first day of school, a belated 40th celebration, fall soccer begins

 last sunday morning i took ashford to his hair cut appointment. azalea hung out at sisi's all morning after their sleepover. in the afternoon, i took her shopping for her school supplies (holy cow it was expensive!!!). i'm thankful that ashford's school started buying all the supplies in bulk a couple years ago and just asks parents to pay the school directly - way easier and cheaper! ashford hung out with fritz in the afternoon and i ended up going over there to have a glass of wine with fritz's dad on the patio. thatcher joined us towards the end and then we all headed home for dinner. we watched a movie and i slept through most of it - haven't done that in a while, ha! 

monday was labor day. thatcher was home and we were all feeling a bit tired and lazy. i went to the gym in the morning and the grocery store later, but other than that we pretty much lounged around the house all day. azalea spent a little time at sisi's in the afternoon. it felt like a long day. 

tuesday was the last day of summer break! ashford got invited to his friend elijah's with a bunch of buddies for the day. elijah's mom took them mini golfing. so nice (and brave) of her :) 

 azalea had "WEB leader" duty for 6th grade orientation at school in the morning. in the afternoon there was a meet the teacher event at ashford's school. he thought he was going to get to be in the portable for 5th grade, but his teacher moved inside the main building this year. azalea had her first soccer practice of the season in the evening. things are starting to feel busy around here! thankfully we were able to carpool. 

wednesday was the first day of school. i can't believe it's ashford's last year of elementary school (5th) and azalea's last year of middle school (8th). time flies! they are still on different schedules for one more year, ashford having the earlier start. 

i kicked off the school year with a trip to the gym and grocery store, did my bookkeeping work, and got a haircut. whew! they both had good first days, which i was happy to hear. 

thursday night azalea had soccer practice again. 

friday marked the end of the first week (well, first 3 days) of school, but it's kind of nice that they get to ease into it. azalea decided she wants to try going to 'boys and girls club' 1-2 times a week after school because she has friends who go, so friday was her first day. 

you might remember back in june i was supposed to have my 40th birthday party with a group of friends here, but it got cancelled because kay (who was going to host it at her house) had a family emergency come up. the party got rescheduled for september 6th and i was so excited it was finally here. a gathering with 10 friends on the most perfect weather night. vanessa did all the cute decorations and kay made a delicious dinner. i didn't get many pictures of the guests, but it was a really fun night i will remember forever. 

saturday morning i took azalea to 'big 5' to get new soccer cleats and shorts for her first game of the season on sunday. we pretty much hung out at home for the rest of the day. ashford went to 7-11 and the playground with a few friends. i did some reading and started a new season of 'call the midwife'. azalea wanted to do some baking, so we got ingredients for pumpkin cheesecake cookies. we had never made them before, and they were a little labor intensive but turned out good. looking forward to more baking this season - i think apple crisp will be next! 

sunday morning thatcher made pumpkin pancakes for breakfast (we are going all in on fall flavors!). he had a hair cut in the morning and the kids and i hung out at home. in the afternoon we all went to azalea's first soccer game of the season. it was against the best team in their league, and they lost 0-5. womp. but they actually got new uniforms this year for the first time in a loooong time. it's gonna be hard to get used to gray instead of red! 

thatcher went on our usual walk after dinner and were treated to the most spectacular sunset over the sound. it's been a bit smokey here lately (thankfully not too bad) and i know that's not a good thing, but man those sunsets are really incredible. 

now onto week 2 of school!