azalea's 6th birthday weekend

whew! what a fun (and exhausting!) weekend we had. i usually write my weekend recaps on sunday evening and schedule them to post monday morning, but i did not have it in me last night. but i'm here now! 

friday night i had a mama's night out with my group of friends. we went to a place in capitol hill called "the garage", it has a bowling alley, billiards, and food & drinks. it was a really fun night and nice to change up our usual get-together routine of just going out for dinner. we had some drinks and apps and then bowled 2 games. i was the worst bowler of the group (68 and a 57). but i still love it! we forgot to take a picture until after 2 ladies in our group already hopped in an uber, but here are the other 3 of us: 

saturday morning our family had an outing to a fun toy store near us to get a birthday gift for a classmate of azalea's who's party was that afternoon. we left with not only that gift, but a couple birthday gifts for azalea (1 that she knew about, 1 that we hid), and some potty training "rewards" for ashford. we are starting potty training attempt #2 this week. wish me luck! in the afternoon, i dropped off azalea at the birthday party at her friend's house (her first drop off party ever!) and i had 2 glorious hours to do whatever i wanted. what did i do? i went to...wait for it...the grocery bargain outlet store. amazing, i know. my friend vanessa has been raving about it to me, so i decided i better go. it was pretty awesome. majorly discounted groceries, toiletries, and other household items. oh and wine. i didn't buy any perishable items and double checked all expiration dates to make sure they weren't really soon. i'll definitely be back! i also dropped off some flyers for the women's business incubator (the nonprofit that runs the co-working preschool that ashford and i use). i joined the board and i'm planning to write a post about that, so stay tuned. azalea had a blast at the party and i learned that her buddy's dad is from the twin cities, so that was pretty cool. (i meet so many minnesotans in seattle. it's out of control!) in the evening, i took the kids to mcdonalds playland for dinner with our friends vanessa and ewan. thatcher got some "quiet time" while he baked azalea's cake for sunday. after they went to bed, i wrapped all of azalea's gifts. 

sunday morning azalea bounded out of bed announcing "it's my birthday!" she also told us she felt bigger, so that's good :) i have a tradition of making a collage of pictures from the last year on their birthday, so here it is. our big 6 year old: 

she is definitely looking more grown up every day. i would be sad about it if i didn't love watching her grow so much. 

we opted not to do a kid party this year. we did a big one last year at the children's museum and it's not cheap, nor is it fun to have to decide which kids from her class to invite (because i was not going to undertake a party for 21 kids). we promised her a fun family day instead, and i think we delivered! the first stop of the morning was the seattle ferris wheel. the kids have been asking to go on it for nearly 2 years whenever we walk/drive by, so i thought it would be a perfect activity for her birthday. she was thrilled. it was a classic "seattle" cloudy/rainy day, which wasn't ideal, but we all enjoyed the ride (which lasted about 15 minutes) and the views. 

after the ferris wheel, we headed to south lake union to go to chipotle for lunch. it's azalea's favorite, and we love it too :) i didn't take any pictures, but the kids were well-behaved and the food was delish. our final stop was a bike store on the way home. azalea has a bike with training wheels, but the frame is best suited for a 3-4 year old, so she definitely needed a bigger one. we picked out a raleigh for her that is a little on the bigger side (which she wasn't a fan of), but the next size down would not have fit her for long. hopefully we can get her out consistently this spring/summer and she can ride it as a two-wheeler before too long. 

we relaxed at home for a while then thatcher took azalea to see the batman lego movie. ashford and i stayed home as we weren't sure if he would sit through it. i made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner (another azalea favorite) and we finished the night with cake and presents (and skyping with family!). 

in addition to her bike, she got ballet shoes, goggles, a game, a lego set, a dress, some books, etc. it was such a fun day celebrating our girl!