a late weekend post

this weekend started off kind of crappy. on friday i woke up with a terrible headache and a throbbing toothache. i have a molar that has been bothering me since september. i watched luc again for a few hours during the day, and the boys sure didn't help my poor head out, haha. luc wanted his dad, and cried on and off for him the entire time. then he took a spill off the little lightning mcqueen car, and cried until tommy came to pick him up. and malcolm didn't seem to want to share any toys that day, so they didn't play very well together at all. shame.

friday afternoon, danny headed to charlotte to stay the night at justin's house, and go to a show with him in south carolina. since he was gone, and i had had a rough day, i just vegged out after the kids went to bed, and watched slumdog millionaire... for the very first time. ever. alanna gave me the dvd for mothers day last year, but i never watched it until now. danny has had absolutely no desire to see it, since it got so much hype (he is strange when it comes to certain box office hits, or if it is considered a love story -then he wants nothing to do with it), so he would never watch it with me. i'm glad i finally took the time to watch it, it's a great movie! i loved it. husband, you are missing out.

saturday we didn't do much, just hung out around the house since i was still in pain. danny (and justin) didn't get back home until late in the evening, right before malcolm's bedtime. they had stopped to check out a comic book convention in charlotte before heading to raleigh. justin rode back with danny, spent the night at our house, and then took the train back to charlotte on sunday. danny brought us some delicious vegan food, and some goodies from heros con. what a sweet husband. i was glad to have him home.

sunday was really hot and windy. like really, really hot. but since we hadn't left the house in a couple of days, we figured we should spend the day out doing things around town. we needed to hit target to get diapers, so on the way we made a pit stop at the mall to let malcolm run around in this fountain. he had fun... for about 5 minutes. and then he wanted to leave, haha. maybe he was too hot? or maybe there were too many other kids around him? who knows. but it was nice watching him enjoy the water for the moment we were there.

after the mall and target, we stopped at the used book store. malcolm was asleep in his car seat, so i stayed in the car with him while alanna and danny found a few good things. then we headed over to the nc museum of art to fly some kites that we had also picked up while at target. there is a big open grassy area behind the museum that was perfect for running with a kite. danny got his in the air almost instantly. and alanna flew one too, while malcolm and i ran around the grass -and sweated. so much. it was really hot.

we wanted to go in the new museum addition that had just opened in april, but it was already closed by the time we had arrived. malcolm was running around like a madman, and since it was so hot out, we went on a search for some water. we found this, haha.

then we took a rest under a tree while we waited for danny and alanna to meet us at the car.

right before we got in the car, danny asked malcolm if he wanted to hold the kite string. he didn't really seem interested in the kites at all, i guess he's still too young? but danny handed him the string anyway. he held it for two seconds, and then let go. the kite immediately flew away. danny was pissed. and sad. he really liked flying that kite, and was super bummed that it was now blowing away. it got caught on a wire above us, and we stood there in silence for a few minutes, watching it fly, before driving away. what a bummer.

on monday the weather was so much better. like almost 20 degrees cooler out. after alanna got out of school, we headed to danny's parents house to meet up and go to alanna's camp meeting. she will be going to 4H camp for the fourth year this summer (thanks again vicky!) when we pulled up to the building where the meeting was held, we saw this:

those are huge buzzards up on top of the water tower! they were sun bathing, and spreading their giant wings. it's hard to tell here, but it was crazy just how big they actually were.

after the camp meeting, we went out for mexican. malcolm loves lemons, haha.

and then we spent some time out in dan and vicky's yard. their butterfly bush is in bloom, and it smells wonderful (the flash washed this photo out)

alanna bouncing a ball off of malcolm's head (naughty!)

george (in back) and gracie

on tuesday morning i went back out to their house. danny convinced me to finally make an appointment with a dentist to have my tooth checked out. so i dropped malcolm off with dan and vicky, and headed to the dreaded dentist. turns out i have a bad molar. the last one on the top right side of my mouth. so my options are 1) have an extensive root canal that will require going to a specialist, and then getting a crown (no insurance = expensive!) or 2) have it pulled (cheap). it has stopped hurting, so right now i am going to hold off on making any decisions. but i did ask my family for their opinions, and i polled my friends on facebook, and it seems like most votes are to just have it pulled. that is probably what i will do.

malcolm had a lot of fun with vicky while i was at my short appointment. after i was done, she made me lunch, and then we went out in the yard. there were bumblebees and a beautiful butterfly on the bush. so pretty.

and vicky got malcolm water guns, which he loved squirting!

here he is watching satellite tv, right before we left to pick up alanna from school. he was just sitting there silently... which is pretty rare. maybe we should invest in getting cable tv?! haha.

sorry it took so long for me to post this. i have had the hardest time uploading my photos to blogger this week. it took me almost three days to get these all up. anyone else having trouble with their blogs?

friday favorite: i am a bunny

i cannot believe that i haven't featured this book yet! i'm sure you all know that we love to spend time outdoors. i am a lover of nature, of all living things, and especially of the changing seasons. and i am always in awe of how a tree can go through so many changes in one short year. yes, i'm a little crunchy. don't hate. but i am not much of a camper... i loved it when i was younger, but i haven't been camping since alanna was about 6. and i am not a fan of the humidity that comes once summer truly hits... so i am trying to enjoy this time of the year as much as i can before we are stuck inside because of the heat.

anyway, this week i was reminded of one of my most favorite little books of all time: i am a bunny by ole risom and illustrated by richard scarry. i absolutely adored this story when i was a child. growing up, we had a well-loved and pretty beat up copy of this book which features a shorter version of it. i bought a newer version of the "best storybook ever" for alanna when she was a baby. and then when malcolm was first born, i found this board book version of "i am a bunny" at borders. i was delighted! it is beautifully illustrated, simple to read book, and it makes me long for each season with the turn of each page.

I am a bunny. My name is Nicholas. I live in a hollow tree.

while i was searching for images on google, i came across this one on flickr. i am in love with this framed piece, and i totally want one just like it in my house! these are the original illustrated art panels, that are on display as a part of the Golden Legacy, 65 Years of Golden Books exhibit that is traveling to various parts of the country. this exhibit was featured at the carle a few months ago, is currently in chicago, and it looks like it will be in richmond, virginia early next year, which is close enough for us to drive to! plus it will be at the salt lake city library in april of 2011 (pssst... KELLY!!) how awesome! :)

some good and some bad

this is the start of our very first homegrown vegetable!! last month vicky brought over a bunch of little veggies that she planted in their own pots, so that we could have a "garden" of our own this year. we are planning on moving soon, and our yard is terrible (to say the least), so i've never even thought of planting anything out in it. but these little pots of plants are great. and they are portable, so they were easy to move up onto the back deck last weekend when we were hit by a crazy downpour, which almost broke their fragile little stems. we thought that maybe they had been harmed, but i think all the rain actually did them good. if you look to the right of the big bloom, you can see the tiny start of a burpless cucumber. yum! thanks again vicky!

while we were in the yard today, we found tons of wild mushrooms all over the place. and they were huge. it was pretty cool, and malcolm liked squishing them. we went for a stroll around the neighborhood, and i saw an entire yard covered with hundreds of them. it was crazy! i wish i had brought my camera. i guess all the rain and moisture has made them sprout so quickly?

this one was perfectly round and bright red! at first i thought it was a stray neighbors ball.

while on our walk, we also saw tons of fireflies! this week is the first that i have seen them out this year. i looooove them so much! there were a few wild bunnies. lots of squirrels (one i saw in a tree, with one of those bright red mushrooms in it's mouth!) the mimosa trees are in bloom, which seriously smell amazing! and the magnolia trees too, which are beautiful. i will be sure to take my camera on the next stroll. it is lovely out right now... but oh boy is the humidity already so high. i was sweating like a pig by the time we got back up our street.

and for the bad news. the baby birds did not make it. on tuesday one of the eggs hatched, and there was the cutest tiny little birdie in the nest. we saw it lift it's head and open it's bright yellow beak for food. so sweet. yesterday it was still moving around just fine. but the other two eggs never hatched. then today i noticed that the mama bird was not in the nest at all. and i couldn't really see the baby bird either. all day long i peeked out the window, and she was never there. so i went out in the yard to try and sneak some photos, to see if the baby was still in the nest. it isn't. baby birdie is gone, and mama has abandoned her nest. i think either it fell out, and got lost in the thick underbrush (we looked but couldn't see anything. it's a mess under there), or maybe another bird got it. we've had some nasty black crows in the yard lately. maybe one ate it. so sad. so, very sad. this is all that is left.

we did figure out what type of birds they were, thanks to vicky. the mama was a gray catbird. i hope that we will have another nest near us again in the future, that is viable. it was fun watching the nest be built, all the time and work that the mother bird put into it. and those little blue eggs were adorable. what a shame.

i'll end this post with one more good thing, i didn't mean to be a debbi downer, haha. i believe that we have found a new rental house! we are almost certain that we want to move into another house that is actually in our neighborhood. and the owner has already said that it is ours if we choose to move into it. so we will decide, and then sign the lease at the beginning of next week? i'll keep you all posted. finally! ...house hunting is awful. absolutely awful. :)

phew...

it's almost thursday, and i feel like i have just now recovered from the weekend! wow, it was a busy and exhausting one. i had daydreamed about having a pedicure, getting a soy frappuccino, and then going to see sex & the city 2... but no, that is far from how i spent the three day holiday weekend, haha.

on friday malcolm started "the mysterious benedict society"...

and finished it in one sitting! (not really, but these photos made me smile)

can you tell that alanna loves to have her photo taken? :)

sweet hugs for big sister

on friday, danny got word that he would be able to break his lease (with no problems) and move his shop to a new location. he has been looking for a new shop for a few months now, and he finally found a good one about 5 minutes from our house that is in great shape, and is much less than what he has been paying for the past couple of years. we are all pretty excited about it. but he was less than excited about the move. and he had to be out of his current location by this tuesday (yesterday), the 1st. so most of this weekend he spent packing up, moving, and unloading his entire screen printing shop, all of the seventh dagger back stock, garrett's wood shop and painting supplies, and tommy's office/thr back stock. ugh. it was a huge job, and a lot of work.

so since saturday he was busy working all day, i spent the day with the kids and we went to the mall and old navy to do some summer clothes shopping for alanna. we were there for four hours, and it was so tiring. malcolm refused to nap, and got pretty impatient and cranky. but alanna found lots of cute tops for some great prices.

on sunday we all went to danny's sister catherine's house to celebrate her birthday (which was last week) with the whole family. this was the first time that we have been out to her place. she has a nice house with a nice yard about 30 minutes out of raleigh. her neighborhood has a private pool, so we took the kids swimming before we bbq'd. it was really hot that day, so the cool water of the pool was nice. but the other people there were a bit obnoxious, so we didn't stay long.

malcolm loved floating around in his turtle raft.

alanna working on her "tan", haha. she has been blessed with my pasty white complexion.

wait, they both have :)
(we are all about our sunblock too! no tans here)

back at catherine and billy's house. malcolm liked brushing their dog charlie.

we spent most of the day in the back yard, where we enjoyed grilled boca burgers, veggie dogs, potato salad, baked beans, and couscous. yum! oh, and the most delicious pistachio cake made by vicky! it was a nice day.

vicky brought the kids some motorized bubble guns, and malcolm lost it! he was out of control, it was pretty funny. he loved playing with them.

he ran around shooting any and everything with bubbles, haha

spending the day swimming, eating, and chasing malcolm around in the heat wiped me out. this is how i ended the day.

then after those two tiring days, on monday i spent the entire day chasing around 2 two year olds! danny got a uhaul, so monday was the day that they did the brunt of the move. danny shares his shop with his friend tommy, who also has a two year old (i've mentioned him here before), and his wife alicia is currently out of town in florida visiting her sister, so i took their son luc for the day while the guys moved. malcolm loved having him at our house to play. they were both really good together, and played nice. alanna had the day off of school, so i had her help with them too, which was great.

this is luc. he is a ham. whenever i took my camera out, he would hold perfectly still until i took his picture. i wish malcolm would do that!

we went out and explored the yard

it was hot, so we spent most of the day playing inside

but after about 8 hours (and no naps!), both boys were tired and cranky. luc cried a lot because he wanted his daddy. so we all packed up and headed to the park to get out of the house, and to distract luc until tommy was ready to pick him up.

this is what they both looked like after about 10 minutes in the car.

i let them nap in the car for a while and i read a magazine. then they both started to stir, so it was time to play!

10 hours with two wild toddlers running non-stop is so exhausting! i can't believe how much energy they have! i think they had drained it all from me first, haha. i'm glad i have had the past two days to just chill out, and return to the normal day-to-day stuff. this post has also made me tired, so i think i will go to bed now.