10 Kids vs. Me

Kelsey, AJ, Angelina, Andrew, Ashten, Ben, Josh, and ZachZach and Josh Zach loved the game that his big brother made up to play with him. They pushed him across the kitchen floor in this beach toy.
The kids fought over who got to 'receive' Zach next. It was pretty entertaining.
Today my friend Valerie had a dentist appointment, so I watched three of her kids. Plus, she was watching her niece and nephew. The age range was 11 months to 10 years old. Then, two of the neighbor kids decided that they should come over too (who wouldn't with that many kids in one house.) Needless to say, it was a house full. Surprisingly, I was able to get the house cleaned up despite the 7 extra kids in the house.

Hands On!

Anderson making deliveriesAshten is ringing me up for the sandwich I orderedAyden is loading up the delivery truck with fruits and veggiesMy sandwichAJ picking potatoes for his basket and cucumbers and carrots

Gavin and Ben doing deliveries
Doctor Nicolas examining X-rays.

AJ loved the vet area especially when he saw the doggies
Ayden also liked playing with the train set

Ashten and Ben spent so much time at the water table they were pretty wet by the time they were done
Valerie had a couple of free passes for the Children's Museum in Olympia. Since there was no playgroup or preschool today, we decided to go out this morning. We tried to fit us all in one van but apparently when they advertise that it holds 7 they do not consider car seats and boosters. I think the only time we have ever had 7 in our van was when I made Ayden ride without a booster, but this was too far to be driving illegally. Anyway,we met Valerie's sister-in-law (and her two kids) in Lakewood and drove to Olympia. This museum is awesome. We've only been to the Tacoma museum, and it is tiny compared to this one. The kids had a ton of fun. Ayden's favorite part was the giant boat. Ashten's favorite part was everything and pretending to be a doctor looking at X-rays. Anderson's favorite part was the farmer's market.

Rollerskating

Ayden and AshtenDaddy helps get them in the rink Ayden was a little more apprehensive, until no one was looking.

Ashten is a little daredevil.

AJ wanted to go skating so bad. Everytime he would run over to the rink when we weren't looking and stick his toe down. Then he'd scream when we'd take him away. He was happy at the candy machines though:)
Josh and his Mario mushroom cake
Ben and his cake

Ayden and Ashten were invited to Josh and Ben's birthday party at Pattison's West. They have never been skating before, but they were very excited. We had their wheels tightened and they were off...well not really, how can you go anywhere with stationary wheels. They were a little nervous but they did really well. Ashten actually got really into it and asked to get his wheels loosened. By the end of the party they were out skating in the middle and were very sad to leave. I have to say, I am very proud of them because the last time I went skating was as a teenager and I was still hugging the wall:)

Toddler Time

Ayden's new wall picture. Every year on his birthday party day we get a new picture taken to put on the family wall. This year it was too dark out by the time I started taking pictures, so we had a photo session this morning before we left to Toddler Time.

Ben and Ayden driving the fire truck
Anderson and Ashten

Zachary slept almost the whole time
We ran into some friends from church, Gunnar and his mom Jaime, they were there trying it out for the first time also. Every time I went to AJ to take a picture he would turn around and run away as soon as he saw the camera

Today, we went down to the Fife Community Center with Valerie, Ben and Zachary to check out Toddler Time. There are a bunch of toys set up for the kids to play with and a table with markers and paper. Ayden, Ashten, and Ben had a ton of fun playing with all the "new" toys and with eachother. Anderson was SO cranky this morning, he just wanted to go to sleep.

Birthday Fun

The Birthday Boy showing me his ice cream moustache and beard

Ashten thinks its fun to sit inside the ball catcher at the bottom of the basketball hoop and AJ just wants the ball back!

Ben and Sarah VanderHoeven

This morning Valerie and I tried to take the kids down to the Fife Community Center for some toddler/prechooler time but unfortunately (even though I have a child born on THE holiday, we forgot that it was a holiday, therefore they were closed. So the next best thing is McDonald's I guess. Too bad for us everyone in Federal Way/ NE Tacoma also thought this was a great idea. At first the 8 of us shared a table with someone the VanderHoeven's knew. After that lady left some of Valerie's family showed up making 14 people and we got to at least have two tables for a few minutes until we were eventually pushed back to sharing one table. I have never seen so many people at McDonald's before it was crazy. Anyways, the kids had fun playing together and enjoyed some ice cream before we headed over to DI. The kids love going there and when I asked Ayden what he wanted to do on his birthday that's where he wanted to go.

Aunt Kristin and Uncle Wes invited Ayden and Ashten to go see Madagascar II with them. So Uncle Wes came and picked them up. They seemed to like the movie and Kristin said they were good boys.

Boys Boys Boys

Ashten, Josh, Ben, and Ayden Dog Pile!
The VanderHoeven's invited us to go play at the Choo Choo Train. The boys have so much fun together, inventing new ways to do regular things like go down a slide. I love watching them all play together their ages are 2,3,4,and 9 and watching Josh gives me an idea of what I have to look forward to in years ahead...scary!

McD's and Marionettes

After making a two page list of all free summer events I could find for the kids I decided that I should choose one and go. I tried to get the boys ready to go to a children's concert in Tacoma but they were whining about it so I thought that I could definitely have them ready by 2pm for story time at the 320th library. We invited Valerie and Ben to come with us and they did along with Sarah and Josh. First, we hit the new McDonald's which was super entertaining! I won't say why: to save Sarah from embarrassment;)

Story time was actually done by a puppeteer performing Cinderella and the Bug Brigade with Marionettes. The older half of the kids sat still and watched the whole thing while Ashten, Ben, and AJ were not happy about it. Today our camera got lost so there will be little to no pictures. How sad!