first tooth, syttende mai, big 4 ice caves

it was a big week around here! ashford had a wiggly tooth for the last couple months and friday morning it decided to come out while he was eating a pear at preschool! i know that he's five and that's a normal age to lose your first tooth, but the fact that he's still in preschool makes me feel like he is so young for it! he brought it home in a little baggy and the tooth fairy came that night :) he didn't really want me to take his picture, so this blurry one is the best we got: 

friday night was the syttende mai (norwegian constitution day) parade in ballard. it's one of my favorite nights of the year in our neighborhood. it has gone from being something we attended alone at first, to now being on an email chain of families from azalea's school talking about where they staked out a stretch of spots so people can add their chairs/blankets for the event. it's so fun. 

 ashford surprised me and wasn't super into the parade this year. i think he was bummed that we were mostly with azalea's friends and not his. sorry buddy. he walked home with thatcher after an hour of it. azalea had a ball running around and catching candy with her friends. 

saturday we went on our first family hike of the season. we usually only do a couple as a family, so we are hoping to up it this year since the kids are older. family hike usually means 2-3 miles and low elevation gain, which is totally my style as well ;) we drove about an hour and 45 minutes to the "big 4 ice caves" trail. we had a picnic lunch and then set out on the hike. 

the ice caves don't fully form until summer (and you are not able to go in them because it's super dangerous) but it was really cool to see. the kids did really well. it helped that we had some treats along the way.

sunday was a hang out at home day. we made a big breakfast, relaxed at home, got groceries, and took bikes up to the school. 

my mom comes this wednesday for a week, so we are pretty excited about that!