brunching, curriculum night, solo parenting weekend

last monday night ashford had his first session of his new karate class. i couldn't get over how many kids there were there. his old class usually averaged about 6-8 kids and this one had close to 20. i'm glad he's sticking with it (for now) because it's been so good for him. 

 tuesday morning i met up with kay at school to do inventory of supplies for the fall festival we are planning for later this month. we were happy to discover we still have a ton of stuff leftover from last year that we can re-use. after we finished up at school, we went to have brunch at 'el moose' in our neighborhood. yum! in the evening azalea had soccer practice and ashford and i were treated to the most beautiful sunset when we went to pick her up. 

wednesday morning my friend meredith was in town from bainbridge island, so vanessa and i met up with her at 'portage bay cafe' in south lake union for brunch (yes, brunch out two days in a row - oops). it was nice to catch up with her and we'll get to see her again in a few weeks when we all go to ocean shores together. ashford had karate in the evening. 

thursday thatcher left for a long weekend in minneapolis to attend the 50th anniversary of the urban studies program at the u of m. we are each going to minneapolis solo one weekend apart this month. kind of funny timing :) in the evening i had 'curriculum night' at azalea's school (it's just for the parents). i got to go to each of her 7 classes for 10 minutes each and hear from her teachers. it's always a fun experience. how is she in 7th grade already??! 

friday after school ashford went to fritz's house and azalea's friend penny came home from school with her. they hung out for a while, then i took ashford, azalea, and penny to 'thai siam' for dinner. it was a really fun outing and they all got along :) after penny got picked up, we watched 'coraline' for a spooky movie night :) 

saturday morning the kids slept til 8. i'll take it! we had no plans for the day. we lounged around in the morning, and i escaped to the gym for a quick workout. then we all headed to northgate to do some more halloween/clothes shopping. we weren't especially successful with either. we hung out at home for the afternoon, it got a little dicey at times because my kids equate boredom with certain death. sisi came over to see azalea for a while. it was almost 80 degrees out! we made dinner and decided on 'addams family' for our movie. if you can't tell, i push hard for the seasonal movies in october and december :) 

sunday morning the kids were up earlier than saturday. we lounged around for the morning again and i prepped chili for dinner. we stayed at home all day until the mid afternoon when we dropped off ashford at arlo's house and then azalea and i went to her game in shoreline. she only played the first 10 minutes because she fell and hurt her knee, but they ended up winning 1-0. their record is 3-2 now. it's been a fun season so far. thatcher went to 'open streets' in minneapolis and ran into my mom and her friend, as well as lots of other people he knows. 

thatcher gets home today and i leave for minneapolis on thursday! wee!!