I had some old banana's sitting on the counter I thought about making bread with it but I was looking at some documents I had saved to my computer and saw a recipe for Banana Cookies, so I made that. AJ had just finished his lunch and was watching me bake, so I thought I'd let him have a beater. He wasn't sure what to think about it at first but I gave him a demo (kind of hard to take a decent picture of that part.) After that he had the concept down and he licked it clean.
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.
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
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"!
Ashten looks for falling plums
We got a pretty good haul
After a whole weekend of not picking the plums off of our tree we found a backyard full of fallen fruit. After dinner, we went outside to gather any good ones and pick the rest from the tree. Here are some pictures and a silly video of how that was accomplished...I'm a dork because I thought that I could turn the camera sideways and that the video could be rotated later! Oh well, learn something new everyday I guess. 
Some kids pretend to be Superman
I was woken up this morning to Armand saying, " Look at your son!" Ashten said, " I a super hero" then he pushed some buttons on his "wristpad" making beeping sounds as he did it and then he zoomed off...maybe into outerspace. The things kids think of!
Papa and Grammy feed AJ, cause that's all he likes to do.
"Uncle" Nick enjoys tormenting the kids, especially Ayden.
Aunt Kathy, Grammy, Papa, and Uncle Terry
Uncle Terry and Ashten
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?
The boys got these kites from Uncle Dennis and Aunt Chris. 
Armand and I played poker and blackjack with Dad, Kristin, and Wes. 
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 Toni
The Bonfire
Later 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.
The boys helping "move in"
ThisJackson family reunion weekend really snuck up on me. We had originally planned on going camping but when we started checking into it at the beginning of the week we found that everything was booked up including the hotel that the family was staying at. Luckily, I found a one bedroom condo only 3 properties away for only $95 a night. We arrived in the evening and the kids were so excited to move into our "new house". After helping us unload the car, they ran around to explore the condo, unpack their clothes, and tried to stake claim on Mommy and Daddy's bed. They changed into their jammies right away because they were so happy sleep here. When we decided to go over to the Ramada where everyone else was Ayden was saying, "Mommy, I just want to go to sleep I am sooo tired." What a scammer! I can't believe how desperate he was to stay at the "new house."
At the Ramada there is a waterpark called Captain Yarr's. The family had set up a meeting in the waterpark at night when it was not turned on. The kids had SO much fun playing in the tubes and climbing all over the dry waterpark with their cousins. My only picture was taken with my cell phone and it came out SO blurry:(
