aluminum foil-for making shapes, animals, hats, whatever else we can come up with!

4. Mickey box-This was a great find at Ross for 2 bucks! I will store some games inside and use it later for our Disney memorabilia.

5. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse coloring book from Dollar Tree. Lots of coloring on this trip!

6. Mickey Mouse stamps from Dollar Tree, he loves to stamp.

7. Mickey balloon from Kroger...just for fun!

8.Mickey and Friends puzzle from Dollar Tree...lets hope its not too hard.

9. Travel Mickey coloring pages and markers from Five Below. This will be great because it opens up like a book and has a little space for the markers so they won't roll away.

10. Mickey bubbles from Target-these are the best kind of bubbles, the ones that you squeeze and the wand pops up from inside ready with solution on it! No mess unless you turn it upside down.

11. Skittles...I don't need to explain this one, lol. Who doesn't like candy we can count, color sort and eat! Nothing like a good old sugar rush to get us through the ride! :)

12. Mickey color matching game-I made this from paint swatches found at Home Depot (free!) and a red file folder. Just glued them on and clipped the matches onto the side.

13. Take Along Thomas from Target-this is something we already had but is a big hit, he loves his choo choos! He will be able to play with this in his lap, I will explain later.

14. Lightning McQueen gummies with tongs-these were an awesome Dollar Tree find, the tongs light up and will give him something to do while eating them.

15. Crayon rings from Dollar Tree-you put them on your fingers to color with, super cute!

16. Dry erase markers for board from Five Below.

17. Stickerland activity book from Five Below-this is cool, its a sticker book where you build your car with stickers of wheels, car parts, drivers, etc.

18.Dry erase board from Five Below-this will serve as a lot of things, a tray for doing puzzles, trains and coloring, stickers and eating.

19. Donald wall climber from Dollar Tree-this is one of those things that sticks to the wall and flops down...we will see how it works, you never know with Dollar Tree toys lol.

20. I Spy Domnino game from Five Below-fun game to find the matching pictures and pick out things he knows.

21. Easter Eggs from Dollar Tree-these are from his Easter basket but will double for playing matching games and "hide the whatever" inside.

22. Playdough from Target-he can hide things inside, pretend to cook, make animals, etc.

23. My First Scribble Pad, this was a Christmas gift and he loves it. There are really cute doodles already drawn on the pages and you can color them or add to them.

24. Stickers- to put on paper, mommy, Dillon, etc.

25. My First Words flash cards with stickers from Five Below-it looked cool, hopefully he will like it!

26. In the City puzzle book from Five Below-he will love finding the trucks and things in the book and it will take longer since there is the puzzle part too!

27. Books we already have like Cherrioes book where you put the real Cherrioes in the holes to make a picture, Curious George On the Go, and First 100 Things that Go.

28. Tonka Chuck truck and ramp from Wal mart clearance- this might last a coupe minutes but worth a try lol

29. Construction paper we already had-we can do a few things with this, tear into pieces, fold into paper airplanes, color on, etc.

Other things not pictured-

*Lots of snacks like "smoothies", crackers, Mickey Mouse Foodles from Target (have apples, cheese and grapes in a Mickey shaped container)

 *The Iphone-Some of Dillon's favorite apps are Monkey Lunchbox, Paint with Sparkles, Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Dance Mickey and Youtube.

Let me know if you have any other ideas!!  :)

Hipster

Dillon will finally keep sunglasses on because his cousin wears them...so we went to Target to pick out some shades and a new hat! This is what he picked, such a hipster!

Vintage Love

I am loving the vintage cameras my mom brought today. This one is my grandpas from 1930! It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's the kind that accordions out and you hold it against your chest and look down into the "viewfinder." She also found one at a thrift store from 1975...I really want to see if it still works!!

The Most Magical Place on Earth!

Our trip (Dillon's first!) to Disney World is fast approaching...and I need to get going on all these ideas in my head before I'm up the whole weekend before finishing everything! Yes, I know all this extra stuff is optional and totally not necessary, but its fun and I like making it to put a smile on D's face! 

Pinterest has been a big help to finding ideas for projects and resort tips specifically with toddlers! It will be very different from my last two trips...I will probably be riding rides I haven't been on yet! (as in the slow ones, haha!)

So, here are the projects I found to put a little of my own twist on...

Source: vermillionrules.blogspot.com via Heidi on Pinterest

A countdown made with a paper chain...I am going to make one for D to count from 10 days before we leave!

Source: family.go.com via Heidi on Pinterest

A cute tote bag to store snacks, waters, souvenirs, etc. Not sure how I will make it, but something similar.

Source: dixiedelights.blogspot.com via Heidi on Pinterest

Autograph book for D...space for pictures next to autograph! I will probably find an album instead of laminating.

Source: etsy.com via Heidi on Pinterest

An appliqued Mickey T shirt with his name...and I'm going to make red gingham shorts to match!

Source: dixiedelights.blogspot.com via Heidi on Pinterest

Mickey matching game for on the road

Source: dixiedelights.blogspot.com via Heidi on Pinterest

Road trip bucket filled with Mickey things...not as crazy these though!

A few things we already have that we are bringing along...

Source: disneystore.com via Heidi on Pinterest

 Wow, I really need to get started!!  I am probably more excited about Disney than Dillon is!! But, every time we ask Dillon if he wants to go see big Mickey and go to Mickey's house, he squeals, shouts "yeaaaaaaah!" and jumps up and down. I can only imagine what he will do when we get there! 

Dillonisms-Part 2

More cute things we hear from our silly boy who doesn't stop talking until 8:30pm.  :)

"Mommy, I sit on my knees."- as in, I am a big boy and sitting up on my knees means that. lol

"oKAAAY, mommy, oKAAAAAY daddy"-said like how a teenager would say it when there like okay already, mom.

"Firetruck go eat lunch, fireman go up ladder"-Everyday he talks about what the firetruck and firemen are doing when we drive by the firehouse.

"Thanks Mama, you best"- Yes I know haha

 "Bye big cow"- he still talks about not wanting to see the big cow (that walks around) when we go to Chick fil a (he was scared) from almost a year ago!

He loves smoothies and calls them "suuuumeeeeeessss!" So cute.

Hearts

Dillon and I have been talking about hearts, family and love for the past couple weeks in preparation of Valentine's Day! I already know how much he loves his mommy and daddy (the random "I love you, Mommy"s and sloppy kisses are the best!) and I wanted him to make some art projects to display around the house, which is my favorite part of holidays and "kinda sorta holidays" now...decorating so Dillon gets excited! A new tradition we started recently is to decorate the vase on our kitchen table to go along with the holiday...like at Christmas, it had red and green "ornaments" like a tree, hearts for Valentine's Day, shamrocks for St Patty's, eggs for Easter, etc. That way, when we sit down to dinner, we can talk with Dillon about what's on the "tree."  We made a felt heart garland and stamped some hearts onto paper with a toilet paper roll. Dillon insisted we make all color hearts too, not just red!  Tonight we are going to make heart cookies and then tomorrow, I am going to make salmon, asparagus, red potatoes and a lemon raspberry cake for a family Valentine's Day dinner(excited to be staying home and not going out...we have had plenty of dates lately and I want to include D man!) Dillon may get lucky with some goodies in his little robot heart felt bag (dollar section of Target, whoot!).

Hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day!
(ps-ignore all grammatical errors in this post, I am typing this after having my eyes dilated and can't see, lol)

Potty Time

We have been "potty training" for about 2 weeks and things are going along slowly. I don't know if its me that's not ready or him that's not ready but I think we are just going to take it one step at a time and see how it goes. I am definitely not going to push him if he is not ready. We bought a couple books and this potty...

D likes sitting on the small potty/vs big potty and likes to dance along to the music, but he doesn't actually use the potty yet. Right now we are at step one of just sitting on the potty and eating M&Ms for sitting for a long time. Tonight he dropped one (an M&M) in the toilet and picked it up and ate it when I wasn't looking...oops. At least he didn't pee in it! Ha!  If we get desperate, we might try the "run around in just underwear at home all day" method and see how he does, with a towel in each room ready to wipe up pee. Oh the joys of potty training! :)

Bowling!

We took Dillon bowling for the first time on NYE with our friends and he had a blast! He also loved the arcade! I love how he excited he was even though he didn't knock down the pin...and I'm pretty sure he had a better score than I did.

Head-Shots for Website

My photography website was in need of some updating so I asked a friend from high school, who is also a photographer, to take some head-shots to put on my welcome and bio page. This was something I am not use to and definitely felt weird being on the other side of the camera!  We had a blast exploring downtown Cary as we tried not to freeze to death! Here are a few pictures I plan on using!  Chris did a great job, you can find his website here!

(photos are copyright of Chris Winstead Photography, please do not copy)

Dillon turned 2!! (in November!)

Birthdays are fun and they only come once a year, so why not have big parties?! I planned a big party for Dilllon's first birthday and the second one was not as big, but definitely put some planning into it. This year is probably the last of the crazy parties for a while, the first two were awesome but I might not have as much time as I did for those. Party planning is fun but can stressful. Especially when you plan for an outdoor party the end of November and do not reserve the shelter. Talk about an ulcer. Luckily, we had perfect weather (sunny and 70's) and no one was at the shelter when I arrived 2 hours early to set up! Yay!  Dillon had a choo choo train themed party and enjoyed all of it...except the cake again. He just didn't want to destroy daddy's awesome creation. :)  All of the cute labels, banner, cupcake toppers, etc came from Etsy, which was super easy because all I had to do what print and cut with a puncher and paper cutter! We had a great time with friends and family and Dillon got some fun gifts, lots of train stuff which he loved! Here are some pictures from his special day!