last monday my mom reminded me that it was 10 years ago to the day that my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer (october 24, 2012). i can hardly wrap my head around it being a whole decade ago. in a lot of ways, it feels like forever considering 10 years ago we had no idea we would move to seattle, azalea was a year and a half old, and ashford didn't exist yet. but i remember that day so vividly. it was easily one of the hardest days of my life. in some ways harder than the day he died. the shock, sadness and fear of what was to come was overwhelming. my mom, brother, and i have always been close, but losing my dad has made us appreciate each other even more.
on a happier note, we enjoyed all the fall/halloween fun in the past week. it always feels like a whirlwind and this year was no different. no family pumpkin patch outing for us this year for the first time in probably 12-13 years. oh well, can't do it all! we had some chilly, wet days around here last week. i found myself wanting to wear comfy pants and curl up on the couch with my book or a movie more afternoons than i should admit. ;)
kay and i coordinated last minute details for the fall festival at school. lots of errand running and making sure the volunteer slots were filled. wednesday after school, the kids and i went to venture coffee with our friends beth, audrey, and eliza. then we came home to clean out/carve our pumpkins. i roasted the pumpkin seeds too!
thursday both kids had friends coming over after school so i made an epic snack platter for them. not pictured: brownie bites with orange/yellow frosting :) i know the way to their hearts.
friday i was in charge of picking up the 350 mini pumpkins we special ordered for the fall festival from the produce store in our neighborhood.
friday evening ashford went to the 'parents night out' program at school (first time they've had it since 2019!) unfortunately azalea is too old to go now, but he had fun. we ordered pasta takeout from 'sopranos' and watched 'coraline' for a movie night.
saturday morning thatcher was off to miami super early for a work conference. i had to be at school at 9:30 to start setting up for the fall festival. the kids came along and helped.
the event was from 11-2 and it went so well! we
had enough volunteers this year that kay and i could just walk around
and enjoy the event/help where needed. the kids stayed til 12:30 then
left to go home and play video games. it's nice that they can stay
home alone a bit now.
i was completely pooped by the time i got home at 2:30. i would have been fine to just relax the rest of the day, but ashford had a halloween party at fritz's house and azalea and i had a haunted house date with simone and her dad in the laurelhurst neighborhood of seattle.
we dropped off ashford and enjoyed kay's spooky yard.
then we headed to the haunted house. a real estate firm puts it on every year and it was our first year going. it was such a beautiful night. the haunted house was an amazing set up on someone's property. it was a donation based event with free food and drinks and a bonfire at the end. even waiting in line was spooky.
azalea was excited to experience her first haunted house, but decided less than a minute into it that she was terrified. obviously this picture was before that point. haha. i had to keep loosening her grip on my arm. i'll admit, it was a scary one, but really fun!
we picked up ashford, watched part of a movie and it was a late night to bed.
sunday we slept in then had cinnamon rolls for breakfast :) i took the kids to chipotle for lunch at uvillage.
then azalea's soccer game was nearby at magnuson field. it was the coldest game yet and they lost again, so it was kind of a downer all around, but i'm glad she got to play.
we relaxed at home (and warmed up!) the rest of the day. we watched casper that night. one of my favorite halloween movies!
finally...yesterday was halloween! azalea wore part of her costume to school because they do a halloween celebration. ashford's school does not, but the teachers usually do a fun craft or treat in class. i was watching the forecast in the days leading up to halloween because they were predicting lots of rain. thankfully it did not end up that way. we've been really lucky on halloween here. i think it has only rained once since 2015. we ate an early dinner (crockpot white chicken chili) then got into our costumes for trick or treating. ashford went as a spooky skeleton and azalea went as a zombie deer. i continued my streak of buying a wig and calling it a costume :)
azalea trick or treated without an adult for the first time and we missed her. she and sisi went out together and managed to find their way home again.
ashford and i met up with his group of his friends and their parents. we had a great time combing the neighborhood for 2 hours. it was hard to get any good pictures of them, though. people had amazing decorations.
we were home a little after 8pm to sort candy, warm up, and watch a movie. the kids claimed it was a 'light' year for candy. ha!
i can't believe we are entering the holiday season! i may have listened to some kenny g christmas music while taking down my halloween decorations today. simply the best!
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