The Zoe and Silas Show

6/30/13: It is our niece Kaylan's 6th birthday today so we spent most of the day doing fun birthday stuff with Derek's family. S&Z enjoyed some good play time at home before the festivities began, though. In this picture they are pretending to sleep because all of their animals were sleeping too. After lunch at Chipotle it was off to Build-a-Bear Workshop! We've never been there before so it was fun to see how it all works! First you have to select your bear, Then it's time to fill the bear, But first you have to get the heart of the bear started up and filled with love. Silas picked out a white bear and Zoe picked out a black bear, while Kaylan picked a rabbit. After the bear is filled it's time to give him/her a bath and brush its fur. You also complete a birth certificate for the bear - Silas named his bear Oscar and Zoe named her bear Sophie. After Build-a-Bear we stopped at a photo booth for

6/29/13: We have spent the last couple of days trying to re-group after an awesome week in Minnesota. After doing lots of food shopping the last 2 days, we finally had everything to make smoothies for lunch.  Today's concoction had  kale, spinach, broccoli, collard and mustard greens, fresh citrus, green apple, peaches, mango, pineapple with a splash of apple juice. On Thursday night we made Chicken Parm Meatballs and steamed broccoli. Tonight w e made an awesome summer supper and ate on the deck. We grilled our FAVORITE chicken,  Asian-Style Barbecue Chicken , and two summer salads chock full of vegetables from today's Farmer's Market. The first was Chilled Napa Cabbage with Shallots and Cilantro . It was my first time making it so I didn't make any modifications, and it turned out delicious! We also tried Lemony Quinoa Salad , to which I made a few modifications (subbed in Israeli Couscous for the quinoa, added haruki turnips, sugar snap peas, fresh pa

6/28/13: We went to Jeff and Megan's house for dinner on Friday night. The kids were really excited to play with Jack! It turned out to be a nice night so we made a fire after dinner. Jack eventually put himself to bed, while S&Z made it until 11:30 watching a movie on the couch! A perfect summer night with friends!

Our flight home was on Wednesday afternoon, so we had some time to pack and organize before we headed to the airport. When Sue and Bob were out on their boat on Sunday afternoon they noticed a loon's nest about 50 feet from the end of their dock. This was a must-see before we left! You can see a brown clump in the middle of this photo and that's where the nest is. The momma loon was sitting on the nest and the daddy was swimming nearby! S&Z could even see it with the binoculars!! What a cool thing to see on our last Minnesota morning! The kids did really well on our trip home.  We landed at 7:15 but we didn't get home until almost 9:00. To say we were tired is a huge understatement! What a wonderful visit with my family, to a place I miss very much!! Until next time, Minnesota...

6/27/13: The kids have a MAJOR vacation, travel-induced hangover today! Bedtime can't come soon enough!

6/26/13: Bye bye, Minnesota!

On Tuesday we stopped by Penzey's Spices for a little shopping before meeting up with the rest of the fam for the afternoon. Penzey's has a great pirate-themed coloring space set up, so we were able to shop in peace! We bought chicken taco seasoning, granulated garlic, sweet Hungarian paprika, Berbere Ethiopian spice, and Muhajarah curry. After having lunch with Stephanie at a really cool little cafe on Lyndale Ave, we with met up with Dad and Mary at the Walker Sculpture Garden.  I really wanted some pictures with the spoon and cherry!! It was super hot and muggy but the kids had a blast exploring! The Walker is one of those places I wish I had taken advantage of more often when I lived in Minneapolis! It was so hot we stopped for little rests frequently. Zoe kept busy "sweeping" with a branch and Silas "planted sticks". There is a really cool swing sculpture that