fall festival, ocean shores weekend, pre-halloween fun

 i spent the first half of last week prepping for the fall festival (are you sick of hearing about it yet?) and getting ready to go out of town again. lots of errand running and a little crafting. ashford got a ride to karate with arlo monday night. azalea's soccer practice got cancelled on tuesday, which was good because it was super rainy, windy, and chilly. i took ashford and arlo to karate on wednesday evening. 

thursday evening was the fall festival at school. kay and i got there almost two hours early to start setting up. then i had to go to dominos to pick up 30 pizzas. that was a first! my car steamed up on the way back and it still smells like pizza in there. 

the event was from 6-8pm and it was a huge success. we had pizza, apple cider, popcorn, and cookie decorating. there were also a bunch of craft tables and a candy walk. there were soooo many people there. these pictures are from before it got super crowded. 

it was really fun, but it's always a big relief when it's over :) 

friday morning i got picked up by my friend heather for our girls weekend in ocean shores. we grabbed starbucks for the group and then picked up the other three mamas and drove to the olympic peninsula. we stopped for lunch and arrived at erica's condo in the late afternoon. she and her mom have owned it together for a few years and it was so nice of them to let us all stay there. the rest of the day included changing into comfy clothes, ordering pizza for dinner, and lots of snacks and drinks. 

i just love this picture - popcorn fail

saturday morning we lounged around the condo, which overlooked this pretty canal. 

then we headed to the unincorporated town of seabrook (30 mins away) to do a little shopping and have lunch. i had heard about seabrook, but it was my first time visiting. it's a "planned community" on the ocean. almost all of the houses are vacation rentals and the entire downtown is new construction restaurants and shops. it almost feels a little too perfect there, but it was nice and we had a good time. we got lunch at a mexican restaurant and it was delicious. then we went down to the beach for a little photo shoot :) 

heather, meredith, me, erica, and vanessa 

when we got back to the condo, we relaxed and watched a couple movies. then it was time for margaritas and white chicken chili made by meredith. yum! we told everyone to bring their halloween costume along this weekend, so we all got dressed up :) we ended the night with games.

sunday morning we slept in, made brunch, and then spent a couple hours cleaning/closing up the condo. we drove back to seattle in the afternoon and made the rounds dropping everyone off. i am so glad we could make this weekend getaway happen. it's been way too long. i laughed harder than i have in a long time, which is truly the best medicine. 

thatcher held down the fort again all weekend (next weekend will be my turn when he leaves for a conference). ashford and azalea both had friend halloween parties on different nights over the weekend. ashford's was at fritz's and they had pizza and did a spooky scavenger hunt in the yard. azalea's was at her friend sirena's and they carved their pumpkins. we still need to do ashford's tonight. azalea also had a soccer game on sunday and her team won. they are having such an awesome season and her defense skills are on fire! 

i was happy to get back to thatcher and the kids on sunday. we all missed each other. this has been such a busy month and it's not slowing down for a while. happy halloween!