braces, pioneer square, veterans day

we had a 3 day weekend thanks to veterans day. thatcher gets the day off since he works for the government, and there was no school for the kids. but before i get to our weekend, i want to back up to last week. 

the biggest news of the week is that azalea got braces! this has been on the calendar for a couple months. you'll remember she got an expander put in back in july. she's lost a couple more teeth since then and her adult teeth have been filling in. she was having major crowding, so the expander and braces are a must. she got the braces put on wednesday morning. only about half of her teeth have brackets on them for now, but the wires go all the way across. they estimate she will wear them for a year. she will get new brackets put on as she loses more teeth and new adult ones come in. she has been such a trooper so far. she was a little nervous to get them put on and she's been dealing with some soreness, but overall she thinks they are pretty cool.

she looks like a mini teenager now ;) 

when i dropped her off at school (late), she walked into her classroom and announced "i got braces!" and everyone crowded around her and ooohed and ahhhhed. it was so cute. she goes back again in 6 weeks for a check up. they estimate she will need the braces for about a year. i've had multiple moms of girls at school come up to me and tell me their daughter is asking for braces now. haha! 

moving onto the weekend...friday night was our usual night in. saturday morning thatcher and ashford slept til after 8 am(!). thatcher took the kids to cafe mox for board games and chocolate milk. always a hit! i took 4 bags of donations to goodwill and then spent some time browsing. i left with 2 sweaters and a pair of jcrew jeans. i love the thrill of the hunt there. i still had some solo time left, so i stopped at "un bien" and got a carribean sandwich for lunch. i hadn't been there since last june and it is one of my favorite places in seattle. i even sat outside and ate under the heat lamps. in the afternoon we dropped off thatcher at the mall to look for some new work clothes and then i took the kids to maple leaf park. it was a beautiful day - 50 and sunny, but it was windy and ended up feeling colder than i was anticipating. they still had fun. we picked up thatcher and came home to hang out for a few hours before azalea and i headed to a school function. her school hosted a "fall harvest party" for the families. it was a pot luck with lots of delicious food and adult beverages. they had a chaperoned kids room downstairs where the kids could watch a movie. it was great! then we came home and it was off to bed for the kids. thatcher and i relaxed the rest of the night. 

sunday morning we made a big breakfast and hung out at home for a few hours. at lunch time, we went downtown to pioneer square to meet up with thatcher's old coworker/friend jackie who was in town from minneapolis. we had lunch with her at zeitgeist coffee. it was nice to catch up! last time i was at zeitgeist was may 2015 when thatcher, ashford, and i came into town to look for a place to rent. it feels like just yesterday and a million years ago all in one.

 after we parted ways with jackie, we stopped by thatcher's work and also a cool waterfall garden. 



we promised the kids we could go to the science museum this weekend, so we went there on our way home. it's nice having a membership because we can just pop in for an hour. i went to the grocery store and we made turkey burgers for dinner. then we just relaxed the rest of the night. oh, we started reading harry potter as a family. neither thatcher nor i have ever read the books, if you can believe that! 

monday we were all home for veterans day. however, i had to work for a little while in the morning because my office in minneapolis was not closed, but it was a quiet day because it's a bank holiday. we hung out at home all morning. after lunch, thatcher went for a bike ride and i took the kids to a playground to meet my friend erica and her boys. they couldn't stay too long, so we decided to go to another playground on the way home. it was a beautiful day - almost 60 degrees! thatcher was gone for almost 4 hours on his bike ride. he used to bike all the time and hasn't much for the last couple years, so i'm glad he could go. we made a thai/lao dish for dinner (really good!) and relaxed for the rest of the night. 

now onto a short week! i can't believe thanksgiving is coming so quickly!