Homemade play-dough

I had been searching for crafty ideas on Pinterest for Oliver and I to do and decided today would be a good day to try and make some homemade play-dough. Here's how we did it:

First mix the salt, flour, water and cream of tarter together. Oliver had to try the mixture when I wasn't looking. 

Next add the food coloring and stir it in. (Brave aren't I with food coloring and a 20 month old)

Then I cooked it on the stove until it became in the shape of a ball. (don't look at my messy stove top)

The hardest part for Oliver was waiting for it to cool slightly on the waxed paper. 

He didn't like it at first and just would put a finger in it. (And yes that is a surgical drape covering the table, thanks to my Mother-in-law. They work well as play-mats.)

He liked the cookie cutters. 

Friday Family Day

I worked this past weekend so Shawn took Friday off to spend with us. Well actually he wanted to go for a motorcycle ride but in that 20 minute ride he took he said the bugs were so bad he didn't want to go any further. So we got a lot done outside. 

It started with fun and we went to go to the park in town as a family and went down the slide and swung on the family swing and then Oliver in the baby swing. When we came home that is when Shawn left for his 20 minute ride so we visited Grandma Sandy because she was outside pulling weeds. Oliver saw his cousin Ian's tractor in the garage that he stores here so Grandma gave Oliver a ride on it too. 

Thanks Ian for sharing even though you probably didn't know that you did. Oliver is still too small to pedal it like you Ian but he liked sitting. 

Then we grilled out for lunch and ate in the garage. Then it was nap time for Oliver so Shawn mowed the grass while I pulled weeds (many more to pull now). Shawn also tilled up the small garden we plant along side of the house so we could plant that.   

Oliver didn't know what to do at first and stood on the sidewalk with his shovel. 

Shawn used Oliver's hoe to make a row for the radishes. 

So then Oliver had to try it.

It didn't take long then before Oliver was walking all over in the dirt shoveling and turning up the newly planted seeds. We'll probably have radishes growing all over now. 

 That's all we planted so far. I have some pepper plants in the house that I started from seed that I will transplant out there his week and then we always get 2 grape tomato plants. I also have leaf lettuce and chives planted in a planter. 

Next we played in the backyard. We have a farm and field in our backyard and he has started to let his cows out in it. Oliver moo's at the cows constantly now. He's not afraid of them at all like I am. The cows will come right up to the fence and he wants down to go closer to them but I'm hesitant because they're like 100 times bigger than Oliver. I'm good with them at this distance. 

It started clouding over in the afternoon like it was going to rain and we had more work to do so we worked fast. Shawn wanted to move the wood pile and tractor/wagon around so we helped with that too. Oliver rode on the Oliver 770 helping Shawn "drive".

Then he helped us load the wood from the pile into the trailer so Shawn can split it sometime. He gets so excited about helping us. He does the same thing when he helps us unload the dishwasher. He's so proud of himself for helping and laughs and smiles with excitement that we let him help. We're pretty excited about his help too.

We grilled out for supper again but had to eat it in the house because it had cooled down and was windy. We compromised and ate on the front porch instead. It was a good day by all!

Bubbles

Oliver and I spent all of Thursday mostly outside since it was one of the first days I had off that it was warm and not raining. I even ended up with a bit of a tan. Good thing I put sunscreen on Oliver. Oliver received a bubble wand for Easter so we tried it out. He got the hang of it after breaking off 2 of the smaller bubble circles that you have to shake it. It was still a bit wet out so the bubble stuck to the grass and he loved stomping on them then.

After bubbles and lunch we went for a walk and went to the park. Oliver loves the slides and swing but unfortunately they were still wet from the rain over night so we just went for a long wagon ride instead.

Oliver's Oliver

So as you all may know Oliver my son was named after Oliver tractors so it's fitting that he have his own Oliver. Well, it was actually one of Shawn's that Shawn decided that Oliver could play with. It was sitting on the shelf along with 8 other Oliver's and my Oliver would look at them, point, and say "tractor" over and over.  So I called Shawn one morning at work and asked him if I could get one down for him to play with. It is now one of my Oliver's favorite toys.

In the picture below his little Oliver tractor is pushing the big Oliver tractor being pushed by my Oliver.