Osborne

Today Oliver and I went to Osborne, our County Conservation Board's park to see animals native to our region and enjoy a picnic lunch. I hadn't been to Osborne since I was in middle school and it had changed a lot since then. I remember the Nature Center in the basement being more grand and having more animals in it but all we found were turtles, 2 snakes, and a bluegill for live animals and the rest were stuffed. The highlight of going to Osborne was always seeing Ben the Bear, unfortunately it was Ben's nap time and we only saw his paws sticking out of his little house. Here are pictures of some of the animals. 

A coyote or "yote" Oliver called him

A deer. The deer was right up to the fence. I'm sure we could have touched it but really this is as close to a deer as I'd like to be especially when I see them every morning when I'm driving to work at 4:30am.

 After the doe was visiting us, soon her twin fawns came out as well. The sign said they were males born in May.

 The wolf from a distance.  

 A log house just Oliver's size. He didn't spend much time playing though because he wasn't a big fan of the sand or "dirt" as he called it. 

 The choo choo

 Driving the train

 We sat by the deer and coyote for lunch and Oliver kept calling them all puppies throughout the whole time we were eating. He would get excited seeing the fawns jump.  

 Mmmm "nana" with his crazy hat hair

I had made homemade chicken salad sandwiches before leaving the house this morning and homemade chex mix. It made for a nice picnic. It was a fun morning just Oliver and I. We did have to call Shawn on the way home to rub it in that we were having fun while he was working. 

"ater" (Water)

 Saturday we were outside early in the morning before it got hot. Oliver wanted to help Shawn wash the motorcycle but I think he just enjoyed playing in the water. 

Oliver would put his hand into the water from the hose and giggle with excitement. Shouting "ater cold!"

Then he played in the gravel on the driveway and while Shawn wasn't looking smeared his hands on the motorcycle making Shawn have to rewash that area. 

He helped me then water the garden and "owers" or flowers as we known them as. He ended up wet from head to toe. Guess we know next time we have the hose out to just put his swimming suit on. 

Uff da Daze 2012

Uff da Daze in St. Olaf was this past weekend and the parade was full of tractors and politicians. If you have kids this is parade for them, it is short and there is a lot of candy to go around for all kids. Oliver loved the parade but couldn't get the concept of the candy. We would tell him to go get it, take his hand over to it, and he would pick it up and throw it again. I guess he saw the people in the parade throwing it so he thought that that's what you're supposed to do. It was adorable! Here's some pictures from the day.

Shawn and Oliver on the Oliver 770

 The slow tractor race was after the parade and lunch where the object of the race is to be the slowest tractor. Shawn and his dad raced the first heat together, Chuck on the Oliver 70 and Shawn on the 770.

 Well you can see that Chuck won, he was the slowest of this match-up.

 The 2nd match-up was with Chuck and a International tractor and as you can see in this race we lost as well. That International tractor ended up winning the race and the prize.

 And of course, we cannot go downtown without going to the park so he could "wing." Many tantrums have happened while walking downtown if you don't stop at the park for him to swing awhile. He knows the way to the park and if you don't go straight across the street you'll see a meltdown. 

It was a good day, beautiful weather, and a long afternoon nap!

90's to 30's???

Monday was my only day off of Memorial Day weekend so Sunday night we met together at the neighbors for bean bags, drinks and snacks. Oliver went to bed late at 9pm because he was having too much fun playing with the neighbor girls so Monday morning we all slept in until after 7. It was a relaxing morning and day for me. I think I even told Shawn at one point that I was bored.

 It was getting warmer throughout the day but not as warm as Sunday and its 90 degree temps. Shawn went off on a motorcycle ride so Oliver played outside most of the afternoon. We went over the Grandpa and Grandma Doerscher's and they got the pool out for Oliver to play in. Grandpa and Grandma Peterman had him in their little pool Sunday Shawn had said, and I was sad I missed out on the fun so I wanted to do it again today. Not like we won't have other warm days I know, but I had to see him in his new swimsuit. 

Shawn had said that he wouldn't sit for his parents on Sunday either in their pool and it looked that same way for us.

 Refusing to sit so he just squatted 

 One of the neighbor girls and his friend from daycare came to play too!

 She didn't like all of Oliver's splashing though

Now it's hard to believe that we went from 90 degrees on Sunday to a wind chill in the 30's this morning. Definitely won't be swimming today but it is supposed to warm slightly. 

Uff da Daze is tomorrow and Shawn and Chuck are putting the Oliver tractor's in the slow pull race so we'll see if we can win this year. Took home 2nd last year with the Oliver 70. I can't believe that it is June already!

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.