the lack family loves a good festival. we go to the pumpkin festival in half moon bay every year, we entertained the idea of going to the gilroy garlic festival this year (but we decided it was too far to drive), we’re thinking of going to the harvest festival in november, and on saturday we went to one we had never been to before, the hayward zucchini festival.

much like the pumpkin festival is for us, the zucchini festival is a tradition for our friends eric and alicia. we had never heard of it, but they invited us to tag along, so we decided to check it out. the first thing ellie saw was a pony, so she was excited from the moment we entered the gates.

from there we made our way over to the food. ellie munched on crackers, ryan had a hot link and i had fried zucchini because – duh – it was the zucchini festival! and mmm, it was delicious.

then we browsed the different vendors’ tents, bought honey sticks, tried on ridiculous hats, and ryan took my picture next to a pile of giant zucchini :)

we tried to take a few pictures of ellie and brylie (future BFFs) together, but brylie wasn’t in the mood to pose. so ellie danced to the live music, we had a few more drinks and then we headed home <3

my only complaint is that there weren’t too many zucchini things are the zucchini festival. if i hadn’t gotten fried zucchini or found the big zucchini to take a picture with, we wouldn’t have seen a single zucchini! we still had lots of fun with the blum family, though. perhaps we’ll join them again next year :)

“when you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses…”

ellie’s very first cousin EVER, little miss lillian grace, is due to arrive in just 77 days …

… although you can hardly tell by looking at her auntie ‘rerra, who looks as good as ever!

on sunday we had the great pleasure of joining our friends jeff and carolyn at their daughter cerise’s first birthday party. it was hello kitty-themed and the birthday girl was dressed in her sunday best – a purple tutu and a hello kitty shirt, of course!

ellie had a great time running around playing with balloons and all of cerise’s cool toys. she was in such a good mood we even got her to wear a party hat for awhile :) oh, but the coolest part? hello-kitty tattoos for the kids!

cerise’s birthday cake was the pinkest cake i’d ever seen. and ooooh my goodness, was it delicious. i wasn’t going to have any because we were headed to grandpa alex’s birthday dinner after the party, but once i had a bite of ryan’s piece, it was all over. mmm, hello kitty cake!

thank you to the rubensteins for including us in such a special celebration. we had a great time!

“there’s something like a line of gold thread running through a man’s words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.” -j.g. brown

bill & bryn, c. 1981

ryan & ellie, c. 2010

happy father’s day to all the incredible dads out there, especially my two favorites <3

you may remember our post about ellie’s favorite stuffed animal, baby bear. he is her love, the one she sleeps with every night, the one she uses to self-soothe by chewing on his tail (formerly his nose and ears, too, but she mostly leaves those alone now).

you may also remember how frustrated we were when we looked into buying baby bear’s twin (just in case) only to find he was recently retired, which meant we couldn’t find him anywhere for less than $50.

i was ready to throw in the towel. “maybe we’ll just get her the blue one,” i thought. “maybe the difference in color won’t phase her.” but did ryan give up on baby bear’s pink identical twin? no, he did not! just this week he managed to find a brand new baby bear, from a “non-smoking home” with original tags and all, from a woman in seattle looking to sell him on ebay … for $24! hallelujah!

sure, $24 may seem like a lot of money to spend on a little pink bear, but to ellie (and to us) he’s priceless <3

here they are together, OGBB and his twin for safe keeping:

welcome to your new home, BB2!

“yosemite valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space…”

our yosemite weekend has come and gone, and we have some beautiful photographs to show for it. the trip had several high and low points, but the highs absolutely overshadowed the lows.

letting ellie jump for joy on the bed when we first got to the cabin, seeing her face light up as she pointed to the water at the base of bridalveil fall, watching her run and do hip-hip-hoorays on the o’shaughnessy dam … there’s nothing quite so amazing as seeing the world through the eyes of a child, and i never *truly* understood that until now.

“as a child, one has that magical capacity to move among the many eras of the earth; to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; to know a hundred different smells of mud and listen unself-consciously to the soughing of the trees.”

to see a world in a grain of sand
and a heaven in a wild flower
hold infinity in the palm of your hand
an eternity in an hour

study nature, love nature, stay close to nature.
it will never fail you.

definitely looking forward to taking her back again someday <3

a little after four o’clock yesterday afternoon, our good friends eric and alicia welcomed their first baby, a precious little girl they named brylie mckenna blum. she weighed eight pounds, five ounces and measured 21 inches long at birth.

it’s been a long road for mommy alicia, as brylie was estimated to arrive on may 5th, 16 days before her actual birthday. they scheduled an induction for thursday morning and labor lasted more than 30 hours. but in the end, daddy eric received the greatest gift ever when his little girl arrived on his 29th birthday <3

we had a chance to visit them in the hospital tonight and were thrilled to meet little miss brylie at just one day old. she was so teeny-tiny! i almost forgot how little ellie used to be <3

we spent a little more than an hour with the happy family of three before wishing them a good second night together and heading home. in the car we reminisced about our own baby girl at that age, and we both agreed that we’re sooooo glad she’s bigger now :) sleepless nights and all that stress … oh, the fun they’re going to have! but what a ride it’ll be, and we couldn’t be happier for them.

congratulations, eric & alicia! brylie is absolutely beautiful.