The Zoe and Silas Show

We had a mellow, unplanned weekend - the first in awhile! On Saturday it was rainy so we went down to the library to get some new books. I was ready to break up with " Round Like A Ball ", as well as a few others that we've read 10 million times in the last 3 weeks. It just so happened that the library was hosting a train event, so we ended up hanging out for awhile. S&Z colored pictures of trains drawn by a local artist. They also spent some time playing in a "train" that was fashioned out of appliance boxes. It was a really fun community event! Today we decided to check out Kids' Fun Stop, an indoor playspace not too far from here. I purchased a Living Social deal awhile back for half-price drop-in visits, so we need to use them up before spring is here and we don't want to be inside anymore! The place was swamped shortly after we got there. After 90 minutes everyone was overstimulated and ready to head home fo...

2/27/12: A boy and his blocks.

The Roslindale Community Center is just a 10 minute walk from our house. We decided to get a family membership this spring, which only costs $50 for the whole year! They have open toddler gym 4 days/week in the mornings, so when the weather is crappy Derek has been taking S&Z to the RCC to run around instead of to the park. The playspace is great, it's basically a big gymnasium! Some days there are only a few other kids and other days the place is swamped. It all depends on the weather. They have lots of gear for the kids to play with, like push cars, Balls, hockey sticks, and lacrosse equipment, And pedal toys like this cruiser :) It's great to have a place like this in our neighborhood for the kids to be able to play when the weather doesn't cooperate (which happens more than we would like it to - we do live in New England, after all!).

After the April Fool's Day snow on Friday, the weather has gotten back on track and spring is definitely in the air! Everyone is in a pretty darn good mood around here. On Thursday, Stacey and I decided to walk to Coolidge Corner to get birthday lunch at Michael's Deli. The corned beef rachel is the most decadent sandwich ever. It was the perfect birthday splurge! When we got back to lab, everyone was eating in the lunch room and there was a box of beautiful cupcakes from Party Favors waiting for us! My co-workers are THE BEST!!!!! As I mentioned , EI on Friday morning was great and the rest of the day was uneventful. After I put the kids to bed I met up with Iris for dinner at Orinoco in Brookline Village. This is definitely one of my favorite restaurants, and we had an amazing meal! We started off with arepa portobello, and then I had adobo smoked churrasco steak. YUM!!! I'm hoping I can take Derek here for dinner some night soon. On Saturday morning I got a bir...

The kids are sick, it's still tough to get outside and everyone has cabin fever.  One word: MATTRESSES! It's a little ridiculous how fun this can be. We have to pull everything out to change the crib sheets anyway, so Derek just threw the mattresses on the floor. Let the flying toddlers begin! This face says it all:

A few friends have asked me what S&Z are into lately... My answer continues to be  anything and everything that is not a toy . As you may have noticed in pictures, our house is FULL of toys. Seriously, it's kid central in here. But kids being kids, they would rather play with packages of diapers,  Or the recycling bin (which, btw, is now kept behind a gate and a stool that they bypass on a daily basis), We visited Timery, Steve & JB this weekend and the kids were pretty excited to climb the stairs. As Steve was trying to feed JB lunch and S&Z were getting into everything they shouldn't be, he commented that he felt like he was in the movie "Raising Arizona" . It does kinda feel that way sometimes... And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Derek and I had an amazing belated birthday brunch at Upstairs on the Square in Cambridge today. We had arranged for Julia to come for 4 hours, so we ended up with extra time to run errands after brunch. I've had a Toys 'r Us list building in my head so we decided to cross that off the list.  We have been looking around for a little table and chairs, and didn't find what we were looking for at Ikea on Friday. We ended up finding a great, inexpensive Little Tikes plastic set today, however. We also got them their first set of crayons, and they had a great time coloring like big kids at their new table. Derek's friends, Dave & Kirstyn, gave us some fun, colored printer paper so they were all set! Zoe at times seemed more interested in climbing than coloring, But Silas was really into it! The activity definitely held their interest longer than I expected!  We also got them a magnetic farm toy like one that we had played with at The Brennan's hous...