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.

Easter

Easter was almost a week long celebration at our house because of my work schedule and the busy weekend. It started on Wednesday night with an Easter egg hunt on our porch with my parents. I had a meeting on Thursday night and they were leaving on Friday for the weekend so we did it early. I had been practicing hunting eggs with Oliver a couple times over the last week and he did great at it on the porch. Good thing they were plastic eggs because he was throwing them all over the place and shaking them because they were full of money. 

Thursday I had off so we attempted dyeing eggs. Last year we didn't dye eggs so this was my first experience at doing it in a lot of years. I had everything lined up and pushed back so that Oliver would maybe just observe me doing it but I should have known better. After I put the first egg in the yellow dye Oliver grabbed for the spoon in it and spilled the cup of dye over. Good thing our counter top is lime green and it blended in well. 

After starting over with new newspaper and Oliver playing on the floor while I dyed the rest of the eggs, I put him back up to admire the eggs. And of course, he picked up an egg and smacked it down on the counter cracking it. So, he got to try his first hard boiled egg, well minus the yolk part cause I don't even eat that part unless it's in egg salad or deviled. 

Saturday we went down to Davenport to celebrate my Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. Not many people can say that they'll see a 60th anniversary so I was honored to help them celebrate. My sister and I were the cake cutters and we sure dished up a lot of cake so I'd say they had a great turn out of people. Before we left Davenport Oliver had to pose for pictures with his Easter baskets from Great Grandma Billie

Sunday we got up early because Easter was at our house for the Peterman's. Oliver did his part and finished up "vacuuming" for us. 

 While he was vacuuming I decorated these cupcakes. I got the idea for the flowers on the top off of pinterest but added my own twist because I like peanut M&M's. 

Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Shirley came over early and gave Oliver his Easter present. A movie, watering can, bucket and shovel, and yummy treats. He also received some sunglasses and bunny glasses neither of which he would keep on, even for a picture. 

 Shawn had to show him how to wear them. 

 After lunch we headed to the back yard for the Easter egg hunt. Oliver is the only kid so he had to do all the hard work. In all our practicing prior to this egg hunt we had always used plastic eggs and it was inside so he wasn't too interested in the eggs outside. All of the eggs had to be pointed out to him and he'd run to them and run right passed them. He got better, slightly, but I'm sure next year will be a different story. 

Happy Easter 2012

"Baby"

No, the title is not an announcement about a baby it is about Oliver and the fact that he is now all about stuffed animals and they are all babies to him. This may have to do with Oliver being 1 of 3 boys at daycare and it is hit and miss as to whether they are there on the same day as him so he plays with a lot of girls. Shawn said that one day when he was picking him up Oliver was pushing around a baby in a stroller. I told Shawn that he was just practicing to be a good daddy.  It all started at home with an elephant that he carried around for awhile so I got out my Good Luck Care Bear from the closet and gave it to him to play with. Now this is his "baby" and he carries it around saying baby over and over and giving it hugs and kisses. This just melts my heart because I used to do the exact same thing when I was a child with a Good Luck Care Bear even though it was a different one that the one that Oliver is playing with today. He takes it to bed with him now, pats him on the back, and uses him as a pillow. SO CUTE!

Oliver talking on the phone