The Zoe and Silas Show

Auntie Rachel & Uncle Keith gave us an awesome water table for S&Z's birthday in October. We were able to get some use out of it inside over the winter , but today was the summer kick-off outside! After dinner I stripped the kids down to their diapers, threw on their water shoes, and we headed out to the back deck. They had SO much fun!! In addition to the accessories that came with the table, I also threw a few beach and bath toys in there so they had a lot to explore. All this playing is hard work so Z decided to pull up a chair and take a load off at one point! We found these toddler size lawn chairs at the Dollar Store a few weeks ago and S&Z sit in them all the time! The water shoes we bought at Old Navy recently seem really great and will get a lot of use this summer too... Both kids have learned how to blow bubbles on their own now, so they went back and forth between blowing bubbles and playing with the water. What a mess! At this age, I

On Saturday we headed up to Ipswich to see Timery and Steve. Jason turned 1 last week so we wanted to get all the kids together to celebrate! S&Z had fun playing with all of Jason's new "big kid" toys, including this awesome ball tent. I love this shot of the two boys checking each other out! Zoe and Silas had fun "helping" Jason open up his birthday presents. Then they showed him how everything worked :) The kids were very interested in the newest additions to the DeBoer-Bilakovics family - 2 kittens - who smartly hid under couch! After dinner we decided to test drive Jason's new awesome all-terrain wagon! First we tested it out inside, And then we took it outside, Jason and Silas are so darn cute together! Before too long, S&Z just wanted to push it... After all that hard work I loaded up two very tired kids and headed back to Boston! On Sunday we headed over to Wendy & Dave's house for a twin BBQ extravaganza!

We've started doing a few "big kid" things lately that I wanted to share! With all the rainy weather we had the last few weeks, the kids pretty quickly tuned into the novelty of Mommy's rainboots. Now Zoe wants to wear my shoes all the time! Since the warmer weather is finally here she likes to put on my sandals and walk (slide) across the entire room! S&Z have been using silverware to eat all their meals for the last several months. Today was the first time that they ate cold cereal with milk. They typically eat oatmeal for breakfast, but I decided to give cheerios a go today. They love eating spoonfuls of cold cereal from Daddy's bowl so it wasn't a preference factor - it was more a matter of how messy it would be!. As expected, they loved it (although you don't quite get that impression from the look on Miss Z's face below)! Next stop: pour their own cereal and watch cartoons while Mommy & Daddy sleep in (yea right!!!). Both kids l

Derek got called as a witness in a patient abuse case for someone he transported to the hospital awhile back. Since he had to show up to court at 8:30am on a Thursday morning, it was the perfect excuse for me to take the day off and enjoy a 5-day holiday weekend! We dropped Derek off at the courthouse first thing after breakfast and decided to head out to the Arboretum to enjoy the long-awaited gorgeous spring weather. We sure are getting some good use out of our backpacks these days! The kids were so darn cute - they walked for awhile HOLDING HANDS. Folks from the Arboretum were doing some work so S&Z were very curious about the work truck. We had plans to meet up with our friends Miriam and Garrison. It has been awhile since we've seen them so that was very fun! The kids took a load off and had a snack while we waited for them to arrive. Two hours wandering around outside is a lot for S&Z, so they were exhausted and cranky by the time we left. Thankfully Der

The Arboretum is one of the best kept secrets in Boston. Derek & I got married there in October of 2008, so it's a very special spot for us! We were way past due for bringing Silas and Zoe to this beautiful place, so today we threw on the backpacks and set out on an adventure after nap! When we initially parked and started walking around I was getting the lay of the land and felt more comfortable hanging onto the "tails" of the backpacks.   After we walked a little while and were safely within the confines of limitless green space, the kids ran free. The best part about the Arboretum for Zoe and Silas are all the dogs! Because I was alone with them, I too busy facilitating doggy-toddler interactions and wasn't able to get any pictures with the dogs, but here is one shot of some nice ladies and their puppy as Silas walked away, We stopped to take a load off and snack on some blueberries, And then we were off again and VERY happy with all t