Jim's Birthday Celebrations!!!

Jim had several days of birthday celebrating!!!  We were back home in Buffalo getting ready for Ashley's wedding, and he had a couple of requests.  He wanted to go to 2 Paula's - 1 to get ice cream (aka Pautler's) and 1 to get donuts...he also wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese.  We made sure to take care of all of these wishes for our wonderful 5 year old!!! 

We walked down to Pautler's for dinner!  The boys had a lot of fun doing that, and once they were done eating they got their ice cream treat!!! 

Thursday morning we went to Paula's donuts, or as Ben like's to call it the Joe Bag of donut store!

Jim got to open a lot of wonderful presents!!!

Thursday night everyone was over for dinner!!!  Grilling burgers & hot dogs, and then birthday cake!!!  Jim requested a Zuma cake!!!

Friday we got to go to Chuck E Cheese!!!!  Jim & Ben had lots of fun there!

And then Saturday was his actual birthday!!  He got donut holes & candles for breakfast!!  And then an awesome birthday cake at the wedding!!!  I need to find a picture of Jim & the cake, he was loving every minute of it!

I think it's safe to say that Jim had a great 5th birthday!!!!!!

Jim's 20 Questions @ Age 5

Jim's 3rd year for asking him his 20 questions!  Always fun to hear how he answers them. 

1.  What is your favorite color?  Green
2.  What is your favorite toy?  My new flatbed truck
3.  What is your favorite fruit?  Raspberries
4.  What is your favorite thing to watch on TV?  Blaze
5.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? String Cheese
6.  What is your favorite outfit? My new pajammies!
7.  What is your favorite game? Restaurant
8.  What is your favorite snack? Fishies
9.  What is your favorite animal? Lions
10. What is your favorite song? Va-La Vase (aka Meghan Trainor's All about the Bass)
11. What is your favorite book?  The ABC Book
12. Who is your best friend? Parker & Chuck-E Cheese
13. What is your favorite cereal? Marshmallows
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Dig in the dirt (like Mighty Machines)
15. What is your favorite drink? Smoothies
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Marshmallows
18. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  Fluffer
19. What's your favorite thing to have for dinner? Hot dogs, like octopus's
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Flat bed truck driver

More of Ben's Birthday Celebrating!

Ben's 3rd BirthDAY

Ben's birthday was on a Tuesday this year!  He woke up very excited to see all the Paw Patrol decorations set up for him! 

Jim gave him his birthday presents - a box of Lucky Charms for his birthday breakfast!  A paw patrol t-shirt, and some trucks.  I had a lot of fun shopping with Jim the weekend before, he got to pick out one present for Ben!  (Which was Jim's idea - he told me one day we were getting ready to head to Target that he wanted to buy Ben a present.)

They're best buds!

We then drove into D.C. to the Be With Me Museum - we've never been before and thought Ben's birthday was a good reason to go check it out. The boys loved it there!  A Children's museum just for them, different themed rooms - lots of fun!  We walked a couple of doors down & got lunch, and then back to the museum for a bit before we made our way back home!

Once Mark got home from work, Ben got to open the rest of his presents...We had hot dogs for dinner, per his birthday request!  And then we sang to him & enjoyed some ice cream (we saved the cake for Wednesday to have with Mom & Dad!)  I love how excited he gets when we were singing Happy Birthday to him!!!

 Make a wish!

 Hi-5's!!!

I think Ben had a wonderful 3rd birthday!  Can't believe he's 3 already! 



Ben's 20 questions at Age 3

Finally getting caught up on a couple of Ben's birthday posts. So we will get started with his 20 questions on his 3rd birthday!

1.  What is your favorite color?  Blue
2.  What is your favorite toy?  My Chase toy!
3.  What is your favorite fruit?  Orange Fruit
4.  What is your favorite thing to watch on TV?  Paw Patrol
5.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Peanut Butter & Jelly, String Cheese, and pickles!
6.  What is your favorite outfit? My new jacket
7.  What is your favorite game? I didn't get an answer from him on this one.
8.  What is your favorite snack? Lighting McQueen fruit snack
9.  What is your favorite animal? Soft Elephant (side note: no idea where this one came from!)
10. What is your favorite song? ABCDEFG
11. What is your favorite book?  Paw Patrol Book
12. Who is your best friend? Jim
13. What is your favorite cereal? Marshmallows
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play in the snow
15. What is your favorite drink? Milk & water
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? I already said marshmallows!
18. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  My new trucks
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Ice Cream
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? BIG!!!

Ben's 3 year stats

Just a quick update from Ben's 3 year check-up -

Height 38.5" - 76th (compared to Jim who was 37.5" @ 3 years)

Weight 31lbs - 43rd (Jim was 32.5 lbs)

Blood Pressure 98/54 (Jim's was 76/38)

A very happy & healthy boy!!!!

The past month via pictures!

A look back through January & February through pictures! 

 

My little handy-man.  Love all the tools in his pockets. 

Checking out their computer together!

How sweet is Jim?!  He asked me to take a picture of him & his animals!

And then Ben joined in - Jim is with Teddy Bear & Fluffer's...And Ben has Teddy & Dingle. 

Coloring together....

I was trying to get a good picture of them next to the fireplace - I loved how the sun was shining - but neither wanted to smile, and I didn't capture how cool the sun really looked. 

Brotherly love!

Chasing the birds out back!

They both love playing here!  Lots of digging & building going on!

Snow!!!  Using their trucks to help plow the snow.

Jim pulling Ben over to Parker's for some sledding!

Mark had the day off!!!!  Built a little fire to help warm us up!

Jim had a blast!!!

Inside, warming up, hanging out together!

Diaper Free!!!

I'm very excited to say that we are now 100% diaper free in our house!!!!  Woohoo, no more changing diapers for us! 

We decided to start potty training Ben on the 1st of this month.  Mark was going to be home for a couple extra days, so we figured now's the time to do it!  (We didn't want to do it sooner because we had New Year's Eve plans, and didn't want to have to worry about that, priorities!) 

I will have to say Ben did a great job with the whole process.  The first day he had a bunch of accidents, which is to be expected.  But then the 2nd day, he had 1 accident - when he was outside playing!  3rd day - just 1 accident, same as 4th day again when he was outside playing - and then he was accident free! 

He even stayed dry during nap time & night time.  I think something just clicked with him and he knew he shouldn't go when sleeping, and only go in the potty. 

Great job Ben with the potty training!!!!

A look back on 2014

My 3rd year in review - check out 2013's, and 2012's.  It's always fun to look back on pictures from the past year! 

We rang in 2014 with our neighbors!

Lots of playing together, and helping each other out in February (really all year long!)

Ben turned 2 in March!  We enjoyed visits from Grandma, Papa, Aunt Ashley, Nanny & Papa!

Jim turned 4 in April!  Spent a week in Charleston, SC - fun in the sun with the family!  Celebrated Easter!

Enjoyed the wonderful spring weather in May - lots of time doing jobs & playing outside!  Having lots of fun with our weekly Friday night drinks in the driveway with our neighbors!

June we did a little 'summer camp' with the moms group I'm in - lots of fun with that!  Enjoyed a visit from Nanny & Papa, and lots of fun playdates with friends!

July we enjoyed a visit from Grandma & Papa and then Aunt Allison!  Lots of fun playdates with friends, as well as lots of fun at the pool!  Jim took some swim lessons, and he did great with that!

August we enjoyed a visit from Aunt Jenna & Blake!!!  And then Grandma flew down here so she could help us drive up to NY for a 2 week visit up there!!!!  (Speaking of that trip, I've been trying to get a recap of that on here - only been trying for how many months?!)

September started off with the rest of our visit in NY!  There were lost more playdates, fun playing outside, and Jim started playing soccer!!! 

October - lots of fall festivities & fun!  More soccer!  And having a little devil & firefighter for Halloween!

There was lots of raking & jumping in the leaves in November; and then a trip up to New York for Thanksgiving. Getting to play in the snow!!!

Christmas time is such a great time of year with a 2 & 4 year old!  We enjoyed a visit from Aunt Ashley in December!  Lots of Christmas activities, visits from Elfie, and then a week up in New York to celebrate Christmas!  There's like 500 pictures from December that I want to post here - but I'll keep it to just 3! 

New Year's Eve was dinner with the neighbors at Southside, and then we came back here for bit, and then went across the street to ring in 2015!  2014 was a great year - it's so much fun to see the boys growing, learning new things, playing with each other.  Exciting to see what 2015 brings!