The Zoe and Silas Show

8/22/14: Playing baby animals after breakfast.

8/15/14: They are getting pretty good at flying their remote control helicopter!

5/28/14: Playing cars after breakfast.

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...

2/13/14: Another day, another snowstorm. I am beyond over it (as is everyone else I know). Zoe and Silas have only one more swimming lesson in this session, which is 7 weeks long. They are in the 'Pike' class, and today Zoe was promoted to 'Eel'! She is down to half the "bubbles" (flotation) from where she started, she swam the entire length of the pool, and she was the only kid in the class to jump into the pool from the platform! Way to go, Zoe! When I got home from work tonight I was soaking wet and super cranky. Thankfully S&Z played really nicely right up until bath time. They are working on the letter 'P' at school this week, so Silas brought a penguin and Zoe brought a platypus to school yesterday. They also played with the magnetic dress-up dolls. I've never seen them be so imaginative with this particular toy! I'm excited for Silas' VIP storytime tomorrow! 

12/27/13: There were power tools to be played with first thing in the morning! Mom & Dave helped us a lot with watching the kids after Christmas - I worked on the 27th and they once again held down the fort after Derek went to work.

5/15/13: It looks like Zoe was doing a Jedi mind trick on the tower. Less than a minute later Silas lunged over and knocked it down, reducing Z to tears.

5/14/13: Intently playing trains.

5/10/13: We love our backyard, but we are pretty limited in the kinds of things we can have for the kids to play with, because a) we rent, and b) the yard has a wicked downward slant. We went to a birthday party a few weeks ago and I watched 4 kids ages 3-6 years play for a long time with this awesome roller coaster . The more I thought about it this seemed to be the perfect toy for our backyard. We decided to order one after the party and it arrived this week! Assembling the coaster before Derek went to work on Friday was a top priority! After some hard work by Daddy it was almost ready! Zoe was up first (of course). And then it was Silas' turn! The "extreme coaster" is sure provide hours and hours of fun and exercise this summer!

8/30/12: Up-down, up-down, up-down on the new-to-us see-saw from cousin Kaylan.

Silas is well on his way to competing as the youngest Top Chef champion. Tonight he was "cooking" with tangerines, He kept saying "more oranges", until they had emptied the entire fruit bowl. Zoe is a great sous chef! I finally had to move the knife block off the counter, because this kid is bound and determined to cook the way we do. Tonight he handed me a plastic hammer and screwdriver to "open" a tangerine for him. I got them some more "food" to play with, and this provided lots of fun (and fighting!) over the weekend. Following another furniture re-configuration, they have great space to play in the kitchen! Finally, we got out the play-doh cooking set last night. "More cook!" is a phrase we hear a lot of these days...

My stepmom, Mary, collected Beanie Babies back in the '90s when they were in their heyday. Over the years I gathered quite a collection of my own, like 'Garcia', 'Ally', and 'Spike', and 'Stretch'. They all had a connection to nicknames and things I was into at different points in my life. I have moved the box of beanies from place to place, and ultimately from Minneapolis to Boston. I hung onto them because I thought one day I might have kids of my own who would like to play with them. I unpacked and washed the beanies last year and put them in one of the bins in the toy chest. It has just been more recently that the kids are interested in playing with them, naming them, etc. Today we had The Brennan's over for brunch. S&Z had a blast playing with Holly, almost 4 years, and Kylee, a newly minted 1-year-old. At one point I suggested we pull out the beanie babies. The kids were SO CUTE and absolutely enthralled. Then Derek got into...

We have two car trips coming up so I've been buying a few new toys in hopes of keeping S&Z occupied. In addition to John Deere tractors, slinky's and stickers, I picked up 2 magna doodle 's at Target last weekend (they were only $16.99 at Target, so this is one of the few things that seems to be more expensive on Amazon). I wanted to show them how they worked before the first trip, so I pulled them out tonight when I got home from work. They should do the trick nicely, because THEY LOVE THEM. First trip is this weekend. Me + Silas + Zoe + 4.5 hour ride sans stops. We're surprising a friend with a visit so that's all I can say for now. More to come....

As I've mentioned before, Silas loves to play with cooking stuff . Most recently, this involves a miniature kitchen set that Grandma Dutra gave the kids. It's the perfect size for him! I love this picture because I can see in his face what he's going to look like as a little boy... And this one shows how tall he is! Thanks, Grandma!!!!!!