Our Year in Review 2018

Hey friends!!!! I am back to blogging this week! We had a fun holiday season and I took a little time away from the blog...but I am back and ready to share some fun stuff this year!! If you missed my New Year post, you can check it out here.
The past few years I have done a sort of year end favorites post. Kind of my chance to reflect on what the last year brought.  So today  I am linking up with some of my favorite bloggers, Erika, Narci & Andrea to share some favorites from every month of 2018!  Spoiler alert... it's a lot of pictures😊

January 2018 and we were so excited that our Buffalo Bills made it to the playoffs. It had been a long 17 years since we made it, so the whole town was pumped! 

We love the beach and  took a trip to see it during the Winter. What a neat way to see it!  A fun way to beat the Winter blues.

February brought the  SuperBowl and there was something for everyone. Luke was pumped to see the Eagles play, Ella was rooting for the Patriots and I was happy to watch JT perform the halftime show.

Ella was in her school play and was the cutest pirate I ever saw! She did an awesome job!

Every  February we venture off to Florida to visit Paul's parents. We are always ready to break away from the cold and see the sunshine. 

March was busy with Ella's Spring violin concert.

And Luke was voted Student of the month for physical education. It's his favorite part of school! I can't even with his pose! LOL

We celebrated our sweet Maddie's 3rd birthday with a big bone for her and cake for us. I am always up for any reason to eat cake!

We celebrated  St Patrick's Day with friends.

And we made a trip to the Broadway Market for lots of  Easter Polish traditions, like sausage, pierogi and pussywillows!

We kicked off April with a fun Easter.

And tow days later celebrated  Luke's 9th birthday. 

Ella did a great job at her dance competition. She just loves to dance and her smile shows it on stage.

We wrapped up April celebrating a special day for Luke. He made his  First Holy Communion and we enjoyed sharing it with our family and friends.

May was a busy month too, as we celebrated Paul's birthday.

And Luke stepped up his game at school....a new boy in class was dressing "fancy" and Luke could not be outdone. FYI- fancy in a 9 year old boy's world means a polo shirt.😉

Mother's Day was pretty low key, and that was fine by me.

By mid-May I think we were at the baseball diamonds more than we were home!! 

The highlight of May for Paul is getting the boat in the water and taking our first cruise. It was pretty chilly, but the sun was out!

June was a fun month, filled with good friends and saying goodbye to school and hello to Summer.

I chaperoned Ella's trip to a local amusement park and was pumped to do it with one of my besties!

And a few days later she and I were having fun again at the Taste of Country concert.

We had a few days filled with dance....recitals and rehearsals.

And Ella officially "moved up" from elementary school to the middle school!

We had the best time with  all the neighborhood kids on the last day of school.  A picnic, three legged races and a big water balloon fight!

Christmas is my favorite time of year, but a close second is July! The weather is perfect here and we are outside from sunrise to sunset! So lots of July pics coming your way. 

4th of July is my second favorite holiday!

There is nothing better than fresh picked berries in the Summer.... and I had some aggressive pickers, so we had lots of berries!

Both kids started golf lessons and I am not sure there is anything cuter than kids in golf attire!

We got out as a family a few times to practice!

The weather in July was perfect and we got out on the water every chance we could get!

The kids had a blast at Paul's company picnic. They even got to make their own cereal too!

We made our way to the beach.....

Had a great weekend with our friends.

Paul and I got out for a fun Murder Mystery tour on a double decker bus....

And a few weeks later found ourselves in character at a Murder Mystery dinner!

There were many nights we decided ice cream for dinner was the right choice!

But then balanced it out with some trips to the farmer's market.

We hit up the amusement park.

Luke won MVP at his basketball camp.

And we spent lots more time at the baseball diamonds!

We ended July celebrating my sister's birthday.....where her gift was a trip to Boston!

Whew... I told you  July was a fun month!!! We did all the things! Now onto August, which is a close second to July. We headed  north to Canada for a week at the beach with friends.

And then we were  off to Boston!

It was a great trip with my parents and sister!!

The Red Sox game was a highlight for sure!!! An  amazing experience.

I just had the best Summer with these two!

This picture sums up our Summer.

September came and it was  off to Middle School for Ella....

and Luke was off to 4th grade.

I celebrated my  two year blogging anniversary.

We did our first Slow Roll as a family... a fun 10 mile bike ride!

And continued with that ice cream for dinner plan....

We finished up September with Ella's 11th birthday.

We Oktoberfested our way into October with giant pretzels......

and some fun music and dancing.

We tore up the  dance floor at a family wedding.

It was at the most beautiful venue and the kids had the best time.

We made a quick trip to check off our Fall bucket list with a stop at the cider mill....

and a stop for pumpkins. I usually get a cute pic at a great pumpkin patch, but somehow the month got away from me and it didn't happen!

We wrapped up October with a  cold and wet Halloween night....

November brought two races for Ella. First up we ran a 5k for Girls on the Run. An amazing program I was so happy to help coach!

And then we all ran the Turkey Trot together on Thanksgiving. So proud of the kids- they did awesome!

We joined up again with our concert partners for another fun night. Although I much prefer Summer concerts!

Luke had his first chorus concert and was supported by these two beauties.

Ella was up at and em bright and early on Black Friday. She has a tradition of shopping with my aunt that day and they have the best time!

Then came December.... the most wonderful time of the year! 

Our elf rolled into town.....

And we celebrated our  7th annual gingerbread party.

We ventured to Niagara Falls to see the Christmas lights.

We baked a few cookies....

And celebrated a perfect Christmas with my family.

So while 2018 was a bit of a roller coaster year, as I unexpectedly lost my job....we did our best to celebrate the joy in everyday and have fun adventures together as a family. I am blessed to do life with this crew and I am excited for what 2019 will bring!

Thanks for letting  me share our year with you! See you soon friends, there is always room for one more at our family table. 

xoxo

Genevieve