The Zoe and Silas Show

Need I say more?

Last Thursday our box contained, spring garlic kale fennel lettuce cilantro parsley bok choy haruki turnips rainbow swiss chard garlic scapes pea shoots I was probably most excited about fresh pea shoots and haruki turnips, and least excited about more bok choy. I made tortellini with turnip greens (+ other non-farm share stuff like red onion, chicken sausage, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms) - that was really yummy! It always amazes me how much the greens cook down. Of course we've had salads galore and more veggie bagels. Tonight I'm cooking up the bok choy as I would with chard or any other greens. Keep it simple. Feeling tired and little uninspired - very much looking forward to having a 4-day weekend!!!

I put the kids to bed 45 minutes ago. This is what I have heard coming from their room for the last little while... Might you be able to imagine what Silas has been hearing a lot of lately?!

We are sending lots of love and hugs and congratulations to Vanessa, Greg & Oliver today!!!!! Thatcher Marcellus was born at 7:30am today, 8 pounds, 7 ounces and 20-1/2" long! Everyone is doing great and he is absolutely adorable! Silas and Zoe can't wait to meet their new friend!

When I got home from work today Julia reported that Zoe started to say Silas' name this afternoon. Silas was hiding by the window and Julia was calling his name; then Zoe started calling, 'Sy-ya', 'Sy-ya'! For me, she said both 'Sy-ya' and 'Ya-ya'. We'll see how this one plays out! Zoe also started saying 'Elmo' the day of Emily's birthday party. Except that she says 'Memo'. Very cute and so funny (except when she was wailing for 15 minutes at naptime on Saturday, saying 'memo, memo, memo' over and over again because I had put the Elmo book away)!

Derek's cousin Joyce had an Elmo-themed birthday party over the weekend for her daughter, Emily, who recently turned 2. They live in Plymouth which is about an hour away from our house. The party started at 3:00 so we headed down after S&Z woke up from their nap. Joyce was so sweet to wait for our arrival before doing the pinata. There were water tables set up, And play-doh! Big cousin Kaylan LOVES playing with Silas & Zoe! Zoe gravitated towards Emily's shopping cart, And Silas loved the sandbox. By this point in the party, Silas was soaked from the water table and filthy from the sandbox so he was stripped down to his onesie. And then it was time for cake! Joyce takes after her mom, Derek's Aunt Doreen, who is an amazing baker. Joyce baked and decorated this Elmo cake for Emily! All the kids sat at picnic tables for cake (which was delicious!), It was such a fun day! We were so happy to be able to celebrate with the birthday girl!

During the week I take a shower before S&Z wake up so that I'm ready to leave the house once Derek gets home from work. On the weekends, however, I stay in bed until they start making noise and then shower once Derek is home from work. When I woke up today I found out that Derek had been "mandated". This meant that following his 11:30pm-7:30am shift last night, he had to stay on for the daytime (7:30am-3:30pm) shift as well. Thankfully he got released around 10:30am, otherwise he would've worked 16 hours straight, been off for 8, then back there tonight at 11:30 again. By the time I got the news this morning it was too late for me to take a shower before getting the kids up. This left me in the position of showering after breakfast with twenty-month-old twin terrors running around unsupervised. I ended up gating off the rest of the house so that they could only be in the bathroom or the nursery. Of course all they wanted to do was stand by the tub with the showe

Apparently S&Z LOVE watermelon. They have been averaging 3-4 wedges apiece with lunch all week! Good thing that baths follow lunch in our house!

Dad & Mary arrived last Thursday, which is farm share pickup day. Last week's box included: spring garlic kale arugula green leaf lettuce cilantro dill spinach napa cabbage bok-choi radishes In addition to the contents of our box, we also bought a bunch of peas at the farm stand. On Saturday morning we went to the Farmer's Market and bought more peas, some scallions, and haruki turnips. The Brookfield Farm stand was offering samples of the turnips and once I tasted them I just couldn't pass them up. They were so delicious raw and unadorned. I was happy to see that we got some in Week 3's box yesterday as well! I have to admit that I didn't get too creative with farm share cooking this week since we had visitors. The menu included lots of salads (of course) featuring the arugula and spinach. I made veggie sandwiches on everything bagels for lunch that included (among other non-farm share things) green leaf lettuce, and thinly sliced radishes and tu

My dad & Mary were flying back to Minneapolis in the early afternoon on Monday, so we had a few hours to kill in the morning before they needed to be at the airport. As usual, we took a few family pictures before they had to say goodbye to S&Z. It was a picture perfect June morning, so we decided to head down to the Boston Harborwalk . We strolled the harborwalk for awhile, and of course took more pictures :) We saw tons of jellyfish, And then we made our way over to James Hook & Co. for lobster rolls! They were AWESOME!!!! We strolled back along the Harborwalk the way we came, sat for a bit, and eventually made our way back to the car. It was a proper New England send-off before they got on the plane back to Minnesota. We had a wonderful visit this weekend, and have had a great 2 months having my entire immediate family come and go. Now if I can just convince Sue & Bob to come out to see us sometime... :)

This was the first year that the kids and I made a card for Daddy's Day - last year they were still too little for art projects :). A few weeks ago Aditi had everyone coloring on construction paper with sidewalk chalk at EI playgroup, so I decided that could be the background for a card with handprints/finger painting. Gramma & Grampa kept the kids busy on Saturday night with crayons while I got the paints ready. Not exactly the perfect handprints I envisioned, but it turned out pretty darn cute. Derek's family has a tradition of doing New England Clam Boils for holidays like Father's Day and Labor Day. His parents make the same type of clam boil that Joanne's dad used to make. I will post the recipe at some point so that S&Z have it in their blog book, but it looks something similar to this . Since my Dad & Mary were visiting this weekend, Derek & I thought it would be fun to host a clam boil at our house for a Father's Day get-together.  Sin

I've been wanting to take the kids to Drumlin Farm , as a few of my friends have gone and had a great time. I decided it might be fun to do it with Grandma & Grandpa Westerlund visiting this weekend, so we headed out this morning with a not-so-great weather forecast in front of us. The first exhibit we saw were owls and hawks. It was just drizzling at this point in the visit, As the rain got heavier, we quickly moved into the barn with sheep and goats. Next we visited the horse barn, We got to see what it's like to brush a horse's tail. And sit on real saddles! The pig barn came next. Finally the rain started to let up and we got to spend a little more time outside. We checked out old tractors, And some puddles, We spent a lot of time in and around the poultry barn too. S&Z got to meet the baby chickens too! By 11:30, everyone was damp and exhausted and ready to head home. The kids enjoyed a pb&j sandwich tailgate st