labor day weekend 2014

we had a lovely, relaxing labor day weekend!

friday was my normal day at home with the kids. in the morning, we went to the u of m for azalea's last (until next year) 'learning to talk' session. i can't remember if i've posted about it on here, but she is enrolled in voluntary speech and hearing study where they do different activities with her at ages 2, 3, and 4 to better understand how kids learn speech and language. it's pretty cool! her sessions this time were so much different than last year - i couldn't believe how independent she was. ashford and i basically sat outside in the waiting area while she did her thing with the grad students for an hour and a half. last year i was with her the whole time, trying to coax her to do the activities. ashford had fun playing with the toys while we waited:

in the afternoon, we hung out at my parents' until thatcher got off work. we went to chipotle for dinner, and thatcher and i watched a movie after the kids went to bed.

saturday morning, ashford and i attempted to take a trip to the bank, but it was closed for the holiday weekend - oops! we made a stop at caribou on the way home, just so our trip wasn't in vain ;) when we got home, thatcher and azalea were busy picking plums from the tree in our front yard that we planted a few years ago. we probably got around 150 plums. there would have been even more if the squirrels didn't eat a bunch! we've been enjoying eating them on their own and in baked goods. yum!

saturday evening we went to my aunt and uncle's for dinner. it was an impromptu bbq for my uncle's birthday and tosay goodbye to my cousin austin who was going back to college the next morning. it was a fun, relaxing night. thanks jenna for the pics ;) 

ashford was having some maaaaajor separation (from mama) anxiety. even though i'm holding him in this pic, he was upset most of the night, especially when anyone else tried to hold him. my sweet boy.

sunday morning we did our usual grocery store run. we have a new lakewinds co-op near our house and it has a peace coffee shop inside, so that's awesome (and dangerous!). in the evening, our friends becky, jeromy, and linnea came over for dinner. we made meatball hoagies and the girls played and the adults chatted. they are getting so independent - it's really nice!

monday we decided to take the kids to look for some new living room furniture (i know, i'm shaking my head at myself for bringing them). we got to the store shortly after it opened, so thankfully it was really quiet, but it wasn't the most relaxing shopping trip, as you can imagine. ha! i've mentioned a few times a while back that we've been remodeling our basement. it's been a loooong, slow project (14 months), but it's finally almost done. the carpet is being installed on 9/24 and we are planning on moving our living room furniture (and the tv) down there and getting new stuff for upstairs. we didn't buy anything yet, but it was fun to look! we laid around for the rest of the day then took a trip to the park and made dinner.

today is azalea's first day of preschool! we haven't had a "first day of school" in about 8 years around here! eeep! where does the time go?