City Hall Art

Benji's art was chosen to be displayed at city hall this month.  He was SO proud of himself, he insisted we go and see it the first day.  His is the picture right over his head:

So Grown Up

Abby, organizing her agenda book:

MLK Day Assembly 2016

Really cute this year. Benji with his class, singing happy birthday to Dr. King. Also, his class's dove mural and Benji's part of it close-up:

Happy Birthday Gammy!

Birthday dinner last Monday, followed by Carvel cake:

Girl Scouts at the Fire Station

Last weekend, we took our girl scouts to the Stony Point Fire Station to work on their first aid badge.  One of the volunteer fire fighters had agreed to teach them basic CPR and first aid, the main requirements for the badge.  As part of the afternoon, he also toured the girls around the station, gave them detailed descriptions of all the fire fighter jobs, and let them try out some of their equipment. This was a much bigger draw for the girls then we might have guessed:

Abby at the CPR dummy

Partner Celia keeping track of time

For some reason, they found this hilarious

Learning how to save a choking baby

Trying on the 75 pound first aid backpack.  The girls all agreed it was about the same size as their school backpacks

And the 70 lbs of turn-out gear

Still very giggly

Laundry Time

She finally learned to do her own:

Bat Mitzvah Retreat

Hard to believe that Abby's class is next up for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs! We had our family retreat, which marks the official start of the bat mitzvah preparation process:

Family banner activity

Learning how to put on talit

Benji and Henry Laufer -- Benji had an awesome time int he siblings room -- he said it was the best thing he has done this year!

Christmas Presents

We've had a quiet week at home and the kids have had lots of time to play with their new toys. A few pics:

Benji, building his catapult from Aunt Barbara

A little help with the last few steps

He asked me to take a before and after of him shooting it

Otrio Family board game 00 souped up tic-tac-toe that we all enjoyed

Magnetic levitation set

Matilda!

On New Year's Day, the moms took Abby and Julia to see Matilda at the Kennedy Center as their gift from us. We got dressed up fancy and had dinner at Founding Farmers in Foggy Bottom first:

Girl talk at Founding Farmers

At the Kennedy Center

  

The staging was super cool

New Year's Eve 2015

We headed straight from Massanutten to Herndon, where we shared our traditional New Year's Eve with the Lamy-Petersons:

Ready to party

Freeze Dance

Spoons

Tape ball

Win, Lose or Draw

 

the Payne-Paquettes were declared the winners

Benji really liked the picture frame and kept asking me to take pictures

Steph bought photo booth prompts for our end-of-night pics

Happy 2016!