field trip, goodbye 3rd and 6th grade, hello summer break!

 last monday i chaperoned a field trip with all of the third graders to china town - international district. we visited a museum called wing luke and did an app-based scavenger hunt in the neighborhood. ashford's class had 6 kids out since the school year is so long this year, and 7 adults went on the field trip, so it was actually pretty relaxing! i'm so glad i got to go along and help. 

 on wednesday after school there was a year end picnic at golden gardens for the 6th and 7th graders (and families) from azalea's school. i brought ashford along hoping there would be some younger siblings there that he knew, but there weren't. a steady supply of flaming hot cheetos kept him happy enough. ha! there also weren't many parents there that i knew, but azalea had a great time and it was a beautiful evening for it. 

friday was the the last day of school. on june 30th - what a long haul these kids endured. i'm sure they are the last kids in the country to finish. i made sure to take the obligatory last day of school picture to compare to the first day. except the sun was in a bad spot when they were heading out the door, so it didn't come out that well, but you get the idea.

 

 and this picture is a bit more representative of their true relationship

this year's last day of school felt a little anti-climactic compared to last year when azalea graduated from elementary school and we were getting ready to leave for europe. but that's ok :) i got to drop into ashford's class for the last 15 minutes of the day because his teacher was doing a slideshow set to music. at one point the kids starting singing along to 'count on me' by bruno mars and i started tearing up. ashford was so anxious going into this year. his best friends were all in the opposite class, but he ended up having a great year! his teacher was amazing and he made so many new friends. after school ashford had his friends elijah and trent over and azalea had her friend penny over. it was a bit chaotic in our townhouse but they all had fun :) thatcher got back in town at dinner time and we were so happy to see him after 6 days away. 

saturday we didn't really have any plans. it sounds nice in theory, but in reality it leads to a lot of kid bickering, and them hovering around me because they are bored. i know being bored is good for kids, but have they done any studies on the effects for the mom? ;) haha. and on the first day of summer break to boot! anyway, i ended up taking azalea to northgate to look for a new swim suit and to the library. she found these funny ginormous platform crocs and wanted to model them. 

 the kids spent some time at the school playground with friends later in the afternoon. i read my book on the deck. we made pizza for dinner then i took the kids to 'big 5' sporting goods store to look for a birthday gift for ashford's friend elijah.

sunday morning thatcher and azalea headed up to our property to water the trees and have a little dad/daughter date. 

 

 

they went out for thai at 'blue mountain grill' where we all went a couple weeks ago. i told ashford we could go out for thai in ballard (these kids love pad thai!). so he and i had a little date of our own at 'thai thani'. 

in the afternoon ashford got picked up for his friend elijah's epic 10th birthday party. elijah's parents took 4 boys to a batting cage in everett, then to mod pizza for dinner, then to the everett aquasox (minor league baseball) game. they ended the night with fireworks at the stadium and ashford didn't get home until 11pm. way past my bedtime ;) he had so much fun and i'm so thankful for these new friends he made this year. 

today is my birthday and i didn't sleep in, but the kids currently are! i'll save my birthday recap for next week. happy 4th of july!