"Kid's Cones"

Ayden smile nice for the camera Ayden that wasn't nice that was scary...try again
Please Ayden just one good one!
Thank you!
Ashten wanted a cookie but "they were all out ;)"
Anderson loved his cone and finished the whole thing We had to make a trailer delivery tonight to Gig Harbor. While we waited for Armand to take care of business we went into the McDonald's play area. It was some sort of ball game where lights went on and you had 20 seconds or so to hit the ball and knock them all out. Well, the game was old and only two of the lights worked so we made up our own game. If they could make a certain basket they could get an ice cream cone. I had Armand go up and he asked for the smallest kid's cone they had. Luckily for us the guy gave us three free "kid's cone" aka courtesy cones. All three boys thought that was pretty fun because they were so little. I thought it was fun because it was free.

Big Boy Room II

Ayden in his new bed, in his new room!

He chose out all the toys and books he wanted to bring to his new room...even though I didn't want ANY toys in there (that would be one less room to clean)Ayden has the biggest room in the house...but it's very empty!
I don't know why, but I had to move Ayden downstairs TODAY. The big boys have been going to sleep so late because they play together in their room and in the morning one will wake up and think it would be a great idea to wake the other one up. SO frustrating. Tonight, I put all three boys down at 7:30pm and everyone was out by 8:00pm yay! That's two hours earlier than last night. Ashten came out of his room one time rambling about Ayden but other than that there was no crying about "Ashten called me a Poo Poo Head" or "Ayden hit me". Earlier I had told Ayden and Ashten that all the boys were going to sleep downstairs someday. Here is the conversation I had with Ashty about that:

Ashten: "When could I move downstairs?"

Me: "When we have another baby, you can move downstairs."

Ashten: "Ok, when could we have another baby."

Me: "Go ask Daddy."<--haha

Ashten: "Daddy, when could we have another baby so I could move downstairs?"

HAHA I love that in his world having a baby means nothing more to him than that he gets to move downstairs. That boy cracks me up.

Party Hardy!

Ashten has an awesome swing...he will definitely have to get into baseball AJ got a Dum-Dum from the Pinata. He did not want to put it down even for a drink of milk.
I want a turn at that pinata
Armand is taking a break from eating haha
Ayden is wearing a cone that came off of the pinata Anderson was having a blast in the water especially when he realized how fun it was to stick his sucker in the water and eat the water off....sick especially since we know Steel Lake by it's other name "Duck Poop Park"

Ashten loved every second of the water

Ayden took over some one's trench and spent majority of his time digging

We were invited to a birthday for two of Nofo and Mariah's children. They had good food and lots of kids for ours to play with. But our boys stuck to themselves for some reason. Ayden and Ashten just wanted to get to the warm water. We had lots of fun just hanging out and watching all the kids play and swim.

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.

Geocache or Die Trying

Ayden loves to carry a map. Papa and Grammy feed AJ, cause that's all he likes to do.
"Uncle" Nick enjoys tormenting the kids, especially Ayden.

After our huge, yummy omelet breakfast, clean up, and packing of the condo we went over to the Ramada to meet up with some of the family and say goodbye. There was food so Armand and AJ went to town eating and didn't stop until we left.

Anderson didn't get a nap during the whole trip, other than a power nap or two in the car.
Aunt Kathy, Grammy, Papa, and Uncle Terry
Uncle Terry and Ashten

Ashten only wanted Uncle "Tewwy" to help him find buried treasure.

Following the boys second breakfast, we went geocaching with Grammy and Papa and the Fabres. The kids love to find "buried treasure" they scrounged up some little toys that they could trade for "cooler" toys in the treasure. Ashten ended the day with $1.25 even though you aren't supposed to put money in them, he got $1.00 in one and a quarter in another. Ayden ended up with a fake pirate coin, which he had traded for the dollar Ashten later ended up with. Ayden needs to learn the difference between real and fake money. The Nicolas Family stole the geocaching show, finding 4 of the 5 caches. We at some Chinese for lunch and headed home.

Bambi- we saw so many deer on this trip!

Dad checking out Paul Bunyan's breakfast

Ashten, Ayden and Grammy at Paul Bunyan's Fly Swatter cache

The boys really liked this "rip fixer" spool of thread.

Valerie V told me about some cool Paul Bunyan caches in DuPont so on the way home we stopped and found them. We missed the 5th one but we liked the ones we did get to see. The kids thought they were pretty cool but are VERY confused about "Tall Bunyan" asking, "Where is Tall Bunyan?" "When is he going to come and get his stuff?" "Why did he leave it here?" We'll definitely have to stop at the library this week and get a book about Paul Bunyan...it may only confuse them more though?

Captain Yarrr's

Ayden and Ashten loved exploring the "sand dumes" across from our condo.

I don't know where they learn about sand dunes, but they crack me up! The boys got these kites from Uncle Dennis and Aunt Chris.

They didn't have string but the boys ran around with them anyways.Armand and I played poker and blackjack with Dad, Kristin, and Wes.

After I made breakfast this morning we met the rest of the family over at the Lion's Club across the street. The boys loved that they could run and play outside and there was tons of food which is all four of my boys' favorite things. Later, while I was playing a game of Mad Gab, Armand and Ayden went out geocaching with Mom, Dad, and some other family.

Ashten

AJ is just trying to figure out why there is water everywhere.

After Ayden got back from geocaching, he joined us at the park. Mom took AJ in the tube. He was not so excited about it, but he did better than I thought.Toni took Ashten down a few times so did Mom,neither of them knew that before they arrived he was going by himself.

This smile says it all.

Cameron, Ashten, Ayden, and ToniThe BonfireLater we went over to the waterpark, while Armand and Ayden finished up geocaching. Ashten and Anderson loved the water. Ashten went off by himself and played checking in with me every now and then. AJ stuck fairly close of course. When Ayden came he joined right in the fun by then some of the other cousins had come so they had great time together. After the park was dinner back at the Lion's Club. It was so good! It's been nice not to eat out every meal, although I brought way too much food and will most likely bring half or more back home. In the evening, we went over to the bonfire at the beach. It was windy but we had a great time roasting marshmallows. The kids finally got to play in the sand! The party came to an early end when AJ peed through all of his clothes, but the kids were beat and had passed out in the car before we got back on the paved road. Before that could even happen we got stuck in the sand. Thanks to Dennis, Chris, and Garrett for helping us out! We forgot that we don't drive a Tahoe anymore.

Another Fun-filled Wednesday

Tana and Ashten are going 4X4ing. While Ayden takes a Helicopter Ride
The Noiseguy
The boys showing me their favorite partsThis morning we went to playgroup over at the Commons. Grammy came along so she could watch Tana while Brad and Britany went to lunch. The kids had fun playing and snacking. Finally, we decided we might as well go get some lunch because mostly eating was happening anyways. After lunch Grammy let Ayden, Ashten, and Tana have a ride on the toys. When we were done at the mall we went back to Grammy's house to hang out. Later, I took the boys over to the Federal Way Regional Library to see Charlie Williams, The NoiseGuy. It was a great show the mom's and kids were laughing just as much and just as loud. (If you want to catch a performance he will be over at the 320th Library on August 5th at 2pm. You have to get tickets at 1:30pm and they can go fast if a daycare shows up.) Ayden's favorite part was "a squeaky door and all of it". Ashten's favorite part was " 'practice your noise outside' and all of it". We went back to Grammy's house and had sweet and sour chicken and fried rice. I miss some of the yummy foods we used to eat when we were young it was like being a kid again, especially having my brother in town. We all had tons of fun goofing around with Brad, Britany, and Tana! But we had to get home and put AJ to bed he was not feeling well and needed some rest after a whole day with only one nap.

O, how we love to go camping?

Ashten and Ayden

Look at Ashten's pretend sleeping...kind of scary! This is how the tent looked just after midnight when I went to check up on them...EMPTY!
I thought that it was the perfect night for a backyard camp out. So i brought out pretty much the world's smallest tent thinking it only takes a minute and a half to set up and me and the big boys should be able to fit in here fine. The kids were sooo excited! They got all their blankets, pillows, and "babies" aka stuffed animals and filled the tent up. We went through the bedtime routine: jammies, teeth brushing, prayer, and stories. Then, it was time for bed, I told them I would come out when I was ready to sleep. Of course even when in the house they stay up and play in their rooms until 9:30pm or so so I didn't expect anything less. One time I went out and the tent was literally standing on its roof upside down. They picked blueberries and snuck in the house to get water and so on. When it finally got dark, they came in and said they wanted to sleep in the house so Armand and I moved all their stuff including the tent in to their bedroom. (I was secretly happy because by then, I had realized that there was no room in the "inn" for me to sleep in there.) Then they got all cozy in their tent and were silent after that. I heard Ayden screaming around midnight so I went in to see what was the problem. He was standing on his bed looking for the door but could not see it because the tent was in the way. The tent was empty, both boys had chosen to sleep in their beds. We'll have to try again on the weekend, even Daddy said he would come and sleep out there with us if we waited til then...I think we'll have to bust out the 3 bedroom tent next time.

Wedge Park

Anderson, Ayden, and Ashten on the big rock

For playgroup we went down to Wedge Park in Fife. Ayden was SO excited when we drove by it he said, "WOW, look at the crazy big toy". We had a small group this week but everyone had a great time. Ayden was very happy that his friend Gunnar was there this week. On the way home he and Ashten were fighting about who's friend he was. Ayden said he wasn't Ashten's friend because, "Gunnar is in my little class and my big class and he sits in my row", as if this is the only way you can be someones friend. I love watching the kids get bigger and get their own friends.

After playgroup we drove by Grammy and Papa's house they weren't home so we called. They were at Seattle Center and had free access to pretty much everything there. Papa had a meeting at Key Arena for the upcoming Boeing strike, so they invited us out. We had the worst time finding somewhere to park (I almost went home) but Papa and Grammy met us and helped us find a place. The kids had the best time riding the rides, eating cotton candy and caramel corn, and visiting the Science Center. They loved the Butterfly House and the Dinosaurs. Earlier in the day we had gone by the huge fountain and asked the boys if they wanted to go in but neither did. As we were leaving Ayden was ready! He went right down and was soaked in seconds. Me and AJ followed. AJ was gasping for air at the shock of the cold water but he didn't cry. Ashten kept to the dry ring around the outside of the fountain for the longest time. I'm not sure what happened or changed but next thing I knew, he was running to me drenched also. It was the perfect day, we had a blast and are so glad that Grammy and Papa invited us to come join the fun!

Alderwood Park

Ashten What a cheeseball!!
Gavin acting out Kung-Fu Panda
Gavin, Ayden and Anderson, Ashten
Cassi called us this morning, thank goodness because I was having a real hard time getting motivated to do anything other than sleep. (I had a serious sinus infection.) We met over at Kobetich Library to report the books we had read this last week. Ayden and Ashten had about 14 books each to report. AJ is still working on his books. He sleeps and eats so much of the time that he is awake that we don't usually get the reading time in that we should. After reporting and checking out some new books (25 to be exact), we walked over to the play area and let the kids play. They had a fun time playing in the trees and finding sticks. For the most part they just wanted little to do with the big toy. They went down the slide once but only so I could get a picture. I'm lucky to live by the library, if I couldn't walk there I doubt I would ever take them there and they love it!