Sweet Corn Days

Sweet Corn Days in Elkader was last weekend and it was HOT compared to the beautiful, at times chilly weather of this weekend. Friday night we took Oliver in to Grandpa and Grandma Peterman's while Shawn and I went out for supper then to the park where all the festivities were, not knowing that Oliver was down there too. They took him to the bounce house which he was too scared to go in and this is as far as he got. 

There was a band playing then fireworks that night that Oliver also stayed up to watch. 

Saturday was the parade. We picked a shady spot across the street from where we usually sit and wait for the parade to start because it was warming up to the point of it being hot.  Oliver was all about picking up candy until he got a flag and a toy pig. That was it for the candy and he just wanted to play with them.

And play in a somewhat shady spot. 

The highlight for Oliver was when Shawn was coming down the street in the firetruck. Oliver jumped up and down stating "that's my daddy in the firetruck in a parade!!!"

There goes Daddy!

We went home after the parade since it was so hot and Oliver was in need of a nap.

4th of July Fun

We had a lot of fun over the 4th of July and weekend with my sister and her family being home and catching up with friends and neighbors. 

Wednesday, I left work to pick up Oliver early and went to my parents to play with my sister and her family. Oliver had the best time playing with Ian and Annaliese but also to Uncle Darrin.  

Thursday was our County's Annual 4th of July Parade and we all went to sit and watch the parade but mostly watch the kids reaction to the entries and the candy. It was a hot day with the sun beating down on us but it wasn't as hot as it had been in previous years. 

He loved his American Flag 

Anytime a Caterpillar 

Tractor

 

Or firetruck would go by Oliver would stop picking up candy and watch with amazement.

But then it was back to picking up candy

That night my whole family got together with my Godparents and their family for a cookout before some when to fireworks while we went home because we all worked on Friday and Oliver had to go to daycare. 

Friday night Shawn and I went up to one of our neighbors acreage where most of our neighborhood was at to enjoy a night of good food, fun, and fireworks! 

Next year we'll have to take Oliver to fireworks to see how he likes them. He definitely liked the snap dragon poppers we did at home. 

We took it easy over the weekend and got a lot done inside and outside of the house including Oliver splashing outside in the pool which now looks so small for him.

 And sticking your head in the water and blowing bubbles in the pool

And helping Daddy change the oil in my Jeep

Annual trip to Osborne

After the storms yesterday and hunkering down from the tornado's in the area, today was beautiful. The humidity that brought the storms has gone and it is just warm and sunny. So, I thought today would be a perfect day for Oliver and I to go on a picnic to Osborne to see the animals. Osborne isn't too far away from home for us yet we don't go there often since it seems most of the animals are in their shelters and you cannot see them and the amount of animals they have there since I was a child has dwindled. But it still is a fun time and a good place for a picnic to what seems like an annual trip for Oliver and I. They have animals native to our area in NE Iowa but Oliver kept saying "Mommy, where's the polar bear and monkeys." Guess we need to go see my sister in Omaha and go to the zoo again to show him those. 

We caught the turkey showing off

The coyote

 A cougar or "cookie" Oliver thought I called it

We had to go see the train 

 My train conductor

Oliver wouldn't stop for a picture when eating our picnic lunch

When I was a kid, they had ice cream at Osborne but do not now, so we stopped back in Elkader and Oliver had his first ice cream cone. He did pretty good for his first one. He didn't know what to think when he got his big cone and my thought was that it was so top heavy that he would drop it but he didn't. He didn't want to lick it or take a bite of it though so he just would put it against his lips. 

After taking a bit off of his cone to feed him with a spoon he got the hang of the licking and biting of the ice cream.

When it came time for eating the cone he took a bite out of it and spit it out until I showed him how to eat it then there was no stopping him from eating it. 

It was a great morning, now home to take a nap.

"The Pigeon Wants a Cookie"

So nothing much new here we've kept busy over the last few months and I really haven't even logged onto a computer besides at work for a long time. That's not to say I haven't kept up-to-date with email and Facebook of course via my phone. At work, we "Go Live" with our new computer system this weekend so I've been so busy getting ready for that putting in 36-50 hours a week in for the last few months. Shawn's been busy at the shop too lately and of course tinkering with his toys (motorcycles). I think he thinks it will stop raining someday and he'll be able to go for a ride!

Oliver is growing up way too fast, everyone keeps saying that sees him that it looks like he grew overnight. I agree and he's getting so smart! We exited the Early Access program last week with his teacher being the last service we still had for him. He's met all the goals that his teacher set for him so we're excited he's doing so well and right on track developmentally. We've been working on potty training so he can be a "big boy like Matthew" as he says. Matthew is his friend and one of the only boys he has to play with at daycare. Some days he wants to sit on the potty and other days tantrums ensue when asking him to sit on it.

He's been into reading a lot lately and has his favorite 2 books The Duckling Gets a Cookie and The Happy Man and his Dump Truck. Here's him reading to you. If you don't understand Oliver talk he's talking about a "naughty pigeon" that wants the duck's cookie. The duck ends up giving the Pigeon his cookie (with nuts) and at the end the duck asks for "another cookie please but this time no nuts."

Easter 2013

Our Easter started a week ago with Oliver and I dying Easter eggs. We started with a dozen and finished with 10 eggs after a few hard throws of an egg into the dye. He did well though, no spilling of the dye this year either. 

He liked to use the little wire handle to take the eggs out of the cups instead of a spoon or fingers like I was doing.  

Our finished eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide 

That night then we went over to my parents to celebrate Easter with them since my Mom had to work over Easter weekend. Mom made a yummy meal and Oliver hunted some Easter eggs and loved the "coins" inside them. 

Then Friday Oliver when to Grandpa Chuck's and Grandma Shirley's and dyed more eggs at their house. 

Saturday morning the Easter Bunny came to our house and since we still had piles of snow in our yard, hid Oliver's eggs on the front porch. Oliver found one right after the other, I think the Easter Bunny underestimated how well Oliver was going to do at spotting them. 

Found them all!

The bunny even left a new t-ball set so we don't have to use that old Schmidt bottle piggy bank for a tee anymore. 

That afternoon was Peterman Easter. Usually when we get together with the Peterman's it consists of about 9-11 people but this time there were around 40. Some of Shawn's cousins that I'v never even met were there with their children. Oliver had fun playing with a car track with some other distant cousins using his trains and cars. 

Later on Saturday, Shawn, Oliver and I drove down to Davenport to spend the night with my Grandpa and Grandma Doerscher. It was my Grandma's 80th birthday party on Saturday and since we couldn't go to the party since we were at Easter we spent the night and had breakfast with them Easter morning before heading to my Grandma Warnecke's. 

Great Billie as my Grandma is known to all her Great-grandkids has an Easter basket for not just her Great Grandkids but also all of my cousins and our significant others. The picture below is just the baskets for the Great-Grandkids.   

Before eating a huge meal (never a lack of food at Grandma's house) Oliver played in the toy room. Shawn always says that he doesn't want Oliver to be a mechanic well look what he went for first: Thomas the Train and the workbench with tools. 

After lunch it was time to hunt Easter eggs again. They let the adults out of the house first then the little kids Oliver's age came out next and there was no stopping Oliver. He found 1 egg right after another. Sorry about my shadow in all the pictures. It was a warm sunny day though! 

He found so many it was hard for him to carry his basket around and at one point drag it on the ground.

 

We ended up sharing a lot of his eggs with another cousin. Since it was so nice out it was fun to play ball too. 

 Here's Great Billie with all her Great-Grandkids that were there. 

Birthdays in Omaha

So I'm really late on posting this since it occurred almost 10 days ago and I really haven't posted anything for a while but I've been busy with work then just laziness I guess. Since the last post Oliver had his blood work done - hgb was 9.9. We were supposed to go see his hematologist but they cancelled his appointment because he was out of the country. I had a procedure done on my eyes yesterday to remove some encapsulated sty's, 3 of they to be exact, which left me with some nice swollen shiners under my eyes. Shawn has been busy in the garage working on a transmission, engine and all of his toys (tractor, snowmobiles, etc). We're all ready for spring to come and done with all this snow. 

Anyway, to the fun stuff. We went to Omaha for Ian and Annaliese's birthday parties. The parties were a lot of fun, almost more fun for the adults watching the kids than the kids except Ian had. My sister had come up with a lot of fun games, decorations, and food for a Star Wars party for Ian and a Rapunzel party for Annaliese. Here are the highlights in pictures. 

Oliver's favorite toy- a fire station that had a "crane" as he called it on top that he kept twisting 

A grape-saber, part of the Star Wars themed birthday supper we had for Ian. Oliver ate 4 of these full of grapes. 

Oliver playing the guitar for Annaliese who danced along to the music with her baby. 

The 6 year old birthday boy 

One of the games we played at the Star Wars party was a obstacle course where the kids had to go through the Star Wars tent then under the table which Oliver refused to do. He just wanted to play in the tent.

The Jedi's in their capes my sister made with their light-sabers made of pool noodles. My sister said that with all 4 kids together their initials of their first name spelled IOWA. (Ian, Oliver, Walter and Annaliese) Too cute!

The kids had fun hitting the Darth Vader pinata with their light-sabers.

 

The next morning we had a Rapunzel brunch for Annaliese. 

Her 3rd birthday cake tower of doughnuts

It was a short trip out there and a lot of driving, but a lot of fun. Thanks to my sister and Darrin for hosting us.