the end of the school year and a big change for us!

what.a.week. i know i say that a lot, but i really mean it this time. first i will recap the end of school year, then i'll get to our big news! last wednesday the kids and i went to vanessa and ewan's after school for a little pool party. never mind the fact that it was 63 degrees and cloudy. ha! june has not been especially summer-like in seattle this year. 

thursday was ashford's preschool graduation. it was short and sweet and a nice closure to our time at the ballard community center. i can't believe that after spending 3 out of the last 4 years with a preschooler there, my kids will soon both be in elementary school. wild! we will especially miss his buddies (in the white gowns) who still have another year of preschool to go. 

 friday was ashford's official last day of preschool. i took his picture to do the "first day/last day" comparison and he has certainly grown!

now for the news...as you know, we've lived in the same two bedroom condo in seattle for the past four years. despite being small in square footage for four people, it has been so perfect for us. our landlord has been amazing as well. our lease term just ended so we are technically on month to month right now. imagine our surprise when we reached out to her about renewing for another year and she responded by telling us she needs to sell the condo this summer. *dun dun dun*. 

on tuesday, a realtor contacted us to tell us she would be coming that week to take a look at the condo to price it. enter panic mode! we were a little over a week out from leaving for minneapolis for two weeks, and likely need to be out of our place by the end of july. on wednesday we started scouring craigslist and zillow for rentals in our neighborhood. we were looking for a 2-3 bedroom place within the kids' school boundaries. the choices are pretty limited, not to mention everything has gone up in price since we were looking to rent in 2015. wednesday night we went to see a place a block away that was almost a grand more per month than we pay right now and it was a total dump. talk about discouraging. 

the realtor came on friday and took some pictures for our landlord (who lives out of state). after she left, i came across a posting for a 3br/1ba place in our neighborhood that had just been listed. it look really nice and was in our budget too, so i was hopeful. i contacted the landlord immediately and we made plans to see it friday night. i was on pins and needles all day worrying that some one would snatch it up before we got there. but we ended up being the first to see it and we loved it! it's the lower level of a duplex. it's bigger than what we have now and it has a fenced-in yard and tons of storage. it's a little further away from school and the grocery store, but only by a couple blocks. we told the landlord we wanted it and started the application process. 

saturday morning they accepted our application to begin renting july 1st. what a relief! we started going through all of our belongings since we aren't going to have a ton of time in the next couple weeks. we were super productive and filled nine bags to bring to goodwill. we spent most of the day at home, but thatcher went to his co-worker's housewarming party in the late afternoon. 

sunday was more sorting and purging. i feel like i do a pretty good job of bringing stuff to goodwill every few months, but we still have a ton of stuff we don't use! 

monday was the first day of summer vacation for ashford. we dropped off azalea at school and then came home and worked on organizing (well, i did). in the evening, the kids and i went to golden gardens with some families from preschool. 

it was such a beautiful night and there were so many sailboats out. 

tuesday was azalea's last day of school. school actually goes until thursday, but we are taking her out two days early to go to minneapolis. she was very excited to do the first day/last day comparison and even wanted to wear the same shirt :) she has definitely grown in the last 9 months. i can't believe we will have a 3rd grader next year. 

now we are just a plane ride away from minneapolis and we are so excited for our vacation to start!