beach trip

yesterday we took a day trip to the beach. this was the first one this year, and our fifth trip since we've lived in nc. the last time we went malcolm was only a year and half, so he has grown a lot since then. you can compare his size with this post from 2009.

he is usually really good in the car, but yesterday he cried and complained almost the entire time. so it was a really long 2.5 hour drive to the beach. ugh. he napped for about 15 minutes, and he looks so sweet here... but don't let it fool you, he was a beast.

the temperature out was good, but a storm was heading for the coast, so it was super windy. the water felt great, and it was nice to cool off in it, but as soon as we would get out of the ocean, the wind would cover us in a layer of sand. at times the gusts were so strong that it felt like we were being sandblasted. it was pretty awful. despite the terrible wind, we had a good time. and we weren't the only crazy ones out swimming in the wind, there were so many people further down the beach.

we packed a cooler with lunch, but the wind made our sandwiches crunchy, so it was hard to enjoy any of it. danny was snacking on some chips, and made the mistake of throwing one up to a seagull. within seconds there were about 20 of them flying over his head and trying to dive bomb him for more. he threw the bag of chips in the air and ran away. it was hilarious. malcolm and i watched the whole thing from afar, and it was kind of like watching the birds, haha. i didn't have my camera with me, but the image in my head still makes me laugh. here are a few that hung out waiting to see if we would share some chips with them.

we also saw a crab on the shore. it was washing up with each tide, and then it would run sideways back towards the water. it was seriously so fun to watch. every time the water would hit him, he would get knocked over, and then he would stand back up and his little black eyes would pop up on top of his head! it was awesome. we all laughed and screamed at him, over and over and over. it was the highlight of my day, well that and danny getting chased by the birds :)

malcolm was laughing at the gulls

he liked playing in the sand and exploring in the grass, more than swimming in the water. i think the waves and water in his face scared him. he must have got that from me ;)

i love the trees that grow near the beach

we only stayed about 3 hours, because the wind was so annoying. and we had all soaked in a lot of sun, which we are now paying for today. all of us (except malcolm) are sunburned. danny got it the worst. he looks like a lobster. i did a really good job of keeping malcolm covered in sunblock, but i forgot to reapply it to myself. the wind made our spray sunscreen really hard to use, and rubbing in sunblock on top of a layer of sand (which we were covered in constantly) was hard to do. ugh. sunburn is the worst.

we have also agreed that the next time we make another trip, we will stay in a hotel on the beach, instead of driving back to raleigh right after we are all waterlogged and exhausted. it was fun to see and play in the ocean, but next time i hope the weather is better and that we plan out our trip a little better.

got gilt?!

this is just a quick post to let you know about an amazing website that i am in love with. some of you are already members, but for those of you who have not joined yet, you totally should. gilt group offers some really great products for a fraction of the retail price. it is free to join, all you have to do is sign up. there are seriously no catches, and no strings attached. just wait for their email notifications, and then pounce on the great deals. i have ordered from them twice, and have been more than delighted with both purchases. this is what i received yesterday!

i love plan toys, and was really excited when i saw that they were being featured on gilt.com. this airport set retails for a hundred dollars, and i got it for less than a quarter of that price! score! i am going to stash it away for malcolm until christmas. i hope he loves it as much as i do, haha.

last month i got a paul frank diaper bag for a great price too, but i'm gonna hold onto it until we (hopefully) have another baby. i am really only interested in their children's sales but they also offers steals on high end mens & womens clothing and also things for the home (way out of my price range, yikes!) so anyway, check it out if you are interested.

sorry for my lack of posts, it has been really busy around here. we are still getting settled in our new house, but we are working hard on getting everything organized and in its proper place. we have purged sooo much stuff too. it is insane the amount of "stuff" we have accumulated in the past 5 years. and more importantly little malcolm in his short two and a half years on this planet. he had way too much stuff, it was starting to consume our house, haha.

i've been collecting things since the move, cleaning out the kids closets of unwanted and outgrown items, and getting them tagged for the local kids exchange that happens twice a year in raleigh. we dropped off all of our stuff last night, and tomorrow we will be shopping the sale for new things at bargain prices. but don't worry, there is no way that we could ever bring home close to the amount of stuff that we are selling. and here's hoping that most of our items do sell, so that we won't have to bring them back home again. i'm mostly interested in clothes and a few things for malcolm (a bed rail). i will post about what we scored after the weekend.

i will also do my best to post a friday favorites book this week. i meant to do one last friday, but all of my books are still packed away in boxes. oh moving, how you have exhausted me ;)

perfect

this has been circulating around facebook. i stole it from someones page. what a perfect answer. this pretty much sums up my entire life :)

(click the image to enlarge)

summer fun, micmacs, & the fourth

vicky brought alanna home from camp on saturday afternoon. she had a lot of fun, like we had expected. she got to ride horses, swim, hike, and hang out with kids her age for the week. we still need to drop off her disposable cameras to be developed, but if any of the photos turn out, i will post them here. it's nice to have her home.

on friday evening we stopped at kmart to get a few things for malcolm. he needed new shoes terribly, and we found him some really cute toy story sneakers there. we also picked up a plastic kiddie pool, and a garden hose. he is in heaven in his new little pool :)

i waited until alanna came home, to pick these two giant cucumbers! they are the only things to have grown so far in our little "pot garden", and we were pretty excited to have our first ever homegrown organic veggies! we sliced them up and ate them the other day, and they were crisp and delicious!

sadly, while alanna was away at camp, a guy came and pressure washed our new house (at the request of the owner) and killed almost all of our plants. vicky and i were over at the old house cleaning when it happened, and since no one was home he just sprayed everything without moving any of the plants. what an asshole! how lazy and inconsiderate. we came home to a bleached house/sidewalk/driveway, and dead shriveled up plants. luckily a few were spared, including these cucumbers (which were away from the house), the spider plants, and one squash. but all of the tomatoes were toast.

vicky is so sweet, and was kind enough to bring us a bunch of new plants when she brought alanna home. so we are starting over again. wish us luck with this second batch of plants. i will take a photo of them soon, since we just cleaned out the planter where they are now living.

vicky stayed with the kids, and danny and i went on a date. i guess this was our official anniversary date, since we were only able to grab lunch last week. we drove to durham, had lunch at the cosmic cantina (we love that place), and then went to a movie at the local independent theater. we saw a french film called micmacs, and it was wonderful! seriously, it was such a fun movie. i loved watching every single second of it. if you have the opportunity, go see it.

the outside of the carolina theater

after the movie, we stopped at whole foods for a treat. danny got a cookie, and i was hoping that they would have a vegan cupcake, but they didn't, so instead i enjoyed a tiny non-dairy sorbet. i chose pineapple basil, and it was amazing! sounds like a strange flavor combo, but it was surprisingly good.

on sunday the kids and i went to a bbq at our friend lia's house. we aren't very patriotic, and we don't really celebrate the 4th of july much, but it was nice to hang out with friends, spend the day outside, and eat delicious vegan food. danny has severe social anxiety... so he opted to stay home. what a party pooper.

the kids had a lot of fun swinging in their hammock

after the cookout we went home to cool off, napped a little, and then headed back outside to do a little yard work. we decided to skip going to see fireworks this year, because the traffic and crowds are too much of a headache. plus we didn't want to keep malcolm out that late. but by the time the sun had set, our neighborhood was full of it's own little fireworks show. so we sat on the front lawn and enjoyed watching others set off their store bought explosives. we are really loving this new location. it was a really good day.

malcolm had a long tiring day, running around in the heat. just before bed, i found him like this, totally passed out on the couch, haha! not much different from last year :)

danny took monday off of work, since the post office and shipping services were all closed. we spent the day working on the house, running errands, and then we got takeout for dinner and ate it as his new shop. this is the view from the back of his business complex. when he takes out the trash, he has this beautiful view of a marsh full of deer, and cranes, and railroad tracks. pretty awesome.

alanna is growing up so fast. she gets more and more beautiful every day.

when we got home, malcolm ran through the sprinkler in the nude!

danny ran through it too! it was hilarious. our new neighbors probably think we are insane. naked wet babies running around in our yard in the dark, haha! last night we also gave malcolm his bath in the pool on the front lawn. he was out there swimming already, and it just seemed easier to wash him there, rather than take him in and put him in the tub. yep, that's how we roll. summertime around here is grand!

if you need us...

i don't think i have ever mentioned here before, that there is a park in our neighborhood. we hardly ever visited it, because the playground was so old and boring. i took malcolm to the baby swings a few times, but mostly we would just stroll or ride our bikes past it and not stop.

we've lived in the same area for five years. our first little house (that we loved, but had to leave because we needed a third bedroom for malcolm) was about five minutes from this park. so alanna and i would ride our bikes through it. then we moved to our last house which was also about five minutes away, but on the other side of the neighborhood. now our current house is right in the middle of the two, and it is only two blocks from the park. like a two minute walk.

the weather has been perfect this week, so on wednesday malcolm and i went for a quick stroll up to the park to see the new playground that has just been installed. wow, were we blown away! this new equipment is amazing! malcolm had a blast on it. we will be spending much of our time here, i'm sure. so if you need to find us, we're at the park! :)

the toddler playground

a seesaw! haven't seen one of these at a park in years!

and over at the big playground
(this thing spins)

it really is so much larger than these photos show

and the trees surrounding it are giant and beautiful

what a wonderful addition to our lovely neighborhood. we are pretty stoked, to say the least.