my 39th birthday, the 4th of july, mama night out

 last monday was my 39th birthday...and here begins the 12 month countdown to 40. eep! some years all my friends are in town for the 4th and some years everyone seems to leave. this year was the latter. so i had a family fun day and will celebrate with friends later in the month. i technically had to work on monday, which was sort of a buzz kill. ;) i decided to go to the gym in the morning because i always feel so good (physically and mentally) after. then the kids and i walked down to 'hattie's hat' for lunch. yum!

 

 

then the four of us headed out to go to pioneer square to do the 'seattle underground tour.' thatcher and i did it in 2010 when we came here on vacation, but the kids had never done it so i thought it would be a fun outing. it was just as cool as i remembered and our guide was hilarious. there were definitely some not-super-kid-friendly jokes/topics on the tour, but we were fine with it :) 

 

we made greek chicken pita sandwiches for dinner and then zoomed with my mom and brother while i blew out the candle on my chocolate pie that thatcher made, and opened some gifts. i felt very loved. then the kids hopped on their screens and thatcher and i went for a little walk around the neighborhood. a successful birthday! 

tuesday was the 4th. we had a relaxing morning at home. i had seen it was going to be steamy weather for a few days, so i reached out to a couple of azalea's friends' moms a few days prior to see if they wanted to meet us at the pool in magnolia in the afternoon. it was the perfect activity. it wasn't too crowded and we had a great time. 

 

thatcher spent most of the day installing an ac unit in our bedroom. yes this is blogworthy because it's the first time we've had ac in our 8 years of living in seattle! the summers have been getting hotter and our bedrooms are on the third floor so it doesn't take much for it to feel hot up there.

we grilled a summery meal for dinner: chicken, hot dogs and corn on the cob. yum! much to azalea's dismay we did not go see the professional fireworks. there is only one show in seattle and tens of thousands of people descend on gasworks park to watch. it also doesn't even start until 10:20pm because it stays light so late here. instead we usually can see some fireworks that people shoot off in our neighborhood, so we headed out around 9:30 and sure enough there were some fireworks to watch just a half block from our house.

wednesday we had no plans, which makes for a bit of a long day. it was hot again and i told the kids we needed to get out of the house in the afternoon, so i took them to the big fountain at seattle center. they weren't especially excited to go, but they ended up having a great time. the water felt so good! 

 

 

thursday we met vanessa and ewan at golden gardens at lunch time. the kids had fun playing and vanessa and i got to catch up. unfortunately after 90 mins it felt so hot there (especially the scorching sand - we couldn't even walk on it!). we decided to pack up and come home. 

 

 

friday was another no plans day. we hung out at home for most of it. in the afternoon i decided we needed a field trip to get us out. azalea suggested going to a store in wallingford called 'archie mcphees'. it's a quirky place with toys and other fun stuff. so we went. and that killed an hour ;) we brought home a new mad libs, a whoopie cushion, and an egg that grows a unicorn in water.

 

 

when we got home i convinced the kids to go bike around the park together...but that only lasted 10 minutes before they returned in a fight. siiiigh. when thatcher got home from work we made tacos and i introduced azalea to the movie 'mean girls' while thatcher and ashford played video games. 

saturday morning thatcher took ashford to karate. it was his first time getting to watch. azalea and i went to the library and starbucks. we relaxed at home the rest of the day. in the evening, i met up with my friends heather, erica, and vanessa for dinner at a restaurant called 'autumn' inthe greenwood neighborhood. we enjoyed delicious food and drinks and laughed until we cried. the best kind of night! 

 

sunday was pretty low key. we made cinnamon french toast for breakfast and i went to the gym. we ran some errands including azalea getting birthday gifts for two of her friends. i read a bunch on the deck. we made asian pork tacos for dinner and relaxed the rest of the night. 

the kids are both in camps this week (two different ones). i'm looking forward to having some 'me' time again while they are off having fun with friends.