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 :)

everyone had a car like this as a child, right?

it’s a toddler rite of passage.

30-year anniversary edition…

long live the little tikes cozy coupe!

last weekend we had a lovely picnic in the park with grandma and grandpa lack, rodica’s niece abby and her nephew david, and ellie’s aunties erica and carerra. we felt very lucky because all of them drove at least an hour to meet in our neighborhood <3 it was also a good time to celebrate because it was the weekend before carerra turned 22. happy birthday, carerra!

speaking of carerra, she's starting to look a lot more pregnant now, and super prego carerra is soooo cute! :)

trust me when i tell you the lack family knows how to have a picnic. we had fried chicken, potato wedges, buffalo wings, onion rings, fresh macaroni salad and strawberry shortcake for dessert. i’m salivating now just thinking about it.

after lunch we went over to the swings and the water fountains. the older kids had lots of fun running around in the water, and ellie enjoyed it, too, but she kept her distance ;)

it was a great day. hooray for lack family picnics!

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!

yesterday was one of those perfect weather kind of days where it’s warm in the sun and just right in the shade. ryan snapped this photo of ellie and me in the backyard as we enjoyed the last hour of daylight.

of all the pictures he’s taken of us, i think it’s my favorite.

welcome, august <3