Ready, set, hunt, play, swim

Saturday the 27th, we started our day at Oliver's first Easter Egg Hunt. It was divided into age groups, Oliver was with the 2-3 year olds. To be fair, there wasn't much hunting...more like an Easter Egg round-up if you ask me. The parents stood around in a big circle and the children ran around and picked up eggs. At least that was the idea...

Oliver getting ready for the hunt

Love this picture of my little guy!

And he is off...or is he?

First I want to add a disclaimer about this video. Sometimes I hear myself on video and wish I could figure out how to mute the audio portion and this is one of those times. This video is of Oliver starting his egg hunt. He really didn't know what to do and I barked orders to Clayton to go help him. Oops, sorry Clayton. If it is any consolation I'll only be pregnant for a couple of more months and hopefully I'll be a little nicer afterwards!

After picking up a few eggs my little guy was enamoured with the Easter Bunny and stopped hunting to chat with the bunny.

Look at that face, he loved the Easter Bunny. She didn't talk though so it was kind of weird.

He even got a hug!

When all was said and done, he collected 12 eggs about nine of which had candy. He was happy with his loot!

It was WINDY!

There was a park nearby and we had some time before our next activity so Clayton and Oliver explored the tank. It was pretty cool!

They went for a little run on the track. Like father, like son.

Next we went to the Plano Aquatic Center so Oliver and Daddy could attend their first WaterTots class together. Here they are waiting for the lesson to begin.

Daddy easing Oliver into the water

Oliver would have preferred the water to be a little warmer

I thought Oliver would be the oldest in the class by far, but the class was for ages 6 months to three years and there was actually a wide variety of ages.

This may be the only smile we caught on camera and it was because Clayton suggested it. Oliver is really hesitant around water and why wouldn't he be? This is only his second time ever to a public pool and we have only used a wading pool in our backyard a few times. Hopefully these lessons will help get him a little more comfortable.

They practiced kicking and played a few games.

In this video, Clayton is crouched down in less than 3 ft of water while wading Oliver across a pool so he can practice kicking. What a great Daddy!

This may be the only video of the head under water that we get this session. Oliver was terrified when he came out of the water and has told me he doesn't want to do it again. Hopefully his next swim instructor will have a plan for a more gradual introduction of putting your head under water.

I think this may be the first time I can say I am actually happy with my decision to buy a super zoom camera. All these shots and videos came from my position on the bleachers and most of them came out surprisingly clear.

Little Chickies

My amazing mother made these adorable ducks (which we call chickies) for my little guys for Easter. They are so cute and my biggest little guy just loves them! My mom taught me to crochet while I was on bedrest with Oliver, so I can really appreciate all the time and effort that went into both of these little chickies and I will always treasure them. Thanks for making my little guy happy Grammy!


These next two videos are of Oliver opening the little chickies and were taken for Grammy and Gramps who were also on the phone. I had to split the video into two to get it to upload to Blogger.

Oliver's spider web

This is what I often find Oliver doing while I am getting ready...

...looks pretty proud of himself, doesn't he? All I have to say is it is a good thing yarn is pretty inexpensive! :)

St. Patrick's Day

Today not only did we celebrate St. Patrick bringing Christianity to the Irish, we also celebrated Oliver's forty-one month old birthday. Oliver has a monthly birthday every St. Patrick's Day, so my refrigerator has very similar magnets of him decked out in green shirts for the past three years. Here are some of my favorites from today:

One of Oliver's favorite things to do with his Daddy is Hip, Hip, Hooray where he gets him ready in the air twice with hip, hip and then throws him up and catches him on hooray. This video is of Oliver doing his own version of Hip, Hip, Hooray!

We took advantage of the warmer weather and played outside after nap. Sometimes Oliver likes to pretend the basketball is a soccer ball (just so you know our soccer ball is actually sitting on our porch).

pretending to help Daddy water the trees

Thanks to the help of a little food coloring, we had green pasta, green butter for our bread, and broccoli for dinner. We also had brownies decorated with little green frosting shamrocks for desert. All in all, a great day for us.

In this video, you can enjoy Oliver telling you about his food with a full mouth! :)

A Day Out with Thomas

Since Oliver is totally fascinated with trains right now, we decided to take him to the Day Out with Thomas the Tank Engine festival in Grapevine this year. Your ticket provides a 25-minute train ride pulled by Thomas, a bounce house, an imagination station filled with train tables and other activities, opportunities for photos with Thomas and some other things I'm sure. In my opinion it was a bit overpriced for what you get, but Oliver seemed to really enjoy the short train ride and doing a few of the other things.

Here he is playing on one of the various train tables

We decided not to wait in line for the photo op with Thomas, and rather to just make our own photo opportunity next to Thomas instead.

Clayton's sister's family was able to join us for the festivities. They rode the train first and then waited around for us while we rode second. This is a picture of the three Claytons from top to bottom: Oliver Clayton Royal, Clayton Elliott Royal, and Andrew Clayton Evans.

tickets please

this may have been one of Oliver's favorite parts

Pre-pregnancy, Oliver was always seated on my lap during things like this, but with baby on board, there seems to be a little less room on my lap, so my two guys cozied up together instead.

Really cute of Oliver & Clayton

Oliver getting his first temporary tattoo just like Ace's (Rosie the train)

I didn't get a shot of the jail, but here are Oliver and Ace hanging out inside it when we walked up the street after the festival. Oliver looks a little too happy to be in a jail! :)

We ended our time together with a yummy brunch at Uncle Julio's to celebrate Aunt Tricia's birthday. Happy Birthday Tricia!

Ready for a big boy bed?

I've always said that I am in no rush to move Oliver out of his crib since he has never once tried to climb out, he still takes really good naps and he stays where I put him. And for all those reasons I still want him in his crib, but I honestly can say this does NOT look comfortable.


Mind you, he is sleeping sideways. He would have plenty of room if he slept the correct way in his crib, but there is no convincing him. We have introduced the idea of a big boy bed he says he is ready, so maybe this new baby will get Oliver's furniture after all. He is crazy about the idea of a bunk bed, in fact he talks about it all the time; he is really excited to climb the ladder to sleep on top (which makes me really nervous).

On a totally unrelated video note, this has become a nightly occurrence at our house and I think it is hilarious!

This is a video of Clayton trying to put Oliver in the bath while he is still wearing clothes. At the end of the video Oliver says he can't get in because he is wearing pantalones (pants in Spanish).

Baby Belly

After several requests, I am conceding and posting some pictures of my baby belly. Here I am at 23 weeks and six days pregnant with our second baby boy.