photo shoot

two weeks ago danny scheduled a photo shoot for his new fall line of merch, and he invited malcolm to be apart of it. i stood on the side lines, did my best at keeping malcolm from injuring himself, and snapped some of my own photos. malcolm was a wild thing and loved all of the attention. these are my photos.

the awesomely grimy location danny chose :)

llama!

malcolm talking to the dudes

the models :)

here are a few of the real shots taken by a local photography student. she did a great job.

xmalcolmx, the youngest member of the seventh dagger family

i stole these two from cameron's fb page. i have no idea what that sneaky/creepy lil' bear is doing back there?! hilarious!

and here is the header danny used on his webstore. everything turned out awesome! danny worked so hard to get all of these new designs ready, he invested so much of his time, energy, and money (plus all the stress involved) to get this new line up. husband, you should be very proud, it is amazing. 

halloween fun!

it rained on halloween here, so any plans to trick-or-treat were kinda ruined. we made the best of it though, despite the cold and soggy weather, and i think that malcolm still had a lot of fun. early in the evening we made our way to the mall, and yikes, was it ever crowded. the rain brought out the masses, so we didn't stay long. this was the first year that alanna did not celebrate halloween. since she is too old to t-or-t, she opted to stay home and finish her homework. kind of a bummer as well. it is hard for me to fathom how grown up she is these days, and i often miss her being a little girl.

on our way home, we took a detour to the oakwood neighborhood to drive past malcolm's favorite halloween house (i found that image on google. this year there were a lot more decorations!) last year he called it "the skeleton house", this year it was "the michael meyers house", haha! by the time we arrived, the rain had stopped, so we parked and made our way around a few blocks before it got too late and we got too cold. malcolm loved it. it was a little disappointing that we weren't able to go around our neighborhood like we had planned, but hopefully next year.

we did manage to attend a few other fun local halloween events in october, so here are some photos from them:

on the 22nd we took a hike along the halloween trail at the durant nature park. we bundled up in warm clothes, packed our flashlights, and everyone had a nice time. the night started off with a hay ride from our car to the trail. then some crafts and games for the little ones. the hike through the dark woods was a lot of fun and not too hard on malcolm. the trail was lined with paper lanterns and hundreds of very creative hand carved jack-o-lanterns. there were stops along the way where they had nature inspired stories and skits. it was cute. this was malcolm and alanna's creature:

so excited to put it on the giant spider web!

heading down the trail :) 

late on friday the 28th, alanna and i headed over to the mordecai house to board "the haunted trolley"! we took a tour of downtown raleigh's most haunted sites and heard tales of local ghosts and hauntings. the trolley stopped a few times in front of specific locations, and scary people jumped out at us! everyone inside screamed and laughed. i think that by next year malcolm will be old enough to ride, so we will all go as a family. it was a lot of fun!

this was our tour guide

and then on the 29th we all attended the family friendly haunted mordecai halloween festival. i love that there are free community events like this in our area. we also went last year. crazy how much malcolm (and alanna) has grown since then!

these were all over the ground. they looked like brains. so cool! 

and i snapped this one while we were in line at the mall. crazy boy sure does love halloween!

happy halloween!

the fair

every october the north carolina state fair rolls into town, and for the past six years i've suggested to danny that maybe we should go? but then we never do. he hates the fair, and has always talked me out of going, stating that it is a waste of money that could be spent on much better things. for four years we listened to his advice and saved our money for our disneyland trips instead. last year malcolm and i attempted to visit, but left after a frustrating hour of traffic and searching for a place to park. i used to take alanna to the utah state fair when she was little, and we always had a fun time (minus the year that she chose to ride "the ring of fire", which made her bawl her eyes out), so i figured that we would enjoy it out here just as much as we did back home.

last tuesday afternoon the kids and i finally made our way to the fair. and yikes, was it a doozy. now i understand why danny never wanted us to go. imagine the utah state fair... but 200 lbs heavier, dipped in batter, and deep fried. oh, and lit on one end. the entire place was one huge concession stand, crowded with people smoking cigarettes. there were food vendors literally hidden in every nook and cranny. we ducked into the crafts & hobbies building, thinking maybe we could escape the smells, only to find multiple food stands inside. it was insane. and totally disgusting. but we had fun in kiddie kingdom, malcolm and alanna enjoyed a few rides, and i learned my lesson for sure. i will never make that mistake again. this was our first, and last, visit to the nc state fair, haha.

malcolm and i loved this mechanical singing fruit & veggie stand. it reminded me of peewee's playhouse. alanna thought it was creepy :)

barrel monster

to the rides!

malcolm did his first ever bungee bounce. he has wanted to do this since he was teeny tiny, but the one in the mall is for bigger kids. or maybe he just wasn't big enough until now? either way, he loved it!

waiting for his turn with alanna, and laughing at the boy that was bouncing.

getting strapped in...

...going up...

...time to jump!
(alanna took these next few photos for me)

pure joy!

we all rode the super slide together. malcolm sat on my lap, and we raced alanna down. it was awesome!

view from the stairs

malcolm loved the obstacle course rides (not sure what they call these things?)

alanna took malcolm through the fun house

then i let alanna pick one crazy ride to go on. danny would have died if he had seen this one in action. it swung side to side while the seating area spun in circles. just watching it gave me anxiety and made me motion sick. i cannot even imagine riding it. of course, she loved it.

we could see this creepy lady from the parking lot across the street. fair rides are so funny to me. 

malcolm played the dart game. he had three tries and popped three balloons (two balloons on the last throw), so he got to choose a prize.

i loved the night sky and all the lit up rides. we left just before it started to rain.

one more time on the obstacle course, before heading home.

the end.