shopping, lunching, skating weekend

weekends with no plans have been few and far between for us this fall - but we got one this past weekend. thatcher's mom left for home last tuesday and i'm in between my getaway weekends, so we embraced having two days with no real plans. if you know us, you know we didn't spend the weekend at home, but we had a nice balance of outings and relaxation time. 

friday night we stayed in. we grilled burgers for dinner, got the kids to bed, and then relaxed the rest of the night. saturday morning it was raining cats and dogs. thatcher had some things he wanted to look for at REI for his upcoming trip to asia and they have an awesome indoor play structure there, so we made it a family outing. here are the kids catching rain drops on their tongue on our way out the door: 

after REI, we went to chipotle for lunch, which is always a hit with everyone! yum! it continued to rain all day, so once we got home we all changed out of wet clothes and back into jammies. ashford, azalea, and i all napped for a bit and thatcher went out for a couple hours by himself. it was the perfect cozy weather for lounging the afternoon away. my friend beth (fellow kindergarten mom) texted me asking if we were planning to go to the pta-sponsored party at the community center that night (celebrating the success of azalea's school's big fundraiser). i hadn't been planning on going, but i decided to take the kids at the last minute. the kids had a blast running around in the gym and playing games in the staffed "kid room" and the adults sat at tables in the gym and drank free beer (seriously - they had 2 kegs there. it was awesome!) the night was great until the very end when azalea decided to head outside without me in the dark and i couldn't find her for a few minutes. so scary! it was the first time i've had that sort of thing happen and i hope it doesn't again for a long time. we had a long chat about why it was not ok for her to go outside in the dark without me. i don't think she really understands why it was not safe. the world is still a pretty safe place in her eyes and she is going through a big independence and distancing phase right now. i am so not ready for all this stuff yet! yikes! 

sunday morning we had to face the effects of daylight saving time. ashford woke up for the day at 5:30 and azalea at 6. thankfully thatcher got up with them and i got to sleep a little more. our friends vanessa, matt, and ewan invited us to go skating with them during open skate at an arena in the suburb north of seattle. azalea has been asking to go skating for months, so we took them up on the invite. we all rented skates and hit the rink. 

the kids did amazingly well, i thought. ashford was a little young to understand the technique, but we held him up like this the whole time and he would basically run in place (our backs are going to be killing us!) 

azalea held onto the wall or my hand (or both) the whole time and she understood it a little better, but she was pretty frustrated that she was not skating like an olympian on her first try ;) we have a bit of a perfectionist on our hands, which is good in that she is motivated to do well at things, but hard to witness when she gets upset and cries because she has unrealistic expectations for herself. but we all had fun for the most part.

sunday afternoon was naps for the kids, and i headed to a coffee shop to get some work done, then went to the grocery store. it was nice to get some time to myself. for dinner we made homemade chicken bean soup (which was just like chicken noodle, but with beans instead of noodles). it was really good! perfect fall food. thatcher is not a big soup guy, but i'm still hoping to sway him. it felt like it was dark before 4pm because of the time change. boo! the only upside is it helps get the kids to bed earlier when it gets dark so early. they had baths and were in bed by 7:45. whew! 

it's a big week ahead - the election is tuesday (in case you didn't know - haha). we actually dropped off our completed ballots this weekend. washington is all mail-in and drop off voting. #i'mwithher. i'm gonna be on pins and needles tuesday night. last but not least, on friday i'm flying to new york (staying in new jersey) to spend a long weekend with my dad's side of the family. this trip has been a long time coming (i haven't been there in 4 years) and i'm so excited for it.