The Zoe and Silas Show

4/25/14: I saw on the Arboretum's Facebook page yesterday that the magnolias are in bloom. It was a gorgeous afternoon today so we headed out to see them. They were GORGEOUS!!! And they smelled ah-MAZING! We meandered and explored and eventually found ourselves heading to the Leventritt Vine & Shrub Garden where Derek & I got married 5-1/2 years ago. We haven't been there in years and never with the kids, so it felt very special to share it with them. Oh sweet magnolias, I can't wait to see you again next year!

4/24/14:  Silas continues to be obsessed with my iPod. He looked at me last night and said "this is my FAVORITE song!". I checked to see what he was listening to and it was Alanis Morrisette, "All I Really Want". Sometimes I have glimpses of what they will be like as adolescents. This picture captured one of them (funny though, he was listening to " The Moth " podcast).

4/23/14: S&Z have outgrown this slide from the backyard so we put in in their bedroom when we were trying to keep them busy while we  cleaned out our closets on Saturday. As expected, hijinx have ensued...

Making lists, just like his Momma 4/22/14:  Silas very sweetly stuck a blank piece of paper in my backpack on Tuesday morning with 'Mommy' written at the top (backwards), "just in case you need to make any notes on your way to work".

4/21/14: Today was Patriot's Day, which is a city (state?) holiday that coincides with the Boston Marathon. It is a big anniversary around these parts, the first year after the  marathon horrors of 2013 . The anniversary has been very upsetting for me so I'm not going to write about it today. Instead, I'll post some pictures of what was thankfully a very normal spring day. After spending the morning at the gym we went to Panera for lunch. It was a beautiful sunny day and Derek had to work, so the kids and I headed to Hale for our first hike of the year. This place makes me so happy! Zoe took this picture of us :) I think S&Z are pretty happy here as well... After hiking to Storrow Pond we grabbed our rain boots and played along the fishing beach of Noanet Pond. Ahhhhhh, SPRING IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!

4/20/14: The Easter Bunny was hard at work last night after date night. The kids were SO EXCITED when they got up this morning! They came running into our room promptly at 7:00 to tell us there were EGGS and BASKETS in the living room! They had a BLAST doing the egg hunt, narrating every single step of the way! They made a nice haul of money, play-doh, and a little candy. There is nothing like chocolate easter bunnies for breakfast! After the Easter madness died down we continued our organizational kick of the weekend, putting away the winter gear and pulling out the summer hats. The "kids" in the house took a break to show off the assortment of hats :) Derek had to work at 3 so we made our weekly run up to lab with my work clothes and food for the week. S&Z wanted to document this week's food assortment, which included bananas, apples, avocado, tomato, greek yogurt, string cheese, hummus, Ezekiel's sprouted bread, crack

4/19/14: On Saturday Derek and I had an ambitious agenda of cleaning out our closets. We've both lost so much weight that we had a lot of clothes to get rid of! In total there are 8 garbage bags of clothes that don't fit us anymore! The kids were very good helpers and played in their room for much of the morning while we worked. Derek was off work so we also had a date night planned. We took advantage of the opportunity to wear some new clothes! After having such a fun time in Eastie on our last date night , we decided that we should visit a different neighborhood each time we go out. This time around we went to an amazing Moroccan restaurant in Charlestown called Tangierino . The atmosphere was lovely, with intimate seating in small rooms featuring draping fabric, couches and low tables, middle eastern music, and even a token belly dancer. This was technically my last birthday dinner of the birthday month, but we were already d