Fire House Fun

Ayden, Ashten, and AJ

Ashten riding in the firetruckThe kids in the cabAJ loved exploring by himselfAyden and Abraham checking out the firemen's roomsFireman Chris, Cathy, Valerie, and Rachel in the kitchen Stephanie, Aubrey, Jen, Tate, Analisa, Addy Izzy, AJ, and Ashley in the living room

What a cutie Half of the kids
The Group 2009AJ was loving licking the back of the fire truck and sucking all the water off the bumperIzzy and Ashten watching the cab go upAyden and AJ watching the firemanAJ couldn't find me and was kind of scared.

I have been planning a tour of the fire station across the street for a few weeks now. Today was the day. We started by having all the kids from playgroup over to play while we waited for everyone to gather. Just before eleven we walked over. We had a blast!!! The firemen were so kind to the kids. They showed them their new fire truck and let them walk through it. Then they let the kids see inside their "house." We saw their bedroom, with beds that folded up into the wall, the living room big screen and recliners included, and the kitchen. After the tour of the inside of the firehouse, they pulled the truck out so we could get a group picture. It was a huge group, we had 23 kids and 10 moms. They showed the kids how they put down the ladder, lift up the cab to look at the huge engine, and showed them the sirens and lights. Ashten almost cried, because it was so loud. Fireman Chris put on the gear and told the kids all about it. It was great, we learned so much, I think I had just as much fun as the kids. Afterwards, we came back to the house and had a potluck, colored thank you pictures for the firemen, and made a firetruck snack. It was a long playgroup, but it was so much fun!

Birthday Boys

Valerie, Ben, Ammon, Jaylene, Ayden, Abraham, Ashten, Taylor, and Jared

Ayden and the only picture of AJ (oops) Abraham and Ashten There are a couple of boys who had birthdays in February, so Valerie put together a playgroup for the kids to decorate cupcake cones. They were very cute and most importantly the kids loved decorating and eating them. I think it had something to do with candy, candy, frosting, and oh, did I say candy?

Bird Seed Gone Bad

Ben, Valerie, Rachel A and Ammon, Stephanie, Ashten, a girl Rachel S watches, and Ayden Ayden

I guess there was dust on the lens...a LOT of dust Ashten pretending to make something

Rachel, Ammon, Ayden, and Valerie
Anderson had fun reaching into the flour, until he got caught. Then he stood against the wall sliding slowly to the floor, drama

The one surviving bird seed biscuit.

It ended up crumbling also: the boys could not stay away from it.

Today we had playgroup. We had planned to make bird seed hearts that we had found in the Family Fun magazine. It was such a cute idea. How cute would it be to give them out for Valentine's? Unfortunately after making them and baking them for over an hour when we removed the cookie cutter they crumbled to pieces. It was a sad moment. The kids had tons of fun playing anyway, so that's all that really matters. Honestly, I think if there are snacks and friends they could care less what we do.

Fruity the Snowmen

Ayden with his snowman

Cathy M helping Ashten with his

Karen P, Cathy M, Ashten, Ayden

Randon P, Ada S, Isaac H, Taylor H, and Daniel G playing at playgroup

Ben V looks like he's tasting his

Today I brought back playgroup. I took a break from doing them after summer was over pretty much just because majority of the group was not coming anymore and I was out of ideas for fun things to do. Anyway, Valerie had a great idea thanks to blog stalking. These snowman are actually apples dipped in almond bark. The kids had a good time and I know my kids loved eating them...ok even I did. And it's semi healthy, I mean it is a fruit.

ON A SIDE NOTE:

Since I don't have a girl, I like to play dress up. Poor Zach V he was an unsuspecting victim.
This wasn't the first time. This is AJ at about the same age. He was born with long hair, so of course I had to play with it. I also have a picture of Ayden at around 9-12 months wearing a beautiful red velvet Christmas dress. I couldn't find it right now but it's a good one.

A Hunting We Will Go

Ayden, Ammon, and Rachel picking berries

Ben and Ashten holding the caterpillar
Ayden, Gavin, Ben, and Ashten
The scavenger hunt list
For playgroup today I made up a sheet of items for the kids to find and we headed over to the BPA Trail at the Aquatic Center. The kids had lots of fun running around and they had an even better time exploring. I think they found about 12 of the 20 items on the list but the also saw other things. We saw a mommy and baby gardner snake, a caterpillar, a beetle, and a runaway stroller or two haha. I think the best part was that the kids could run free and there were no worries for moms. Afterwards, half of the group headed to McDonald's for lunch and a little shopping at Wal-Mart. By the end of the day I was ready to crash but the kids of course were still going!

Children's Museum

Ayden's favorite part was the farmer's market

5 of the 6 boys: Josh, Ben, Ashten, Gavin, and Anderson
Luckily they had "slobber buckets" for all the things kids put in their mouths.
Ashten's favorite part was the kitchen.
Anderson's favorite part was the mop! He carried it around everywhere.
Ashten and Josh racingAyden has always wanted to climb a rock wall...He did an awesome job!Josh got in trouble for going too high.AJ again with the mop
Playgroup was out at the Children's Museum in Tacoma. We got free passes from the library (it would have cost us $24 otherwise). We have been out to this museum before but the Ayden and Ashten were much younger. They had a blast this year. AJ was super tired but he had a pretty good time anyways, especially when he had the mop in hand.

Palisades Park

Poor Anderson, he just wants to sleep Ashten and Ayden were so proud of the find!
I think he is devising a plan on how to get back home to bed.
We had playgroup over at Palisades Park. We've never been there but it's just like any other park-- flat with a playground. There were way too many kids there but the boys made friends with some of the kids and led them on a walk through the "forest" one tiny trail that went barely went into trees. Ayden and Ashten had a great time. AJ on the other hand had to be woken up to go to playgroup and just really wanted nothing more but to get out of his too small (18 month) clothes and go back to bed.

Do They Ever Get Tired?

PLAYGROUP

Ayden got this log in the water and all the kids had fun riding on it like it was a boat.
Just SOME of the kids at playgroup today. I believe there was 24 children and babies in all.
Someone thought AJ "needed" a donut
Mommy got bored and buried me...HELP!!
We returned to Dash Point Park for playgroup being prepared with swimsuits, towels, food and toys. We were expecting the tide to be out as just last week it was way out making the water warm and making it so there was sand (not rocks) to dig in right next to the water. The kids didn't care they had an awesome time. We had a huge group this week for some reason and all the kids seemed happy to see their friends. We stayed for several hours. I was trying to avoid going home before the next event planned, which started at 2pm.

KID'S FEST

The first thing the boys wanted to do was get balloons made. Ashten's is a sword and Ayden got a motorcycle. Which I was very impressed by.

Our stroller looked like a pack mule especially after we went to all the boothes. Aj kept turning around and grabbing the boys toys and freebies out of the bags.

The giant bouncy slide was Ayden's favorite part
Ashten had fun despite the look on his face

Children's Hospital gave the kids free tats

The boys are hard at work on their suncatchers
Hi-5

We left Dash Point Park at 1:30pm and went over to Jack in the Box for a Diet Coke (I needed caffeine) and some waters for the boys. At Steel Lake today it is the annual "Kid's Fest". It's a free event the only things that cost are cotton candy and the bouncy toys which were only $2.00 for a day pass. That's my kind of price. There were 15 or so booths with games to play and prizes and lots of free samples. There were also craft tables for the kids to paint, play play doh, etc. The also played on the HUGE big toy that Steel Lake has and after hitting all the booths, craft tables, and bouncy toys, we went down to the water. I was exhausted and we had been out for 5 hours at this point. I was thinking that they should be ready to go soon but they continued to play with the sand toys there. While they did that I read. At 5:30pm I told the kids we were going to get some dinner and they still didn't want to go. I can't believe how much energy they have. I was even surprised that AJ was being so good considering he had not had a nap all day. EIGHT hours later we were back home! I'm beat but it was sooo worth it the boys had SO much fun, or as Ayden put it...."it was super super fun"!