The Zoe and Silas Show

Last week I sent off the blanket for Rachel & Keith's bundle of joy who should be arriving pretty soon now. I think it's the most beautiful one yet. I mentioned to Heidi and Megan how excited I was about it, and they both said that their 6-year-olds still use and love the blankets I knit for them when they were babies!!! I didn't remember what Jack's looked like so Megan pulled it out to show me. Love love love! I'm all caught up on knitting for new and on their way babies, so I'm on to other projects now...

Now that the weather is getting colder my friends have sent me a few pictures of their babies with the knitted goods I've made for them. Matilde wearing her "favorite hat" Hugh, in the only "swaddle" he will tolerate these days. Dad is a HUGE U of Michigan fan so it's not surprising he will only sleep with his maize & blue blanket :) Hugh and Carter These handsome guys were born on the same day! "Uh-oh, my Seminoles hat is too small now!", says Carson Love love love seeing all of these adorable babies with things that I've put my heart into crafting for them...

We had a great time seeing Oliver and Thatcher on Friday night, and most importantly meeting their new baby brother, Carter! The big kids had a blast playing together, and after dinner they enjoyed some snuggle time on the couch with Carter. Welcome to the pack, Carter!!! I was also excited to give Carter the blanket I knit for him. Because Vanessa and family will be moving away from New England in the spring, I picked out yarn that reminded me of the ocean.

After an uninspiring food week (except for some  Greek Potatoes , and an improv Curried Quinoa with Roasted Summer Vegetables that was inspired by this recipe ), I am happy to get back on track with cooking this weekend! I talked with my sister yesterday, and she recommended perusing Pinterest boards of my favorite food magazines and bloggers to look for ideas. I did just that and came up with a fun list of stuff to try for this week. A visit to our awesome Farmer's Market always helps me prime the creative food pump as well... After the Farmer's Market we made summer salads for Mommy and Daddy Bears, And for Baby Bears. It blows my mind that S&Z will eat salads this year. Both of them even wanted some of my hardboiled egg! For dinner tonight I made Red Lentil Coconut Soup . It had a dal-like consistency so I was glad that I had also cooked up some rice. I think I like this recipe better than the Lal Dal that I typically make. It was pretty spicy ...

I finished another baby blanket this week. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out- Now I've got two waiting to get sent off to babies who are already born!  That is definitely on this week's to-do list, along with starting the next project! :)

7/8/13: Little people, big tent.  Now that we're back from MN we need to start getting organized for our upcoming camping trip. In that vein, Derek and the kids set up the tent on Monday morning. They were so excited to show me the tent when I got home from work! Julia took the kids to a splash park after nap. After S&Z went to bed I finished another baby blanket for a dear friend. I can't wait to give it to her!!! Cook's Notes : On this week's Monday Meatless Menu was  Pasta Primavera . I used sugar snap peas, scallions, mint, zucchini and summer squash from the Farmer's Market, along with store-bought carrots, red pepper, and grape tomatoes. This version is finished off with goat cheese - it turned out delicious!

7/7/13: We had a fun morning playing over at Josie & Theo's house today. There is never a dull moment when you get two sets of 3-year-old twins together! Both Silas and Theo are pretty mellow and like to do their own thing, but Josie and Zoe have strong personalities. To say they can be difficult at times is a huge understatement. Teresa and I joked that they will either hate either when they get older, or they will get into lots and lots of trouble together. They had fun playing car wash (I will definitely be doing this at home sometime soon!), Riding on pedal toys, And riding their bikes! It was day 5 of a heat wave, so everyone was ready to cool off and eat lunch in the air conditioning. After nap the kids and I went to AC Moore to pick out yarn for another baby blanket . I recently completed another blanket, the third in a row, and I've got two more to do. S&Z like looking at yarn with me and today they played with kni...

The kids learned about caterpillars and butterflies recently at school. Zoe informed me that the caterpillars in the classroom had spun their "chrysalis", to which after a moment of stunned silence I replied, "you mean a cocoon?". They brought beautiful painted butterflies home on their last day of school. After knitting a million and one baby hats recently, I have finally finished two blankets. The first was for Natalie's 1st birthday (Timery's daughter), and the second is for Delaney (Tracy's daughter).

3/9/13: While Derek got groceries this morning the kids and I went to AC Moore. I've been knitting tons of cute baby hats and decided to start on a baby blanket for Natalie who has a 1st birthday coming up in May. Here are a couple of the recent hats. We pulled out all the 4T stuff for Zoe this weekend (Silas has been a size 4 for months now), so we also stopped at Old Navy to buy some 4-5T socks And it wouldn't be a day in the life without moments like this.

2/6/13: I was greeted at the door tonight by Zoe & Silas who were both wearing the hats I knit for them. When they noticed that Ta-ta had her hat on, they ran to put theirs on too!

2/5/13: Suckers are very rewarding for great work on their responsibility charts this week! Silas drew this picture of 'Mommy' (on left) and 'Daddy' (on right) at school today. The picture of me looks very similar to the ' Mommy is mad ' picture he drew awhile back - I just have less blue swirls encompassing my entire head. Speaking of encompassing my head, the infinity scarf that I just finished knitting for myself works great to keep my head warm too!

1/30/13: S&Z have been playing with their lacing boards a lot lately. They call it their "knitting", and they hand us pieces of string saying it's a scarf they made. Considering how much I've been knitting lately, I guess it's not surprising! As of last night Derek is officially sick now as well, although he still held down the fort solo this morning so that I could go back to work. We had a pretty quiet evening after I got home, mostly spent working on another puzzle that Vanessa and the boys gave the kids for Christmas. It's looking like Silas can probably go to school tomorrow, but Zoe will be home another day. She has gone to school 1 day in the last 3 weeks. I'm sure Silas will be happy to go back after missing 2 entire weeks!

12/28/12: We went to Home Depot this morning to buy sleds, so we are officially ready for snow! In close second, I finished Silas' cone hat last night. Both of them wore their hats all morning long.

Now that all of the gifts have been given, I can post the pictures of the rest of my Christmas craftiness . I made photo calendars for the grandparents like I have done the past 2 years. This year I was able to do a "best of the photo-a-day" theme, where I selected my 4-5 favorite pictures for every month. I also framed the kids' school pictures and mounted them on some of their paintings. For the extended family I gave pictures of S&Z with Kaylan, also mounted on artwork. I gave one to S&Z and we hung it in their room today. And here are the finished knitting projects. Zoe and her hat And my co-workers and their scarves! I have one more finished scarf to give and am almost done with Silas' hat! Here's to another crafty crafty Christmas! 12/29/12 Addition: the finished cone hats!