on the mend, gold belt, a very belated birthday party

hello february! i am so happy to see you. i've put away all my 'winter' decor (because i was tired of looking at it), took down all the holiday cards and the wreath on our door. and i put out one tiny valentine's day decoration. haha! 

 i mentioned last week that both kids stayed home sick on monday (as well as thatcher). we had a relaxing day together and i even spent some time reading on the deck because it got to 61 degrees, though it was cloudy. kinda wild for late january...

both kids went back to school on tuesday. ashford still had a cough, but i know those can linger forever and he had no other symptoms. 

wednesday morning i got together with my friend alice. we were planning to meet at 'venture coffee', so i grabbed a table after i ordered. we ended up packing up and leaving to walk in the rain for an hour because she had her chihuahua along and he isn't allowed in the coffee shop. it was nice to catch up with her. 

that evening, ashford and i went to karate with rebekah and arlo because the boys were being presented with their new yellow/gold belts. 

thursday evening was registration for boys and girls club summer camp. yes, already! we only do 1-2 weeks each summer, but last year they reduced capacity, and some of our friends didn't get a spot. i made sure to register the moment it opened this year and thankfully they added more spots back in. i registered the kids for two weeks in august because we will be roadtripping/staying in minnesota for most of july. years ago, we never had to plan out our summers this early, but now it seems like you kind of have to if you want any control over your schedule. at least it gives us things to look forward to :) 

friday after school the kids and i went to kay's. she and i discussed some potential plans for my 40th birthday (eeek!). i'm excited. it helps being the baby out of all of my friends here. haha! then we came home to thatcher, had leftovers for dinner and lounged on the couch the rest of the night. 

saturday morning ashford had his skills assessment for baseball. they use it to put together evenly matched teams for the season, and i always cross my fingers that he will continue to get to be with his same coach and friends, but it sounds like his regular coach is taking this season off from coaching. his friend raleigh's dad offered to take raleigh, fritz, and ashford to the field by our house for a little practice session and then took them to the assessment as well, so that was nice. azalea and i went to the library and 'venture coffee' in the morning. ashford went to raleigh's house in the afternoon and the rest of us hung out at home. we got thai take out for dinner and watched 'harry potter 6'. 

sunday morning we slept in and lounged around the house. then the kids and i dropped off some donations at goodwill and went to fred meyer to get some last-minute party supplies. we finally had a friend birthday party for ashford...6 weeks after his actual birthday, but i have to say it was so much more relaxing doing it this way and not the week of christmas. we invited five boys to do an escape room in belltown and snacks/cake at our house. 10 year old boys have endless energy, so we were all tired after four hours of wrangling them all, but they had a great time together! 

the only decoration he wanted was some balloons for them to play with

we got a 'carvel' ice cream cake from fred meyer, but he did not want anything written on it. he cracks me up. 

we bused to belltown to do the escape room. thatcher did it with them. they did not allow any pictures there. the boys did an awesome job with it and they were on the last clue when time ran out. 

it was 3 blocks from pike place market, so azalea and i had our own little date. we got potstickers and sat overlooking the water and then went in some shops. 

ashford opened his gifts when we got back and the boys got picked up soon after. whew! survived that until next year :) 

two weeks from today we leave for florida! we are so excited.