azalea's first day of school, camping, brewery fun

azalea's first day of 2nd grade was this past wednesday! i can't believe she is in 2nd grade already. it seems like she just started kindergarten. (will i be saying this when she's in 9th grade too?!) she was very excited in the days leading up to it. we learned who her teacher was just a few days before school started, and also some of the kids in her class via the facebook page. her teacher is new to the school and this is also her first teaching job - pretty cool! azalea seems to like her so far. here's our girl on the first morning: 

on thursday morning ashford and i had a "family connections meeting" with his preschool teachers. we got to see the renovated preschool room, which is beautiful! he and one other boy are the only ones returning from last year, so there will be lots of new faces. 

friday morning ashford and i had what will probably be our last morning at "the inc" for a long time. with him attending his other preschool 5 mornings/wk this year, that doesn't leave any days for the inc. but we may use it when there are school closures, etc. and i'm sure i'll pop in by myself from time to time. friday afternoon bruce came over for a play date with ashford. and after we picked up azalea from school, we went to some friends for another play date. julie and i became friends last year because her son ben was in azalea's class - and he is again this year too. julie also invited another mom and her kids who we know. the kids ran around together and the moms drank wine and ate snacks. it was such a fun night. unfortunately i didn't take any pics. i wish i would have - the view of the sound from their deck was spectacular! 

saturday morning azalea and thatcher headed out on a daddy-daughter camping trip. they went to the coast to stay at a campground and enjoy the beach. thatcher has only camped once before many years ago, but has wanted to try it since we moved here, so he's been slowly researching and buying supplies. he thought taking just azalea would be a good practice run and maybe we'll all go together next time. they had a great time! azalea especially loved making hotdogs and smores over the fire. here are some pictures from their weekend: 

ashford and i kept busy on saturday we made brownies, played lots of board games/puzzles/toys (he's my little home body) and then went out for dinner at scooters together. it's amazing how well-behaved he is when azalea is not around. ;) he really missed them. he kept asking me how much longer until they came back. so sweet. 

he insisted on sleeping in my bed that night and i'm not one to argue with that when i would be sleeping alone otherwise. i got him to sleep then watched a movie before going to sleep myself. 

by some miracle, ashford slept until 8am on sunday. i got up at 7 and had a whole peaceful hour to myself. 

we hung out at home all morning and then after lunch we took the bus to populuxe brewing (yes, again. haha). they had a kids event there in the afternoon that was run by "happy squirrel arts" which was co-founded by azalea's kindergarten teacher. they had crafts, live music, etc and there were tons of families from azalea's school there. i felt bad that she wasn't able to hang out with her friends, but she was having her own kind of fun. 

thatcher and azalea returned from their trip in the afternoon and the kids wasted no time getting back to fighting ;) it was a nice break while it lasted. we hung out at home the rest of the night. 

today is ashford's first day of school! his last year before kindergarten. time flies! i'll have that recap next week :)