july wrap up: orthodontist, mama's night out, keeping cool

here we are two days away from august. august is when autumn and "back to school" doesn't sound so far away. what in the world?! we still have over a month until school starts, but it sure feels like summer is getting closer to ending, especially with the sun setting earlier. the only thing that still feels like full-fledged summer is the hot weather in seattle. i don't remember any other summer that we've been here (four now) being this hot for this long. oof. 

i can't believe i've forgotten to blog about something very important happening at our house this summer - azalea has entered the world of orthodontia! at her regular teeth cleaning this spring, the dentist let us know she was going to refer us to an orthodontist. i thought age 7 sounded early, but apparently that is the norm now. we had suspected that azalea has a lot of crowding in her mouth with her adult teeth coming in, and this confirmed it. we had a consultation at an orthodontist office in our neighborhood before we went to minneapolis. they measured her for an expander, to be put in when we got back in town. two days after we returned, she got the expander put it. it will be permanently attached to the roof of her mouth for 15 months. the idea is for it to slowly increase the size of her mouth to make room for her adult teeth (and hopefully avoid pulling teeth). this means we are required to "turn" the expander with a small tool every morning at home. i was really intimidated by it at first. the hole in her expander is really tiny and it can be hard to see what you are doing. not to mention azalea did a lot of screaming and crying at the beginning. but we are getting better at it with every day. overall she has been a huge trooper about the expander itself - no complaining and she loves to show people. i know it'll be worth it in the long run. i don't have any pictures of her hardware because it's hard to photograph, but it's pink and sparkly :) 

now onto the recap. last week ashford did a preschool camp at a community center about a mile from us every day from 9:30-1. his buddies ewan and wren were in the class, so he was really excited.

 he did great in the new setting and had lots of fun. i'm so happy! besides the kids getting a break from each other (which is very necessary!), i got to have some rare one-on-one time with azalea, which was really fun. we went to two coffee shops, took a trip to the zoo, went shopping, got the car serviced, and she went to a movie with a friend one morning. it was a nice change of pace to hang out with just my little lady. 

last monday we got to dog sit our neighbor dog, nacho. he is a 15 year old pomerian-chihuahua mix and we have become good friends with his owner, joe. joe asked if we would be willing to have nacho over for a few hours that afternoon while he was in the mountains because his 4th floor apartment is so hot. we were more than happy to! the kids loved having him at our house. they even fought over who got to pick up his poop outside. hahaha! 

tuesday night i got to have a night out with my mama friends. our friend teresa moved to the phillipines (where she is from originally) last summer with her husband and sons for a 2 year contract for amazon and she is back in town visiting. so, we all went to dinner together to catch up. it was a really fun night at one of my favorite spots in ballard - stoneburner. 

the kids did a lot of water activities with friends in the afternoons last week to beat the heat! we went to the spray park at north acres, the seattle center wading pool, and the spray park at ballard commons (which also had the park in the heart art tent going on). i love how many free water activities there are here in the summer. the kids never get sick of it! 

 satuday we didn't have any plans, so we decided to take a trip to swanson's nursery. it's always a fun way to kill an hour or two and we even brought a few plants home for our patio area. 

 sunday we had no plans in the morning, so we drove up to shoreline to richmond beach. it is one of our favorite beaches and we hadn't been there in a long time. we stacked rocks, watched a couple trains go by, and played on the playground. it's such a pretty spot! 

 

sunday afternoon azalea had a birthday party for her friend brennan at seattle gymnastics academy. it was a drop off party and she had a blast! i was glad she got to see some girls from school since we were gone for a long time. 

this week will be a lot of azalea and mama time again because ashford is doing a camp at golden gardens. :)