The Zoe and Silas Show

As we hit the end of July we are relishing the relaxed summer nights around here. Walks to the corner store after work- Kitten snoozes in the window- Playing outside after dinner- And after dinner bike rides in the park aplenty. The best part is when they ride down the "big hill" out of the woods and we make the loop home. These are the days.

No different from many homes far and wide, bedtime can be pretty rough around here. Everyone is tired and needs some quiet time to themselves, but getting both kids up to the 2nd floor after dinner is cleaned up is a nightly feat. Zoe needs more sleep than Silas does and she settles down pretty readily. Her kindle books turn off a little after 9 and she goes right to sleep. Silas is another story, however. I head up to bed a little before 10:00 and pretty much every night I see the light still on in his bedroom. The other night I found him crouched on the floor reading National Geographic. He was reading a story about Mars, and was inspired to draw a picture of his own house on Mars. I think the best part of the design is the meeting tube that connects the science lab and play room :) It's hard to get mad when he's reading so much and flexing his imagination, but PLEASE GO TO SLEEP!!!!

The context for this post is that S&Z started two weeks of daily swimming lessons in the outdoor town pool on Monday. The beginning of this week also happened to start with two of the coldest days of the summer!

KEY: Elly = Silas' stuffed elephant Pandito = Zoe's stuffed panda

I made this for dinner tonight after returning later than expected from a fun afternoon at the park. I love it because a) it can be ready in 30 minutes, b) it is made with pantry ingredients, and c) it is full of bold flavors, which Silas in particular loves! Curried Chickpeas and Cauliflower Adapted from Budget Bytes 2   Tbsp olive oil or coconut oil 1/2  head cauliflower, chopped into florets 1  med yellow onion (or frozen chopped onion, which is one of my favorite shortcuts) 2  cloves garlic (or pre-minced garlic, another go-to shortcut) 1  Tbsp curry powder 1/2  tsp cumin seeds 1  (15 oz.) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1  (8 oz.) can "no-salt added" tomato sauce 1 (14.5 oz.) Ro-tel tomatoes with mild green chiles 1  cup water Handful of frozen peas, optional Chopped cilantro or parsley to garnish, optional Salt, as needed Jasmine rice 1. While prepping other ingredients, get the jasmine rice cooking in rice cooker. Note: if you don't own a

One of the main reasons we wanted to buy this house is because of the location. Our backyard abuts a beautiful, 90-acre park. Not only do we treasure the green space (and the fact that no one will ever build behind our house!), but I also love the fact that the park is the center of this wonderful community. They offer lots of programming for young and old. Every Sunday afternoon in the summer they run an entertainment program geared towards kids, and on the docket today was a visit from  The Creature Teachers . The weather was absolutely gorgeous - 75 degrees and sunny! Before the show started we enjoyed some handcrafted ice cream from the  Crescent Ridge  truck. Today it was oreo for Silas and vanilla for Zoe.  The performance space at the park is pretty awesome! The Creature Teacher running today's show was very engaging and knowledgeable. All 3 of us learned a lot! We met Holly the Flying Squirrel, a milk snake, a box turtle, a porcupine named Otis, Vinny the wood