Jim and Ben: January 2016

I've done this the past couple of years - 2014 (there are links there 2013 &2012). It is fun to see a summary of the entire year in one post. And seeing how I am not the best on updating this it's a good overall picture to our year.

January - Another New Year that we rang in with the neighbors - we went to Southside for dinner, and then came back hung out here and across the street.

We officially went diaper free in our house!

February - We took a trip to Pittsburgh to meet Brody & go to his baptism!

Spent lots of time outside - whether it's playing in the backyard, going over to the high school

March - Ben turned THREE!!!! Grandma & Papa were here to celebrate with us & Ben's Paw Patrol Chase themed birthday! Went into the city to the Air & Space Museum and lunch at the food trucks with them.

April - Celebrated Easter - with an Easter egg hunt in Old Town with friends...

A visit from Aunt Ali (who drove with us up to NY!!!)

An Easter Egg Hunt & Brunch with neighbors!

Then we made our way up to Buffalo - where we celebrated Jim's 5th Birthday!!!!

Ashley & Kevin got married!!!!

May - Took a weekend getaway to Lake Anna with neighbors! In the beginning of the month.

And a trip to Ocean City with the parents at the end of the month.

We made a trip up to Albany for Papa's funeral, and getting a chance to visit with family.

Spring soccer season came to an end

...Just in time for the pool to open

Of course we enjoyed lots of playdates with friends, strawberry picking...

June - The big event from June was Jim's fractured collarbone!

With my mom's group we did our own version of a summer camp - which was a lot of fun! Got to go on a tour of the Firehouse, did a gardening themed day, and an under the sea day. Our pool time was a limited with Jim's arm as it was hard for him to do any swimming, but we made up for it with lots of park fun & fun with friends!

July - We celebrated the 4th hanging out at home, Jim & walked over to Mount Vernon for the fireworks!

Enjoyed lots of time outside, whether it was out back doing jobs, hanging out with friends, or spending time at the pool!

And Jim attended his bridge to kindergarten at school. It was a good preview of what's to come in September!

Ben had his little procedure done and was a champ through it all!

August - Was our trip up to New York, a great 2 weeks up there! Niagara Falls, playing with cousins, a trip to the zoo, bounce house, a night at Kevin & Ashley's land, a trip to the fair, riding rides, tractor pull, fishing at the lake, just to name a few of the fun adventures!

September - Was a big month for us with Jim starting kindergarten!!!!

And of course we kept busy doing stuff outside, soccer, playdates. Ben & I adjusted to just the 2 of us during the day! And we took our first camping trip - lots of fun, can't wait to do it again!

October - We made it to the pumpkin patch on one of Jim's days off of school...Ben started a little in-home preschool with a couple of other 3 year olds which is great! He has fun going to playdates and playing with his friends. And a Spiderman & Ninja Turtle had a lot of fun with Halloween, going trick or treating with the neighbors!

C is for cat from his 'school'!

Making ghosts with his friends!

Jim's first field trip to a pumpkin patch! Too bad he had a rough bus ride there and got bus-sick, but once he recovered from that it was a fun day!

November - We're settled into our school routines now - with Jim in kindergarten & Ben's weekly get together with friends. November was also filled with soccer games, leaf fun, celebrating friends birthday, and get togethers with friends. Mark & I took the boys to the National zoo for the first time. They've been to the Buffalo zoo, we just never ventured into D.C. to that zoo. Boys had a lot of fun checking out all the animals.

We made our way up to NY for Thanksgiving. Ended up taking Jim out of school on Wednesday & drove to Mark's parents then. Spend Thanksgiving there, and then on Friday drove to Buffalo. A short trip as we were back to VA on Sunday. We made our yearly trip to see Santa!!!

December - December was all about Christmas time. It's such a fun month with 2 little boys who are so excited about everything! There was decorating, Christmas cookie swaps, gingerbread house making, wrapping presents, so much fun!

We made our way into Old Town for the Scottish Walk parade, and then later that night for the boat parade -