september is flying by!

backing up a bit to last week with a couple of ashford updates i forgot to document with the start of school...

on tuesday ashford had his first parent-child swimming lesson at the pool in our neighborhood. i always said i didn't want to do swim lessons with my kid, but i actually loved it! it helped that our friends vanessa and ewan are in the class as well. both boys were a bit unsure and clingy at the start of the class, but quickly realized it was fun. ashford surprised me and was willing to do all of the techniques like putting his face in the water, floating on his back with his head on my shoulder, etc. it was basically like we got to snuggle in the water for 30 minutes. i can't wait for the next one tomorrow! 

on thursday, i took ashford to get his hair cut at a....dun dun dun....non kid themed hair cut place! i've been wanting to do this the last couple times because the kid hair cut places are insanely expensive here. so, i took him to a chain walk-in place (with sucker in hand!). he did really well. the lady who cut his hair had pretty much zero confidence, which was interesting and it's far from a perfect cut, but it looks fine! and it was definitely worth paying half the price of the other place. 

now onto the weekend...

friday night we hung out at home and made pita pizzas for dinner. i headed out right before the kids' bedtime to meet my friend beth for a drink at a bar a few blocks away. her daughter was in azalea's preschool class and now they go to kindergarten at the same school (although different classes), so i've gotten to know beth well for the last year. we had never hung out without the kids in tow, so we thought we'd go out for a "we made it through the first week of kindergarten" drink :) it was a fun night chatting with her, and before i knew it, it was after 10:30.

saturday morning both kids woke up at 5:30 am (argggh). it is not unusual for ashford to do that, but pretty unusual for azalea (especially considering how tired she has been with school starting). granted we didn't get out of bed until 6:30, but it was a rough morning of little sleep. we didn't have any plans until noon, so the morning got a bit long at home. at noon we had a birthday party at carkeek park, so we decided to leave a little early to check out the halloween costume selection at value village. i'm all for my kids dressing up for halloween, but i have no sewing skills and refuse to pay $25 for a new costume, so we always look for a second hand one. the selection wasn't huge there, but thankfully the kids are easy to please! azalea found an anna dress (from frozen) that fit her and she was thrilled. i found a buzz light year costume for ashford (with the cutest built in muscles), and he was excited when we put it on him and it fit. the funny part is, he doesn't even know who buzz light year is, so we'll need to watch toy story before halloween! glad we got this all important part of fall taken care of with over a month to spare! 

my friend heather's son had his 4th birthday party at carkeek park. i have 4 friends with kids who turn 4 years old between september and december this year. it's pretty crazy! we woke up to pouring rain and wind, but heather said they were going to have the party rain or shine. lucky it stopped raining, but it was a very windy day! we came prepared:

 they were able to borrow a tent to put over the picnic table. we felt very "seattle" picnicking in the elements. ha! the kids didn't care a bit! they had pizza and cake and played on the playground. it was really fun! 

ashford fell asleep in the car on the drive home and i was able to transfer him to his bed (high five!), so i decided to lay down with azalea for a bit. that only lasted an hour because ashford woke up crying for me. short nap for him! saturday night we made chicken, broccoli, and rice with peanut sauce, gave the kids baths, and off to bed!

sunday we didn't have anything planned. we hung out at home in the morning until 11:30. 

 by then we were all going a little stir crazy, so i took the kids to a park and thatcher stayed home and did some cleaning. it was the most beautiful fall day! (it's too bad the party wasn't on sunday). 

everyone and their mom was out enjoying the sunshine and fall colors. we had lunch at home and ashford went down for a nap. i took a solo trip to the grocery store, then snuggled with azalea on the couch and she fell asleep on me. it was heavenly (and also very sweaty- ha!)

we decided to go to chipotle for dinner because they have a "kids eat free" promo on sundays this month (only one sunday left!). we don't have any very close to us, but we decided to go to the uvillage outdoor shopping mall. we had dinner then let the kids play for a bit on the play structures there. it was crowded because it was such a nice night. then it was home and off to bed to prepare for week 2 of school! whew!