a little taste

of what life with malcolm is like these days.

the video below was part of a conversation malcolm and i had the other night while he was in the bath. lately he has been talking non-stop. like, seriously, he barely takes a breath between sentences. it's kind of driving us all crazy... but he sure is cute, ha!

this week he's been asking me about all the rides at disneyland, he especially likes to hear about the scary ones, and makes me describe them in detail. he is obsessed with that place, and even though it's been nearly two years since the last time we traveled out to cali (he was only 1.5), he still remembers little parts of the rides. pretty crazy, his memory is uncanny. he also likes to talk about kings dominion (the amusement park in VA we went to last fall), and the scary rides there. this boy loves anything creepy, spooky, and related to monsters & halloween.

here is malcolm describing his own made up rides, and the funny characters in them :)

daddy's baby v 4.0

our new favorite

i know i've said this before, but this time i really mean it... we have found the best park ever in raleigh! i honestly cannot believe that in the past six years since we moved here, that we have never been to this playground before?! how in the world could that have happened?! i remember hearing the name a few times, and rumors of how it was an all wooden playset (just like from my childhood!), but that it was slated to be torn down last year, so i thought that it was gone. the other day we went to the mall so that alanna could spend her money, malcolm slept almost the entire time, and when we left i felt like he needed to run off some of his energy outside. the weather was hot, but not nearly as bad as it has been lately, and i remembered that this park was near the mall, so we decided to see if there was a new playground installed yet. to all of our surprise, the old original playground was still in tact! and it was awesome!

this playground absolutely reminds me of when i was a kid, and how much fun we had at the old murray park and liberty park playgrounds. it was pretty great to be able to climb around on this one with my own children.  

there were funny little old paintings hung in the strangest places.

and big tires just like at granger elementary :) 

the bottom of the "castle" was full of little passage ways, and secret openings. very cool.

no old outdated playground should be without an old steel slide. so scary, yet so fast and fun!

alanna and i were almost too big to fit in all the small spaces and doorways, but she sure had fun playing on this track slide.

there was also a pond behind the playground, with a wooden pathway to a hiking trail. it was beautiful back there.






the city still plans on tearing this gem out, and replacing it with a new more accessible playground (pictured below) that meets the current safety standards. such a shame that someday soon this will no longer exist. but until they have raised enough money for the new playground, which looks like it might be awhile, we will try and visit this as often as we can.

laurel hills park/all children's playground, we love you!

(local newspaper article about it here and here)

sweet kyzer

yesterday my brother lost his best friend. i know this leaves a deep hole in my brother's heart, and i hope that in time it will heal. he will truly be missed.

R.I.P. kyzer 1998-2011

we love you.

june in photos

fun at marbles

alanna all dressed up for her 8th grade formal! wow, when did she become so grown up?! time flies, i tell ya! (with the cutest date ever, ha!)

our garden after one month in the ground!

trips to target. we practically live there.

nap time

these next eight were taken after we attended alanna's summer camp meeting. look at all those turkey vultures! yikes! 

malcolm found a tank!

cool dudes :)

more humongous turkey vultures!

and more trips to target

downtown raleigh at night. we had so much fun eating pizza, and then running around til we thought we would puke. then we got poured on. gotta love the unpredictable summer weather here.

where i spent my saturday evening a few weeks ago. broken down on the side of the highway. i had danny's van, and after all that driving around with my family here (it was the only car that would fit us all), the transmission finally went out. luckily malcolm was with danny, since it was hot out, and i had to turn the engine off. unluckily they were both out at his parents house, so i waited over an hour for them and a tow truck to arrive. bummer, for sure. dan has lent us one of his vehicles, so that we don't have to share my rodeo. we really do appreciate it so much.

malcolm loves to watch movies on vhs. he's old school.

some of our garden's bounty! we've already had at least a dozen cucumbers, but those two were the only squash and zucchini so far. the tomatoes are currently growing by the hundreds!

alanna with her friend lauren, heading off to summer camp! these were actually taken on july 1st, but her leaving for the week seemed like a good way to wrap up the first month of summer. she had a blast, as always, and said that this year was her favorite so far (she's gone to 4H camp for five years now). thank you dan & vicky for giving her the opportunity. i know she looks forward to it all year long.