October 2008 - Eva turns 2!

Wow! October was absolutely CRAZY!!! We celebrated Grandma Joni's birthday, Eva's 2nd birthday, friends birthday parties, Pumpkin Patch visits and had Halloween parties and fun. Whew! I am actually glad it's November!

We had some great weather this month, including Eva's big birthday bash. We spent time at the beach and parks around town with friends. Eva is still a little hesitant at the beach, but she does warm up quickly. Cole just dives in to chase birds, splash in the water, etc...always a great time!

The weekend of the 18th-19th, it was Grandma Joni's birthday and the Pumpkin Patch visit for the kids preschool. We always have a great time at the pumpkin patch...and get great photos of the kids climbing on pumpkins, etc. What fun! We had dinner at Nana Lil's house for the birthday celebration, and the kids loved playing with Grandma & Grandpa...and of course Nana Lil's piano! Cole was very "helpful" blowing out Grandma's birthday candles.

Since Eva turned 2 at the end of the month, so did all her friends! We've had some really great parties at various parks around the area - the kids are definitely aware of what cake is now! We actually had a birthday bash for Eva this year too...almost 20 kids!!!! It was a lot of fun, and she really enjoyed being able to play with all her friends at the park. Cole had some of his friends there too, so everyone had a great time. (Cole "helped" Eva blow out her candles too...so we re-lit and let her blow them out too!)

Halloween was busy this year. Christy came down to celebrate with us and the kids really enjoyed crawling into bed with her every morning and getting all the special attention that she always showers them with. Their costumes were home made this year - so I was quite busy each evening! Cole wanted to be a T-Rex, and since I couldn't find any "anatomically correct" dinosaur costumes ("T-Rex has 2 claws, not 3!"), I had to make it. He was so cute running around scaring all the little princesses at one of the parties we went to! Eva was a little lady bug...also very cute! (Her teacher even painted cute little ladybugs on her cheeks!) She would show off her cute tutu that had polka dots all over it with a big smile. Their preschool had a Halloween Parade so all the kids got to march around the courtyard in their costumes...Grandma Joni and Christy got lots of great photos of all the kids. They did great "trick or treating" at the shopping mall, and made the easy choice to hand over all the candy for treats (toys) from Mommy's Treat Drawer at home. The candy has all be donated to other causes...anything but Mom & Dad's waistlines!

In all it was a lot of fun this month! In early November, we had the kids help us fill out our ballots and talked a lot about how important it is to vote, etc... They were even able to stay up to find out who the new president was! (Thank goodness!)

We wish everyone a wonderful fall and beginning of the holiday seasons!

The Montgomerys

September - early October 2008

Well, there isn't much to post from September. The month just flew by and was rather uneventful at home. Work was really hectic, lots of working late, etc...but not too many home events. We enjoyed some warm weather, had some trips to the Aquarium and local parks with friends, but not much else to report. One day, I picked up Cole and his friend, Lucas and we had a special day with just the boys and Mommies at the Aquarium and dinner at our house. We harvested some of the pumpkins from our garden - eight so far! (We "planted" one of our whole pumpkins after Halloween last year, and it grew...) I also had my 20th HS reunion at the end of September. Eric and I had a really good time, and I got to see quite a few people that I haven't seen since at least the 10-year reunion!

Here are some photos of various things from September and early October. October has been really hectic as well, but I am sure we will have lots of fun photos from Eva's 2nd birthday party and Halloween to post soon.

Happy Fall!

Erin, Eric, Cole and Eva

Hawaii 2008 - The Photos!

http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll3/EKMontgomery/Hawaii%202008/?albumview=slideshow

Here is the link to our Photobucket album. Just click on the photo of Eva and it will take you to the slideshow of all the photos.

Enjoy!

Erin

Hawaii 2008

Coming soon....photos from Hawaii!

(For those who are impatient...I'll have a link to the photo album on Photobucket soon!)

Erin, Cole & Eva (Eric couldn't go...)

July 2008

July has been busy with both work and fun activities! July 4th weekend was crazy but really fun, especially for the kids. We spent the weekend with our friends the Lewellings and Coes enjoying all the activities in town. We had a parade early in Downtown Monterey, an old fashioned BBQ at Caledonia park - including bounce houses - and fireworks that evening after naps and dinner at our house. (and a birthday party the next afternoon!) By Monday morning, the kids were completely exhausted!

The rest of July was spent in a blur of birthday parties, baby showers, play dates and getting prepared for our trip to Hawaii. Cole and Eva are going with Mom and their friend Amari (and his mom!) to Oahu on the 30th for a week. (Daddy has to stay home and work - but still gets a break too!) We had our friends (Eva's age) Vicky & Sophia's 2nd birthday parties to go to in early July...very fun! Eva got to hit her first pinata! (What? You WANT me to hit it? A confusing concept for a toddler...) Vicky's party was at Lovers Point and Sophia's party was at a Community Center/Park in Seaside...both with lots of daycare friends there! They had such a great time, and Eva is really beginning to like cake!

Eric and I took advantage of our first "Parents Night Out" with our daycare. They have a program that allows the parents to leave the kids at daycare until 10 pm on one Friday night each month and go on a date! The kids get a pizza party and videos with their friends while the parents are out. Eric and I went to see a movie (well, to preview for Cole) and out to sushi for the first time in I can't remember how long! We got done early enough to come home and clean the house for the weekend before heading out to get the kids. Cole did great, but Eva was a little lonely in the under 2 room. They brought her over to the big kids room with her brother, and she was fine after that. She just missed her "Bole."

The next weekend, after we had previewed the movie last Friday, we took Cole to see his first movie at a movie theater! We saw Wall-E (pixar - his favorite) with Cole's friends Lucas, Jonah and Sean. It was great - one of the main characters is "Eeeeva" and he really got a kick out of that! In all, he and his friends had a great time.

Both kids are doing very well in school...Cole has moved up to the preschool class now that he is totally potty-trained (Yes!..one down, one to go!). He loves the "big boy" class and is really learning quite a bit. Eva is starting to get quite a vocabulary...and is talking every chance she gets. (We can actually understand her!) They have both have been great fun to play with and we are having such a great time with them. Now that they can both run, jump, climb, etc at the parks together, they are really best friends...I hope it stays this way!

Here are some photos of our adventures this month! I'm sure I'll have some fun Hawaii photos to post next month. Have a great rest of the summer!

Erin, Eric, Cole & Eva