The Zoe and Silas Show

9/28/13: Derek worked a double on Saturday, so the kids and I headed to Amherst, MA to visit my friends Lisa and Carlos and their new baby, Matilde (almost 8 weeks old). Matilde slept much of the afternoon, but when she was awake S&Z were SO curious about her! It was a gorgeous fall day so we ate lunch outside and then stopped at the local Apple Festival. The kids jumped in a bouncy house, And played in some hay. We also bought tie-dyed t-shirts and cider doughnuts. I was so happy to be able to meet Matilde and catch up with a dear friend! The kids were so good on the 2-hour drive each way - we will definitely be going back to visit again soon!

9/27/13: A hungry neighborhood kitty came up to say hello to Zoe & Silas on Friday afternoon. S/he was pretty darn sweet and almost convinced us to let her come inside! We headed over to the Pritchard's for dinner since Derek had the night off. The Brennan's came too, and all the kids had a blast playing the backyard until it got dark out.  They had a sugar and movie party in the living room while all the 'rents hung out back enjoying one of the last fires of the summer.

9/26/13: My sweet boy just after he handed me a little flower when they met me at the gym.

9/25/13: It has been an aggravating 24 hours for us due to an unusable kitchen sink. Of course S&Z "helped" Mike when he came over this morning to figure out what's going on. Poor Mike Apparently the garbage disposal was the cause of water pouring out of the lower cabinet last night, so thankfully a new one was installed by the time I got home from work. It was a school day there were art projects to see when I got home. The class read "Rainbow Fish" at school today, so they got to make their own fish with shiny fins too. I've had a pesky cold all week, but I dug deep to push through to keep up the Fitbit-inspired activity! This is my weekly summary- Today I logged 15,000+ steps, which is over 7 miles. To say my feet hurt is an understatement! I've been making veggie wraps for lunch at work this week. I brought in a container of vegetables at the start of the week, including carrots, red pepper, radishes, cucumber, tom

9/24/13: Now what? ***** Zoe was so proud of the outfit she picked out (note the sparkly headband!)-

9/23/13: Having fun with their piggy banks before school. Silas has been talking a lot about saving money. When I ask him what he's saving for he says, "for college!". At least he's listening to some things!, is the mental response of this parent who is in the thick of the no listening phase.

9/22/13: I have exercised 6 days in a row, so today was my break day. I still wanted to try and hit 10,000 steps, though, so the kids and I headed to Castle Island to enjoy a beautiful walk in the late afternoon sun. We haven't paid a visit here all summer, so there was a lot to see and talk about! Including a huge tanker ship and lots of sailboats. We walked a long ways and the wind was pretty cold, so we took a few breaks to rest and warm up. The end of summer is definitely upon us - thankfully I love October!

9/21/13: This morning we hit the gym before heading outside to enjoy Derek's day off. It's been just over 2 months since we joined the Y, so I wanted to take another picture of myself (see the first picture here ). I am so damn proud of our commitment to improving our health and setting a good example for Zoe & Silas. It was another 13,000+ step day for me! After our workout we went apple picking, joining thousands of other New England families on this gorgeous fall day. We headed back to Shelburne Farms in Stow, which is where we went last year (walk down memory lane with me and see pictures from 2012 and 2011 ). The best part of our visit was definitely the hayride around the farm! Then it was time to get to work- There was plenty of time spent sampling different varieties of apples too! This year we picked a 1/2 bushel. Boy is that a lot of apples! 20 pounds of apples! We missed the neighborhood Farmer's Market to

Going to South Dakota and then immediately getting back in the school routine (which this year includes packing lunches!), on top of my (fairly) new exercise routine, work madness, etc. has made the last two weeks pretty hectic. Three mornings a week I have to make school lunches. Thank goodness I love their new lunch boxes so it makes me dread packing a little less. Cream cheese and jelly "sushi" sandwiches, apples, goldfish, and red peppers with hummus Sun butter and jelly on an english muffin, pears, broccoli, pretzel slims, and yogurt covered star cookies In order to organize my thoughts about lunches I bought a bigger whiteboard for the kitchen. The night before school I have the kids help me plan out what they will bring. I use a basic protein-carb-fruit-vegetable system and I give them a choice from 2 options for each category. Packing for the kids has helped me organize myself as well. Historically I bring leftovers from dinners that I've cooked th

9/20/13: Today is the 2nd week of preschool, which means it's the 2nd Friday morning that I've had off from work without the kids around. I can't believe I actually considered going back to work since they would be in school. What in the heck was I thinking?! I had the entire morning to myself because Derek had an appointment and then met up with his parents who were at Dana Farber for Joanne's monthly treatment. After bringing the kids to school I headed to the gym. I set a new record on the elliptical, logging over 4 miles in 45 minutes!! After the gym I had a pedicure, and then stopped at the grocery store to grab a few things to make a fun dinner with the kids tonight. I arrived for pick-up about 20 minutes early so I parked the car and walked over to Starbucks to get an iced coffee. All in all, an awesome morning (and a great exercise day according to my Fitbit summary!). Otherwise it was a mellow day, as evidenced by realizing that I needed to snap

9/19/13: On Thursday we saw the allergist in order to begin figuring out what medication(s) Silas is allergic to . Both kids LOVE going to the doctor (weird, I know), and even though they haven't met Dr. H. before they drew her pictures while we waited for our appointment. At the appt we explained everything that happened in August and he got a full exam. One of us will take him back at the end of October for standard penicillin allergy testing. The other meds don't have a standard set of tests, so depending on how the first set of tests go we may end up having more testing done. Our goal is to get everything sorted out before winter-preschool-sickness season is upon us!

9/18/13: Firewoman Zoe attached the "vacuum" to the back of her firetruck and drove it all over the house on Wednesday.