Morning Mania

Mornings in the Dowdy house have become hectic, stressful and crazy!  Addison is not a morning person at all and waking her up, getting her dressed and off to school without a tantrum or two is nearly impossible.  I dread waking up Addi in the morning and it normally takes her 10 minutes before she will get out of bed.  Then we battle trying to get dressed, going potty and brushing her teeth.  Most mornings I end up sweaty with toothpaste on my shirt and late after trying everything I can think of to get her out the door.  I've tried redirecting her, bribing her, giving her time outs (which I don't have time for), waking her up earlier, setting a timer...you name it.  Plus, Mike is already at work before we even get out of bed, so I don't have an extra set of hands. 

After a horrible morning this morning I decided enough fighting - she works better with positive rewards so we are going to try a new approach.  I looked to my favorite resource...pinterest!  I found a few morning reward charts and modified them to create my own. 

She had a blast taking all the pictures and I told her that in the morning she would get to see her surprise.  After looking through lots of websites for reward ideas, I finally came up with what would work best for us.  Most mornings Addi gets a Nutra Grain bar on her way to school so instead of a "bar" as she calls it, she will get to pick a breakfast treat.  I got mini blueberry muffins (which she thinks are cupcakes), chocolate covered granola bar and a Lucky Charms cereal treat bar.  I wanted to keep it healthier than candy but still give her something to look forward to.  We will limit these treats to only mornings when she gets 4 stickers.  And this girl loves to be able to pick her own stuff (she's very independent) so this is perfect. 

Wish me luck...hopefully things will get easier and I won't start my day off on the wrong foot.  I've also included some blank morning routine charts for anyone else that needs some stress free mornings - hope they work for you.

Printable Morning Routine - Girl

Printable Morning Routine - Boy

UPDATE 7.19:

Addison is doing great with the morning routine chart!  Mornings are no longer a nightmare in my house - which helps get the day started on the right foot.  We have even gotten to the point where she has all her routine done in 10-15 minutes and we get to have some cuddle time and tv time in the mornings.  Thank goodness for positive rewards and for the "special treat" fairy :) Pin It

Surprise!!!

My sweet hubby joined the 30's Club this last weekend! Addi and I surprised Mike with a Pool Party full of fun, food, friends and of course adult beverages. Some of our best friends Nate and Kelly graciously hosted for us and we had a blast hanging out with a lot of our close friends. Thanks to everyone for coming - we had a GREAT time!  Here are some fun pics from the evening.  

Mike's Beer Cake!  

He is not a big fan of desserts...I know it's crazy, BUT he loves Beer :)

Saw this on pinterest and had to make him one.  See Below for Beer Cake Instructions.

Welcome to the 30 Club!

Hanging out by the pool!  

What was Addi's favorite part?  CUPCAKES!!!

Beer Cake Instructions

3 Round Cake Boards (10")

Aluminum Foil

24 Pack of Can Beer

Decorations - Ribbons, Etc

Directions:

1.  Cut down the middle and top layer cake boards to 8" and 6"

2.  Cover cake boards with aluminum foil

3.  Stack the beers and decorate the layers

It's SUPER easy.  One tip - you can't move it once it's built so you have to build it in place.  Thanks for reading!

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Old MacDonald Had A Farm!

This weekend was all about animals at the Dowdy house!  We actually had a weekend with absolutely nothing planned...which is a rare occurrence in our world.  Friday I was off work and we went to The Ark play area at First Baptist Church Coppell.  It is an amazing play area that is totally free!  Sorry...no pics of this one, I was too busy climbing and chasing Addison. 

Saturday we took an early nap then headed out to Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch.  It is a really neat wildlife center with lots of unique animals.  It is small but was the perfect size for Addison - we were there about 3 hours and she did not want to leave.  It is free for kids under 3, $8 for kids 3-12 years old and $10 for adults - so it's a pretty cheap day.  Some of the cool features are a 40 minute tractor ride where you visit and pet Clydesdale Horses, Zebras and Camels, Barrel Train Rides and Animal Shows.  Here are some pictures from our day:

Addison petting a Llama.

Addison on the Tractor Ride -with the Clydesdale Horses.

They breed unique animals here - this is a horse/zebra mix named Wild Thing.

Addison was scared to death of the camels.  She couldn't get far enough away.  I have to admit they are pretty ugly looking.

Addison said the bear was her favorite!  They have 2 black bears on the property.

This is the barrel train ride...as you can tell by the look on her face she had LOTS of fun!

We finished our night with a big pallet on the floor with lots of pillows and the movie "Babe."  I love family movie nights and this was the perfect ending to our fun day!

Addison is an outside girl and loves walking around our neighborhood.  We typically take a walk every night after dinner.  This morning we decided to take our dogs...I haven't attempted this before because they are the kind of dogs that really need a Cesar Millan intervention but we decided to try it.  This is her first time actually walking one of our dogs (the little one) and she did great.   Guess we will be taking them along more often.

Weekends never seem long enough especially when we have so much fun!  We are looking forward to Mike's 30th Birthday next weekend and Father's Day!

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