the final week of summer vacation

tomorrow is the first day of school for azalea, so that means summer break is officially over! ashford starts kindergarten next monday. we had a busy/good/often hard final week, but we made it through. 

monday of last week ashford had a play date at his friend alden's so i decided to take azalea on a little date to get a manicure. for the last couple years, i've let her go once a year and she had been asking since we usually go in the summer. she was thrilled! i even had a gift certificate so we both got our nails done for free! then we went to the coffee shop next door for a little treat. it was a fun morning with my girl who is getting more grown up by the day. 

we hung out at home in the afternoon and then in the evening i took the kids to the home of their school's PTA president for a "summer retreat" with a taco bar and childcare during the PTA meeting. it was awesome! i'm exited to take on a more active role with the PTA and volunteering this year. 

tuesday morning we hung out at home then at lunch time we headed to vanessa and ewan's. vanessa made us lunch and the kids played, then we all headed to the mounger pool again since we had so much fun the week before. it was 80 degrees out, but really breezy so it was quite chilly getting out of the pool. here are the kids having a snack break. 

that night azalea had soccer practice at salmon bay field (which is so nice!) and the closest field to our house. 

wednesday morning we hung out at home. in the afternoon we went to the northgate library and then continued north to the alderwood mall in lynnwood. since we were going a long ways, i decided to make an afternoon of it. the kids played at the "funtastic playtorium" for over an hour then we went to the lego store where they each made a (small) purchase. finally ashford got his hair cut at jc penney. success! wednesday evening i met up with a group of 3rd grade parents at olaf's bar, which is a little over a block away from our new place. it was a fun night and i'm thankful i've formed friendships with these parents.

thursday morning we hung out at home. the kids looked so cute sitting in this chair discussing british royalty. believe me, the snuggling was short-lived. ;) 

ashford's buddy alden came over for a play date. in the afternoon i took the kids and their scooters to salmon bay school. then we ran some errands before hanging out at home the rest of the day. 

friday morning we hung out at home then we went to mcdonalds for lunch (yes, again) to meet vanessa and ewan. after lunch, we all headed to golden gardens to meet my friend beth and her daughters. it was a beautiful afternoon and the kids played nicely together. 

we went into the 3 day weekend with no plans, which always stresses me out a bit as some one in our family doesn't do so well with no having plans. i'll let you guess who ;) saturday morning azalea and i went to the mattress store to look at twin mattresses for the kids. right now they have a full mattress for azalea and a twin blow up mattress for ashford in their shared room and we thought it would be best to do two twin beds given the space constraints. but we didn't purchase any that day. in the afternoon i took a couple hours for myself to walk up to "the dane" for coffee and to read my book. i also stopped in some shops on the way. i was getting to my breaking point with parenting with having the kids home all week, so i was grateful for this break. 

sunday morning azalea and i stopped by her friend tyler's house to pick up some hand-me-downs for ashford. we ended up staying for an hour while the kids played. in the afternoon we went backed to the mattress store to make the purchase and schedule the delivery. thatcher got a hair cut and then we all went to 8 oz burger for dinner in our neighborhood. yum! 

monday was labor day. the beds got delivered, which was great! 

but the morning was mostly filled with the kids bickering, whining, and thatcher and i losing our minds because of it. i decided we needed a reset - badly! we decided to drive up to edmonds, which is about 30 minutes away. we walked out on the pier, saw people catching crabs, and also watched a jelly fish and baby seal in the water. it was awesome!

 the kids snapped out of their fighting (for the most part). we also went to the play ground and the beach. it's such a pretty place. we grilled dinner and said good bye to summer!