Two Weeks of being Party Animals

 We have been on a whirlwind of family fun lately. We got to babysit a couple of cousins for a weekend and at the same time my NJ sis and fam came a callin'. So we have crammed all sorts of crazy fun into our last bits of summer vacation.

Some of us visited the Sweet's candy factory. It was pretty fun despite the drive and trying to bribe the toddlers to wear hair nets......I won't look at taffy the same!

Have to hit Santaquin canyon for the August Birthdays. Syd loves family gatherings where she can just play in the water jug and eat chips.

My sistas from the same mista

Cousin carnival party.  I think it's sweet how Ike and 3-year-old Claire like to hang together

Same carnival party with Cold Cocoa. I look so awesome because  I think every party she plans I end up being the 'fortune teller'.  She probably needs to google some new party game ideas......

And now on to Di and Bry's fun idea of a marshmallow gun party. Even Noelle loved making a gun

Getting ready for war

Ethan going down from his attempts to storm the castle

Mitch and Hub. Mitch was more into posing while Hub was more into stealth

Second week of sitting through a hot parade. It's worth all the  salt water taffy though since now we know how cool it is to make it!

And that was a glimpse of some of our fun. My phone has pix of the ice skating Mitch and I did today and of the park play dates, the water fights and the splash pad and of all the fun we've had just playing around with the cousins (and I can't be expected to download both camera and phone pix in one day!!) But how great is it that from both sides of our families my kids have over 50 built-in friends? Cousins rock.
 And now we have one week left to acclimate back to a life where we don't go somewhere fun everyday and we have a set bedtime and we don't need to pack the bugspray and camping chairs when we leave the house. Wish us luck!

Old news--C Fam Reunion, New news--Ike Birthday

My fam had our annual reunion mid-July. Great fun as usual. So I thought I'd post some pix of it just to prove that it happened. 

So much fun to play at Jumping Jacks with all the cousins and aunts. The uncles weren't as fun because their big bodies kept on slamming into the little bodies......

Uncle Jordan leading a group of kids in a haka.

Hub needing to comfort Syd because she's 2 and her sleep cycle was in desperate need of  repair due to the  late hours and short naps the reunion allowed

 a sampling of the rapt crowd listening to a puppet show. I think. It's already been too many weeks and I can't remember what we did for sure....

Now on to more recent events. My big baby Isaac turned 11. He didn't request much besides Legos, books, clothes, fruit, a panda, a bunny, and gummy candy. He was able to score on most accounts.
The highlight of his party was this:

Basically Hub gets to hit the kids with a swimming noodle while they fight back with pillows. Not really #1 on my list of party games but to Ike it was mandatory. They liked it so much that I'm thinking of hiring Hub out for your parties as well. He comes with his own noodle.

that's all for now.