january leftovers

some photos from january:

alanna made honor roll for her first semester of high school. very good!

a couple of the awesome gifts we received for christmas (xVx!)

malcolm and i visited a new to us indoor play place, go bananaz. it was pretty fun! he liked the pirate ship the best.

i rode it with him, and it made me feel like this! barf.

we took a little day trip to ikea :)

malcolm is danny's little grocery shopping helper.

danny and the kids made paper-machete masks out of empty water jugs while i was at work. the boys painted theirs.

cool dude, haha

we took malcolm to get his hair cut

the finished product, so handsome!

this boy seriously loves video games.

vegan cupcakes i made!

dinner out at our favorite chinese restaurant in durham. yum!

eating breakfast and enjoying a movie (on vhs!)

sweets!

sunbathing. i love that fubby lil' face!

making art at marbles

hanging around in goggles, in a hammock. because he's cool like that!

these dogs love to soak up the sun and get some vitamin d :)

boys-only camping trip

a few days before malcolm's fourth birthday, danny took him on an overnight camp-out to pop's cabin. this was malcolm's first ever trip to pop's property, and the three of them had a great time. they went hiking around the woods, ate tons of junk food, made vegan smores, and even shot some guns (yikes!) dan and vicky got malcolm a nice set of walkie-talkies, which came in handy when they got lost out there in all those trees ;)  

dan took these photos.

this is totally my new favorite photo of danny and malcolm together. i love it so much.

apparently this stick was for "whacking coyotes!", haha!

the cutest.

hanging out inside, after the sun had set.

ready for bed.



and a little more exploring before it was time to go home.

the minute they left, malcolm wanted to go back. he was so excited, and told me all about how he could not wait for the next trip to pop's cabin! he had so much fun. i'm glad that the three of them were able to spend some quality "guy time" together. alanna and i also had a nice evening out, we did a little shopping (browsing, really) where alanna found a fifty dollar bill on the ground (what!?)! then dinner and cupcakes at whole foods, and we ended the night with a trip to the theater to see the new sherlock holmes movie. very nice indeed!

happy fourth birthday malcolm!

today this boy of ours turned four years old! FOUR!! it is a little hard to believe. the years seem to be flying by. we are loving this age already, he seems to have grown so much just in the past month alone. he is so smart and says the wittiest things all the time. we truly love having him in our lives.

tomorrow morning we drop off his application for preschool. he would start in the fall. the school we want to send him to has a small number of openings and a high number of applicants, so please keep your fingers crossed for us! here's hoping he gets selected!

december leftovers

marbles recently added some new items to their play area that encourage kids to be healthy and active. malcolm loves the new features.

eat healthy :)

play sports

get moving!

the giant marbles christmas tree

we went to a parade in the small town where danny's parents live. it was hilarious. this is the only photo i took, but boy was it a doozy!

how danny washes malcolm's hair

the only wreath i made during the month of december. it was delicious!

festive cupcakes from whole foods

the kids had their pics taken in a photobooth, after visiting santa at the mall

this is TJ. our local trader joe's store hides TJ in a new place every day, and if you can find him, you get to choose a prize from the treasure chest. this idea is genius. malcolm loves looking for the squirrel while we are shopping. 

playing computer games in the buff

gifts coming in...

...gifts going out :)

i took this the first day we had sweets in our house. she looks huge in this photo, but only because she was sitting closer to me. she is a beautiful dog. and lucky is so handsome.

malcolm was doing crazy kung-fu kicks and jumps, and alanna was taking photos of him 

the best gift under our tree

this year we gave malcolm a playmobil pirates advent calendar, to count down the days until christmas. he loved opening up the little boxes each morning, to see what tiny surprise was tucked inside. this photo is from christmas eve, so all of the boxes had been opened.

santa brought each of the kids a gift box from lush. (i told you they were spoiled!) lush bath bombs are the best!

december was a pretty great month. 2011 wasn't too bad either.