spring in january, more birthday celebrations, winter enrichment program

we are coming off a 3-day weekend, so i just got this post finished up. 

last tuesday we had some very springy weather (50s and sunny!!). and we got a couple other days like it later in the week. it's also been raining some days, but i'll take it. it's only january after all.

 i never realized until this year how many people i know with january birthdays. i always think of my mom's birthday, but that's towards the end of the month. there are lots more that come before that. my friend kay's birthday was last week and she invited me out to olaf's for dinner/drinks with a couple other friends on wednesday night. i love going there because it's just a block from my house :) and the icing on the cake was it was really quiet that night. 

on friday azalea had the first day of her winter enrichment program at school. it's a really cool program (her school may be the only school in the district that does it?) where the kids get 6 fridays to do learning outside the classroom. a lot of kids go skiing in the mountains, but there are other options around the city too. azalea chose a cooking class at the 'pcc co-op' grocery store. she's with a group of 15 other kids. their first class was knife skills (!) and making ramen. she was really proud and sent me this picture :) 

friday evening we met thatcher at 'mod pizza' on his way home from work. it had been a long time since we dined there as a family, so it was fun. and we picked up ice cream after, which is always the right choice. 

saturday morning ashford had his friend ewan's 9th birthday party at a skate park. ashford has never really skateboarded before, so he was a little nervous, but he did great! they had a little instructional time, but otherwise just got to do whatever. it was fun to watch them :) 

thatcher and azalea had their own little date saturday morning to piccolinos in our neighborhood for coffee and a treat. 

in the afternoon, ashford went to his friend arlo's and azalea and i hung out at home while thatcher went on a walk. it was so nice out!!! i even sat on the deck and read my book for a while. then azalea and i walked to the library.

ashford came home from arlo's and azalea went to sisi's for a sleepover. we made an easy dinner and watched a movie with ashford. 

sunday was a productive day. we made a big breakfast, then thatcher left to meet a friend. i wanted ashford to clean his room with me and he told me he also wanted to rearrange it. why not! i used to love doing that as a kid. it looks great. we relaxed at home the rest of the day and i took ashford to get his hair cut. we watched another movie since it wasn't school night.

monday was mlk day so thatcher and the kids had the day off. i didn't have the day off work, but it's a bank holiday, so things were fairly quiet. ashford had an orthodontist appt in the morning to get spacers between 4 teeth in preparation for his expander that's going in next week. poor guy has a sore mouth now, but he's getting through it. in the afternoon, azalea and i drove out to bellevue to meet one of my co-workers for the first time. her name is fizza and she and her family recently moved here from texas. we both work remotely for thedatabank, i'm excited to have her nearby. 

now onto the second half of january!