Oliver's birthday

Oliver turned 4 on August 19th. He was super excited because he started school the day before and he was able to take treats to share with his classmates and wear the birthday crown. He wanted many things for his birthday but one of them was to go see "Plane's Fire and Rescue." The theme then evolved into a firetruck/fireplane birthday. 

This is the after school on his birthday with some of his gifts. Since we weren't having the party until the follow weekend we told him he could open up one gift and of course he picks the biggest. It is an Imaginext Fire station. 

The movie was playing in our local theater the weekend after his birthday and both sets of grandparents came to the movie to help celebrate. This was Oliver's first movie in a theater and he did so well. He did keep asking where all the fire trucks were though and I kept telling him that it was about planes putting out fires.  

After the movie we came back  to our house for cake and presents. Since we just had popcorn at the theater we did presents first. 

 

Oliver requested a fire truck cake and he loved it. 

It tasted pretty yummy too.  

First Day of Preschool

We (as in me) had such a hard decision in whether or not to send Oliver to preschool this year since he turns 4 tomorrow and will be one of the youngest in his grade. Oliver did not have trouble, he was excited from the time I told him he would be going to school and riding the bus and that excitement didn't stop this morning when he went for his first day of school. 

I went upstairs to his room this morning and for once he wasn't hiding under the blanket from me like every morning, but was sitting at the side of the bed ready to go. He picked out his firetruck shirt to wear today and went running downstairs. He was so excited, so much so that he didn't even want to eat breakfast but I talked him into a zucchini muffin at least. 

We then waited on the porch until it was time to walk to the bus stop. The bus comes in the morning around 7:40 so most mornings, besides today, he will get on with the daycare kids still in St. Olaf. Preschool is full days Monday -Thursday so he rides the bus home again after school. 

Waiting for the bus with his friends. Kimberly, standing with Oliver above, is one of our daycare providers daughters who with her sister Rebecca are a big help with Oliver and especially in calming my nerves as I know they'll look after him and make sure he gets on and off the bus okay. 

Here's the bus. When it came up the hill Oliver wasn't jumping like he was before, he almost became timid but acted like he knew what to do and ran to get onto the bus once the driver signaled that it was okay to cross.  

He budged in front of people to climb onto the bus. Since he's still 3 years old today, he had to be harnessed in for one day, so I had to help him strap in. 

Grandpa Chuck met the bus at the school and snapped a few pictures. Here he's just gotten off the bus and met his teacher assistant. 

This afternoon when the bus dropped him off I met him at the bus stop and he was smiling saying that school is fun. Hopefully that excitement lasts for a few years at least. He said he played a lot and made some friends although he couldn't remember their names. He is fortunate that he has many daycare friends in his class and the other preschool class and his best friend from daycare and Oliver share a locker together. He said they had hamburgers and peaches for lunch and Goldfish that he brought for the class for snack along with milk. He likes the urinals and says it really cute as if saying 2 words- "urine-alls."  He told me he played outside, took a rest, read books, played kitchen, and colored. He said that the teacher told him that they were going to learn this year so I asked him what he learned today and he said to sit cris-crossed with his legs. :) He's excited to go back tomorrow and that's all that matters. We made birthday treats to take for tomorrow. I can't believe he'll be four, time can really slow down. 

Tomah tractor pull

Shawn, Oliver and I left on Friday after work to go to Tomah, Wisconsin to meet his parents at their camper. We went up there to go see the National tractor pull. Shawn and his parents have gone up there quite a few times but they never got me up there until they wanted to take Oliver along with them, so we decided to make it a family adventure. 

There wasn't much left to do Friday night but hang out in the camper before going to bed but Saturday morning we all got up and played for awhile until we went for pancakes and sausage. Right after eating the pancakes, Oliver wanted to jump on the giant jumping pillow. It was actually pretty cool and he even got Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Shirley up there to jump with him.

We stayed at a KOA in Oakdale which actually had a lot of cool things to do. I mentioned to Shawn that this would be a great place to take our camper because of all the activities including a pool and playground beside the pillow. There is always time for a pool noodle sword fight 

At the tractor pull. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be but really I've only ever been to the tractor pull at the Clayton County Fair. At the national pulls there are tractors that don't even look like tractors and other vehicles (for lack of the official term) that are just a frame with multiple engines and a seat that are super loud. 

Oliver enjoyed the first few minutes of it and seeing the black smoke up grew increasingly bored and tired and wanted to leave. That made for a long day for us but good thing there was a cool playground set there.  

We walked around a bit and saw all the food vendors and the bathrooms quite a bit as well until after a few hours we called it good and left. 

Shawn and I both agree that we'll wait a few years to take him back when he can sit longer. We'll settle for the Clayton County Fair for now where it's not so big and there are more things to do.

Our first camping adventure in our new camper

This winter we got a new to us camper that required a bit of work and a lot of cleaning. My father-in-law Chuck put down a new floor in there for us and Shawn and I spent many hours cleaning it up over the last few weekends. It's a starter camper for us that meets my requirements - a bed, toilet, and sink. It comes complete with a ton of storage inside and a full kitchen. We went camping close to home for our first adventure this past weekend to try it out and good thing because Shawn and Chuck had to fix the water heater right away.

I had to work Saturday and Sunday so Shawn and Oliver slept in it by themselves Saturday night and I came home and came back to camp after work on Sunday. We camped next to Chuck and Shirley so it was handy having them close by especially since I had to work.Oliver had fun camping by the park and that is where he requested to go over and over again. Good thing Grandma was willing to take him. He also enjoyed riding his bike. 

Shawn and Oliver played with the CAT's in the dirt and Oliver learned about grading of dirt. 

Monday, mostly everyone in the park left as the long weekend was over by mine was just starting as both Shawn and I had today (Tuesday) off as well so we stayed an extra night and were the only campers left.  Oliver was completely covered from head to toe with dirt from playing outside all day so he got a "spray down." He's terrified of taking a shower and with the camper only having a shower we compensated by calling it a "spray down" which he actually did well with. 

 We had many friends stop by to visit us and had time that night to roast marshmallows and relax in the peace and quite next to a nice campfire. 

Preschool round-up

Friday Oliver had his preschool round-up/orientation in the afternoon. I worked a half a day and picked him up from daycare at 11:30. The good thing about sending him to preschool in the fall and one of the main reasons we chose to send him was because he will be there with 3 of his friend from daycare. When I went to pick him up all the kids were so excited, jumping for joy, to go to preschool.

When we got there he was shy as always burying his head in my leg and covering his face with his hands. We then found one of his friends playing with blocks so Oliver joined in and then the other 2 did too so all 4 friends were playing together again. 

All the parents then went to another room where the principal could speak to us and answer any questions and then we just left. All the parents peaked in the preschool room and all the kids were having fun playing and there wasn't any crying. 

When school got out at 3:30, I went to pick him up again and here's the highlights he told me of the day:

1. The have a standing toilet that when you flush it the water comes down to the drain (urinal)

2. They have a drinking fountain that he is tall enough to reach.

3. There is a box full of sand and he already called dibs on a dump truck.

4. There is a circle slide to go down outside and tricycles to ride. 

5. They got to eat some cracker and drink some milk for a snack.

6. They have lockers to put you "stuff" in.

7. He's going to love riding the school bus as he threw a tantrum again that I wouldn't let him ride it home Friday. 

He wasn't very talkative on the way home and after just a few minutes I looked back and found a warn out sleeping boy. 

He still keeps talking about going to preschool everyday with excitement so hopefully that continues until this Fall when he goes Monday -Thursday full days. 

Easter

We celebrated many Easter's this year and even hosted one. It started 2 weeks ago when my sister and her family came home to my parent's house. Oliver had fun as he always does with his cousins. 

Then it was time for his first of 3 Easter egg hunts. He did well trying to find his 10 eggs filled with money for his dinosaur bank. 

I had taken off of work Wednesday through Friday as I had to take Oliver to Iowa City on Wednesday for a check-up then clean the house to get ready for hosting. He's getting to be a big boy sitting in the chair at the ENT doctor. It was a long wait there but everything turned out good and he continues to do well. 

Since I had time off, I looked a lot at Pinterest and found that everyone was doing the shaving cream method of dyeing eggs this year. Instead of shaving cream though I used cool whip because I didn't want the eggs to taste like shaving cream as eggs are very porous. We ended up leaving the eggs covered in the mixture overnight in the fridge to help the color set then washed them off.

Oliver preferred the normal way of dyeing eggs. He had a Jammies Party at daycare that day so he wore his new Thomas the Train PJ's he got for Easter from Grandpa Doerschery and Grandma Sandy.

He didn't like using a spoon or the wire thing to get the eggs out and threw a tantrum when I wanted to take a picture of his green hands because he just wanted to wash it off. Little did we know that they would stay that green even after washing them.  

Our finished eggs 

 

We hosted the Peterman Easter on Saturday when we also celebrated our family Easter as we were headed down south on Sunday. Oliver had received many little presents from Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Chuck but his favorite was this airplane. 

A pro at the hunt now, he took off running for the eggs.  

Look at all those eggs! 

It was a beautiful weekend, so warm we spent most of the afternoon outside. 

Sunday as I said we headed south to celebrate with my family. We started in Long Grove for a Doerscher celebration brunch so my Grandpa could join all of the rest of us. I think the highlight for Oliver though was that it was across from a fire station and that there was a fire so he got to see all the firemen/women drive away in the firetrucks with their lights and sirens on. There was also a park and it was beautiful again, dare I say too warm for the way we were dressed. We left our house Sunday and it was raining and 52 degrees so the upper 70's-80's was warm and lovely!

We headed in to Great Billie's for another Easter egg hunt. This years picture of all the great-grand kids with Grandma minus quite a few of them. 

Showing Great Billie the eggs he found 

It was a great Easter this year as we are very blessed to have so much family to spend time with.

Gone Fishing

Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Shirley took Oliver fishing yesterday. Oliver has been looking forward to this day since before Thanksgiving time and even asked Santa for a fishing pole. We told him all winter long that once the snow melted then he could go fishing and let me tell you, he didn't ever forget that. During the winter, when his snowman was melting he said "Mommy pretty soon I can go fishing, my snowman is melting." 

Oliver was so excited Tuesday night the minute I picked him up from Daycare and told him he was going to Grandpa Chuck's tomorrow to go fishing. He grabbed his fishing pole and put it next to the door so he would remember to take it. 

They took him to a pond near Elkader after going and getting some worms.

Waiting as Grandpa put the worm on the hook. Last night when Oliver was telling me about the worms he said he didn't touch them because they were "moving" and the "snake wouldn't stay flat." We had to find some pictures of snake and worms last night for him to see the difference in them.  

Grandma said that Oliver tried casting the line into the water but it got stuck in the weeds so Grandpa was better at it.  

Waiting patiently for the fish to bite. They never did bite though as Oliver said "they were still sleeping." He got cold fast so they went home. Oliver said today that he wants to do it again when the fish are awake.