Fun times

I've been trying to come up with fun ways to teach Owen and keep him occupied while I take care of Nora. I've found lots of "special activities" (that's what Owen calls them) that he loves to do. We've made rainsticks, drawn with chalk outside, made vinegar/baking soda volcanos, cooked lots of things and done many science experiments. We also do a lot of dancing and fort-building. :) Here are the "special activities" we've taken pictures of... (and yes, I know my child doesn't wear clothes a lot of the time. I pick my battles. :)

Toffee banana cream pie! Owen LOVES to cook with me.

Milk and food coloring stirred with a toothpick dipped in soap... the soap makes the food coloring shoot around the milk.

Cheerio necklace!

Owen's favorite dinner is pizza, so we've been trying lots of different recipes. This one was an America's Test Kitchen recipe for deep-dish pizza.... SO GOOD.

The chocolate cake Owen helped me make for my birthday.

This one wasn't made by us, but we still enjoyed it. A couple of the ladies in our ward dropped a big bag off at our house early on the Saturday morning of General Conference. It contained brown paper bags with the pictures of the First Presidency and each of the Apostles. When that person got up to speak, Owen got to open up the bag with their face on it. They had all sorts of things... little tubs of playdough, dollar-store crafts, candy, and our favorite: lego pieces for building a temple. Owen LOVED doing this... I think it will become a General Conference tradition for us.

This was the aftermath of the playdough/crafting while Matt and I were watching General Conference.

We were getting ready to go somewhere and told Owen to go upstairs and get ready to go. He came down looking like this.

Putting on a temporary tattoo!

This was another of Owen's favorite activities. We used masking tape to create roads and parking spaces in our family room.

Matt later helped Owen add buildings, a zoo, and all sorts of fun things. And then Owen got to be the monster that knocked it all over. You can imagine how fun that was to clean up all those little pieces. :)

This picture makes me crack up every time... this is Owen mid-dance move.

Using a medicine dropper to drop colored vinegar onto a pan full of baking soda.

Owen loved this activity, and we've repeated it several times!

Owen all ready to go to his first friend drop-off birthday party. He was so excited, and he did great... it put a hole right through my heart, though - he's growing up way too fast!

Preparing to get daddy with a can of silly string.

The result. Heehee... love Owen's skinny little legs.

Owen and me with a Hulk paper doll that we made.

Pretty cool, huh? We printed the pattern off the internet.

Target dollar spot has given us many activities... this is from those little pills that dissolve when you put them in water. I expected Owen to be totally amazed, but he figured it out before we even put the things in the water. In between handing him the pills and going back to the kitchen to get the water, he managed to rip most of them open and take the animals out. Totally not impressed. :)

Mickey and Minnie Mouse masks!

This was another of Owen's favorite activities... I gave him a whole bunch of random food items along with some bowls and spoons and water and let him "cook". 

He loved it!

We set up a tent in our living room to let Owen practice for his first father-son camp out. :)

We do a lot of fort-building.

Owen's "potty train"... part of our potty training extravaganza. :)

Sitting on a waterproof mat with all the salty snacks he could want, plus tons to drink. We watched Shaun the Sheep pretty much all day long, and by the end of it, Owen was basically completely potty trained. 

These Buzz pajamas were Owen's big potty training prize.

We had a family movie night one Friday night. We built a fort and made some treats. I tried to get a decent picture of these two in the fort, but couldn't do it. The last picture out of this set is the only one where they actually meant to make those faces. :) Crazy boys.

I love my sweet Owen boy. He definitely has his moments, and I know he's had a rough time since Nora was born due to the huge decrease of time that I am able to spend with him, but he remains the sweetest, smartest, and funniest kid I know.