book fair, ballard commons reopening, covid anniversary

 last tuesday i volunteered at the scholastic book fair at ashford's school. it's the first one they've had since 2019. i love the book fair and think it's so cute to watch the kids pick out merchandise and help check them out at the register :) especially the tiny kindergartners! it was a fun morning. 

 

after that, i went for lunch with kay and vanessa at rays in ballard. it's right on the water and has the best view. even when it's not patio weather and you eat inside, it's still a treat.

friday after school ashford wanted to make a smoothie. i love how he wants to do every step of the process on his own. for some reason this desire only works with smoothies and no other food prep ;)

 

 in the evening ashford went to 'parents night out' at school. the rest of us just hung out at home. we made dinner and then watched 'alone' after he got back. 

saturday morning ashford and i were planning to meet kay and fritz at ballard pool for open swim, but when we got there we found out it was closed for maintenance. oops. fritz came over to play instead. azalea and thatcher went to the grocery store and came home with these beautiful tulips for me (it was azalea's idea. she's the sweetest). 

in the afternoon ashford and i met our friends rebekah and arlo at ballard commons park for the reopening celebration. the park became a homeless encampment during covid (with over 100 tents). they shut it down in december 2021 by offering services to those living there and spent the last 15 months bringing it back to life. it's so nice to have this amenity in the neighborhood once again and i hope it can stay this way. there were tons of vendors giving out free food, music on the stage, and ashford's favorite part - the skate bowl. they loved watching the skateboarders use it and all the kids also ran around in it themselves for a while. 

arlo came over for a while afterward (it was a marathon friend day for ashford). in the evening, azalea headed to sisi's for a sleepover. thatcher, ashford, and i got mod pizza for dinner and watched a movie. 

sunday morning we made eggs and biscuits for breakfast. i ran some errands in the morning but otherwise spent the rainy day inside being lazy. :) ashford went to arlo's in the afternoon. we spent sunday night getting ready for the week ahead.

finally, this past week marked 3 years since the world shut down because of covid. i re-read my posts from that time the other day and...wow. it's hard to remember what all that uncertainly felt like at the beginning (maybe that's a good thing). after 3 years life feels pretty much as it did before the pandemic. we rarely wear masks anymore, we keep up on our covid boosters, nearly everything at school has made a comeback, thatcher goes into work about 4 days a week now. what a relief to be at this point. i know we could have other pandemics in our life time, but i hope it doesn't happen again for a long long time. here's a picture of the kids on their first day of remote school in march 2020.