And after the frozen yogurt...

we headed to our friend's first birthday party, where Eric decorated his own gingerbread cookie and Talia didn't let go of the toy stroller the whole night.

Our last official playgroup event...

took place in December at a local frozen yogurt place. Everyone met on a Saturday afternoon to enjoy self-serve frozen yogurt. The kids loved being able to dispense it themselves and put their own toppings on their flavor of choice. After the kids loaded up on sugar, they spent about a half-hour running up and down the pathways in front, laughing and yelling and just enjoying each other's company. We had a really great turn out and it was a bitter-sweet ending to such a great group with so many memories.

Elliot

For the first part of the year, we were having Eric's preschool friend come over on Thursday mornings while her mom worked in her brother's classroom. Eric really, really, really enjoyed having Elliot visit on a regular basis and we'd do all sorts of things while she was at our house. On this particular day, I had a couple cardboard boxes that I decided we could use for an art project. I thought we could turn them into buildings or something of the sort and make a little city with them. When I made the suggestion to E & E, they came up with an even better idea -- turn the boxes into mailboxes, since they already had slots cut in them. Both kids were on board (with Talia too, who typically comes along for the ride) to paint the boxes, cut out the letters of their name to glue on the boxes and write letters to "mail." All three kids enjoyed painting outside.

Christmas in the Park

The day after Thanksgiving, in the rain, we ventured downtown to see Christmas in the Park for our annual visit. Eric decided to wear rain boots -- without socks -- so our visit was pretty short and filled with much complaining that his feet were uncomfortable. We still enjoyed watching the sets and Eric was especially entranced by an inflatable snowman that would fill and deflate every minute or so.

Ed Levin Park with cousins

At the end of November, we met cousins at Ed Levin Park in Milpitas for play and a noon-time picnic. The kids had a ton of fun playing on the equipment, running up a giant hill, throwing stones in the lake and eating together.

Doggie pajamas

Just playing around one morning while wearing doggie pjs.

Talia love to dress up!

Here she has on Eric's train engineer hat and my shoes (along with hand-me-down pajamas).

Halloween is always a fun time of year

In our house, the costumes seem to make their first appearances a few weeks before the 31st and for those few weeks we catch as much on film as possible. We have pics from the first time they were put on, pics from the first time put on *with* face make-up, to the first time they were put on outside (always on a day when it's unseasonably warm), dressing up for preschool, the Little Gym party, and, of course, trick-or-treating.

This year, in mid-October, after the costumes had already been tried on a few times, we headed to Half Moon Bay (sans costumes) to check out the annual Pumpkin Festival. Since Jason was busy working, Eric, Talia and Andrea strolled through the crowds, watched a couple giant pumpkins being carved and treated ourselves to pumpkin ice cream. (We happened to run into Salena Mandel on the way in!) On the way home, we stopped at a pumpkin patch and chose some very special pumpkins.

We were lucky to have Grandma Caryn, Grandpa Glen and Aunt Lori visiting for Halloween weekend. We went to another pumpkin patch during the day and trick-or-treating on our street in the evening.

Eric roller skates for the first time!

Thanks to a gift card from cousins Matt & Jen & Brennie, Eric bought himself a pair of roller skates. At the beginning of October he tried skating for the first time.

Feric

Feric needs his own blog entry since I've yet to mention him since his arrival on the first day of last spring. He was gifted to us, along with his dearly departed brother Ceric, by a Persian family from Eric's preschool in celebration of Norouz. He's our first ever pet -- and a very loyal one is he.

It's my turn. No, I was here first!

In mid-October we visited the Palo Alto Jr. Museum again with our friends Jen, Benji & Becca. We had a great time checking out the inside exhibits, as well as the zoo animals outside. We all ate a picnic lunch at the park just outside too.

Hard at Work

This shot of Eric was captured by one of the awesome photographer moms at his preschool. Here he's busy at the carpentry table - with *two* hammers!

In mid-September...

we spent a day at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. We especially enjoyed the rides and tasty treats. This was Talia's first time on a ride all by herself!