taking full advantage

the weather this weekend was perfect. it was just what i have been waiting for, for months now. it was sunny and warm, but just cool enough to still wear a light hoodie and be comfortable. i love the spring and the fall, when you don't have to worry about slathering on the sunblock, or getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. we took full advantage of the beautiful weather, and spent most of the weekend outside. it was awesome. on saturday afternoon we drove out to lake crabtree park near the rdu airport.

danny and malcolm discovered their new favorite way to go down the slide:

step 1: climb the ladder

step 2: malcolm goes down and waits for daddy

step 3: Ka-BLOW!!

and again!

and a video! haha!

aren't we an attractive couple, haha?!

on sunday we drove out to the museum of life & science in durham. we packed a lunch, and spent the day playing and exploring.

we rode the little train

malcolm was super excited to ride it

our family snap-shot, courtesy of the friendly train conductor, tom :)

malcolm got a little scared when we went through a "tunnel", and all the kids on the train screamed


after the not-so-fun train ride, we walked along the new dinosaur trail

then we looked at the bears

after lunch, we went in the butterfly house, and malcolm got to hold one!

i'm not sure what type of tree this is (from brazil, i think?), but i loved how it was covered with these black bulbous berries(?)

there were birds down below it, eating the fruit that had fallen. very cool!

this moth was behind glass. it had just emerged from it's chrysalis that afternoon, and it was huge! danny pointed out that the tips of it's wings look like snake heads! so rad!

there it is above alanna's head

i loved looking in this window

ewww, my worst nightmare! :(

this cow liked to lick alanna's arm. he was cute, but he looked pretty sad in there.

we headed inside for the last hour, before they closed at five.

alanna and i liked watching this ant habitat. they sure were busy lil' workers in there.

and there was an area for little ones (under age 6), so malcolm got to play on his own for a bit before we left.

we had a great (and exhausting) weekend hanging out as a family. i am grateful that danny is able to make his own schedule, which usually includes lots of weekend family time.

friday favorite: my many colored days

one thing i really truly love, and cannot get enough of, are illustrated children's picture books. i've always been a huge fan, and i've been slowly adding to my small collection for years, ever since alanna was just a baby. since quite a few of the people who regularly read my blog are friends of mine, who also have young children, i thought it would be fun to feature a new book each week. i will try and post a new one every friday. maybe my posts will inspire you to seek out these books at your local book store or library?! i would also love for you ladies to leave me comments on what picture books you and your kid(s) are loving this week. so here goes:

in honor of dr. seuss' birthday earlier this week, today i chose my many colored days by dr. seuss (paintings by steve johnson and lou fancher). the manuscript for this book was written in 1973. more than twenty years later, it was beautifully illustrated by a husband and wife team, and published in 1996, five years after dr. seuss' death. i've been in love with this book since i bought it when it first came out. alanna loved it, and now malcolm really likes it too.

here are a few photos i took of my copy

have you read this book? and if so, do you like it?! i'd love to know :)

pumpkin yum yums

i made these tasty lil' beauties last night! the recipe is "pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes", from the vegan cupcake book, but i think they are more like a muffin than a cupcake. either way, they are delicious. they remind me of those huge pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that they used to sell at smith's grocery stores in utah years ago... back when they were vegan (are they are vegan again now?).

i just had one with my morning coffee. what a way to start the day!

drizzled with a little cinnamon icing

so good!

and of course malcolm loved them :)

(p.s. i don't feel comfortable posting any recipes from this book or the vegan cookie book on my blog, since they are not my recipes. but you should definitely check out both books, they have some tasty things hidden inside!)

happy 106th...

...birthday dr. seuss!

what a nice weekend!

we had a really nice weekend! on friday morning i took malcolm to marbles childrens museum in downtown raleigh. we met up with my friend alicia and her son luc, and the boys ran around like wild things! they are still a bit too young to want to play with each other, but they both had fun running around and playing in all the exhibits and exploring the museum. this was our second time visiting the museum, and malcolm had so much fun there. we stayed for 3 hours, and he didn't want to leave, but we had to pick up alanna from school. all weekend long he kept asking for "ship! ship!", meaning that he wanted to go back to the pirate ship. i guess it would be a good idea for us to buy a family membership, so that we can go back anytime. how fun!

it was really hard for me to get a photo of the boys together. they are fast and always on the move! we tried to contain them by putting them in this fishing boat, haha. it worked for a minute.

luc is about 4 months younger than malcolm, but they are the same size :)

this photo pretty much sums up the entire time there (a blur), haha.

my good little vegan, working in the garden...

then his shoe got stuck in the carrot hole!

on friday after danny got home from work, we all headed down to the greenway. alanna and i took our bikes, and danny ran malcolm in the jogging stroller. it was nice to be out in the fresh air, but then the sun started to set, and it got a little too cold.

after dinner, i tried another recipe from the vegan cookie book. this one was "whole wheat chocolate chip cookies". they were good, but a little thick, and heavier than the other recipe we love (because of the whole wheat flour), so i'm not sure if i would make them again.

our friend garrett watched the kids for us on saturday afternoon, so that danny and i could go see shutter island. it was really good, we both liked it a lot.

sunday morning, we got moving pretty early and went to the flea market for a bit. the weather is starting to get warmer, so there were lots of vendors out, and some fun stuff to look at. malcolm started to get cranky, so we didn't stay long. then we headed over and met up with danny's family for lunch at the local mexican restaurant, to celebrate his mother's birthday (which was on saturday). sunday also happened to be my mother's birthday, so i hope that both of our moms had a very happy birthday this weekend! we love you guys!

in the evening we took a quick trip to old navy, and then to our favorite local used book store, edward mckay. the kids (danny included, haha) love to go there and browse through the old books and used dvds. i found a "spooky" disney collection storybook that included the nightmare before christmas, and malcolm was very excited. today while we were driving down the road that heads toward the book store, he was saying "book! book! haaall-o-weeeen!", like he wanted to go back and see it again. i guess i should have bought it for him.

and here is how danny ended the weekend. with a nice cup of yogi tea, and a slice of my homemade "cheesecake". yum!