From About.com:

http://math.about.com/od/prealgebra/a/associative.htm

“The addition or multiplication of a set of numbers is the same regardless of how the numbers are grouped. The associative property will involve 3 or more numbers. The parenthesis indicates the terms that are considered one unit.The groupings (Associative Property) are within the parenthesis. Hence, the numbers are ‘associated’ together. In multiplication, the product is always the same regardless of their grouping. The Associative Property is pretty basic to computational strategies. Remember, the groupings in the brackets are always done first, this is part of the order of operations. “

oh and sorry i can’t e-mail you right now about the mascot thing cause i still have a lot of hw to do. 🙂