The Zoe and Silas Show

9/21/14: Love that smile!

9/20/14: We went apple picking yesterday. Such a fun New England tradition!

9/19/14: Searching for volcanos. #quirkykidsrule

9/18/14: Playing "sunflowers" before school. Zoe, complete with pinwheel, was the sunflower, and Silas was watering her. Their imaginations inspire me.

9/17/14: Play "explorers" before school.

9/16/14: Our big kid getting herself ready for school!

9/15/14: Hunkered down to read a stack of books with Mommy before bed. #nomoretvonschoolnights

9/14/14: Derek recently requested a change to his work schedule and it was approved as of this weekend. He will now work 10-hour shifts, 4:00pm-2:00am. This means longer workdays and less sleep, but more days off. After years of having a work schedule on a 6-week rotation he will now have EVERY OTHER Friday night off, EVERY OTHER Saturday-Sunday-Monday off, and EVERY OTHER Tuesday-Wednesday off! The schedule took effect today, so he enjoyed a day of football, I enjoyed a day of shopping, and we all enjoyed a Sunday night family supper! The kids even helped set the table...

9/13/14: Zoe & Silas had a blast at their cousin Kaylan's karate-themed 7th birthday party yesterday!

9/12/14: S&Z have been doing a lot of "experiments" recently. Most involve water and/or ice, some use paper, and this one included markers as well.

9/11/14: Telling stories before bed.

9/10/14: We have started a new reinforcement system that has been working pretty well on most days. Here Silas is showing off his "awesome" status, while Zoe sat in a 4-minute timeout. Zoe drew an amazing picture of a shark at school on Wednesday. When I asked her where she got the idea she told me all about their trip to the school library that day. We heart school!!!

9/9/14: So glad that Derek got a picture of the kids wearing their uniforms on the 2nd day of school!

9/8/14: Monday was Zoe & Silas' first day of K1 kindergarten! We have been preparing and talking about what to expect for weeks, so they were excited and ready to go when the big day finally came. I must have taken nearly 100 pictures before we even left the house! They were good sports and humored me for most of the shots :) Derek and I dropped them off at school together. Parents were able to go into the classroom for the first 30 minutes. It was nice to see them settle in so easily! Julia and I did pick-up together and then we took them out for dinner so that we could hear all about their first day. It's a huge milestone and so far they are doing great!

9/7/14: Big kids practicing how to tie a shoe! They were not such little angels today, but look at those faces...

9/6/14: Back-to-school haircuts, and a play date with a new friend from their K1 class!

The week is a blur of 11-hour workdays and I think I missed a picture on Friday. Here is one  from Saturday morning instead (sorry for the toilet shot)! #superwomansupercutiepie

9/4/14: Just another summer day at the park, this time baking a birthday cake!

9/3/14: Fun Wednesday photo shoot with Ta-ta!

9/2/14: Derek's parents came over for a visit on Tuesday. Silas took a super cute selfie of him and Papa!

Another INSANE week at work means that I am once again a week behind on the blog... 9/1/14: We had a fun skype date with Auntie Tracy, Brynn and Delaney on Monday. The kids played "show and tell" for most of the call! :)

8/31/14: We had a fun day with friends today! First we had a lovely lunch date with Teresa, Tim, Josie & Theo. They kids were so happy to play and eat together! In the afternoon we had an impromptu play date with our landlord Mike's kids, Michael and Shawn. Lucy even got in on some of the action! In other news, one of the sunflowers that S&Z planted in June started blooming today! They are HUGE! It's amazing that we grew these from 2 single seeds!

8/30/14: We've been letting Lucy in every few days in hopes of scaring the mouse away. The kids love it! After Derek went to work it was back-to-school shopping, day 2. Who knew it would be so hard to find uniforms in their size?! Apparently we are not the only family to procrastinate this god awful task.

8/29/14: We were tortured with back-to-school shopping on Friday afternoon. The kids took a much-needed jumping break between Stride Rite and Old Navy...

8/28/14: Derek took the kids to the zoo on Thursday morning. They had so much fun feeding the budgies!

8/27/14: Zoe & Silas came to lab on Wednesday in order to help us pilot some new physiology equipment. Zoe volunteered to get wired up first. You can tell by those smiles that she was a super trooper! The equipment she is wearing allowed us to measure her heart rate, respirations, and overall activity level while she participated in a series of tests that measure a child's temperament (aka, personality). Of course they were fascinated by watching the various signals on the computer (Silas, in particular)... Silas was up next and he also did a spectacular job! They are our super star scientists in training!

8/26/14: Zoe's morning creation.