The Zoe and Silas Show

2/8/14: Silas has been wearing half 4T and half 5T clothes for a few months now. Zoe's drawer is populated by 4T but she often pulls from Silas' drawer and has some things that don't fit very well. I finally made it to Old Navy on Friday and decided to just buy a bunch of "gender neutral" (i.e., boys) 5T clothes from which they both can pull from. There were a few "girls only" purchases (see pants below), but for the most part I bought a pile of clothes they can share. Excited about all the new clothes, Zoe put together a fabulous outfit. We are taking a family trip to Portland, Maine for one night during School Vacation Week, so we headed out to look for pool flotation devices on Saturday. We didn't find what we were looking for, but S&Z found kid-size lanterns and fishing poles for camping this summer (which we didn't buy), and Derek found a new sleeping bag (which we did buy). We also found a $2100+ tent with a built...

9/10/13: "Camping" before bed tonight. We actually are going camping again this weekend, so I guess they're getting in the mindset! I've told them it's going to be cold at night (forecast shows lows of 45-50 degrees) so getting snuggled in a blanket was a big part of the game tonight :)

Planning meals to be cooked in the woods for a family of four was the thing that was stressing me out the most about getting ready for our inaugural camping trip last weekend. I am pretty adventurous about trying new things that are food-related, but cooking over an open fire was definitely outside of my comfort zone. We talked about getting a Hibachi-style grill for our trip, but in the end we didn't find one that we really wanted. Instead, we went armed with a camp stove, a roll of heavy duty aluminum foil, some cooking spray, and a few random ideas. For breakfast we went with special treat cereal for the kids, and eggs on english muffins for us. Derek toasted the english muffins in a dry skillet on the camp stove. After the muffins were toasted he prepared the pan with olive oil cooking spray and fried the eggs over easy. Coffee was also made on the camp stove using an old percolator. Lunch was super simple - pb&j for the kids, and turkey and swiss sand...

8/5/13: One of the special treats when camping - a variety pack of sugared cereals for breakfast that would never be allowed in our cupboards at home! ***** Post-Camping Cook's Notes : When we got home on Monday afternoon everyone was exhausted. I wanted something easy for a Meatless Monday Menu. I doubled this recipe so that we would have some leftovers for work meals. It was creamy and yummy and easy. The best part is that the recipe is largely made up of pantry ingredients, which is great for weeknight cooking. BUDGET BYTES Creamy Tomato & Spinach Pasta CATEGORIES   pasta, vegetarian INGREDIENTS 1  Tbsp olive oil 1  small onion 2  cloves garlic 1  (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes 1/2  tsp dried oregano 1/2  tsp dried basil pinch red pepper flakes (optional) freshly cracked pepper to taste 1/2  tsp salt 2  Tbsp tomato paste 2  oz. cream cheese 1/4  cup grated Parmesan 1/2  lb. ...

Considering how loud the campground was on Saturday night, sleeping went pretty well for S&Z. Our tent has a zip-up "wall" that creates two rooms, so the kids were on one side and we were on the other. We woke up to a beautiful day around 7:30am on Sunday morning. The kids had been itching to go swimming since we arrived, so we threw on our suits and headed to the pond after breakfast. The big milestone of the day was Zoe putting her head underwater and jumping off the dock.  Over and over and over. Needless to say, everyone was tired after swimming. It was pretty cool in the afternoon so Derek built us a big fire and kept it going into the night. S&Z ended up taking a 2-hour long nap after lunch in the tent. Derek and I took advantage of some quiet time to take showers; I even sat by the fire and read a book! The kids had a blast playing with Adrianna after nap. We weren't really prepared for rain this tr...

8/4/13: And now she's FEARLESS.  God help me.

Check-in time on Saturday for our campsite was 2pm, so we were loaded up and out the door by noon. The weather was a little overcast when we arrived in Plymouth, but thankfully there was no rain the first day. We were happy with our site, which was at the end of a little cul-de-sac. Also important when camping with two small children, it was only about one cityblock away from a clean, well-kept restroom. There was lots to do to "set up camp". Derek and the kids started with the tent while I worked on food stuff. Everyone was excited to check out the tent and test out the sleeeping bags once everything was up! Derek and I had air mattresses and the kids roughed it sleeping on the ground. We will get air mattresses for them before our next camping trip. The sun was shining through by the time we were all done setting everything up. Before dinner we walked down to Ellis Pond to check things out. After playing for a bit w...