when daddy was on the first leg (no pun intended) of what was supposed to be his 10-day business trip to florida and london, we had lots of fun visiting with him every day over skype and gmail video chat.

it took ellie a conversation or two to really understand that we were actually talking to daddy, but once she got it, she looked forward to it every day and even started asking to “see” him. regardless of the fact that one of our conversations ended in serious injury, it was a nice way to communicate with each other during our time apart <3

thank you, video chat. we forgive you.

i’m really behind in this blogging thing. i’m not the one on crutches, you’d think i’d have my act together. so, why don’t we talk about my third mother’s day? it was a lovely day filled with family and activities and also some much anticipated relaxation.

we started off the day with brunch at the farmer restaurant at the pleasanton hotel, a very cute place with a FABULOUS brunch buffet that none of us had ever been to, on main street in downtown pleasanton. we even had invitations made for all eight people in our party. so fun.

it was wonderful to celebrate with both my mom and ryan’s mom in the same place at the same time so the rest of the day we could all go off and do our own things without feeling guilty about who didn’t see whom because they were busy seeing whomever else and all that drama. i think we should do a brunch just like it every year (although maybe somewhere a little less expensive, heeeh).

after brunch we came home and when ellie woke up from her nap we made pink lemonade! you know, the frozen kind you add water to? haha. ellie enjoyed the stirring part :)

then i decided i wanted to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful day, so we drove down the road to lone tree cemetery and did a little rock and twig hunting and exploration. it was suuuuper windy, but ryan and i both took some cute pictures to document our fun.

and that was that! thank you to my loves, ryan and ellie, for making me feel so special that day <3 i love you so much!

neil gaiman, author of the new york times bestselling coraline, wrote this poem for his wife and for their daughter, when she was only a bump and a due date <3

...yet another book i was gifted that i cannot read aloud without crying. thank you, miss manda!

it was beginning to seem strange to me that my best mommy friends and their girls had never so much as seen where we live, let alone come over for a playdate, so last week we decided to make it happen :)

it was a really warm day, so we broke out the kiddie pool and hello kitty sprinkler and had fun playing in the water for most of the morning. the girls started out fully clothed at first, and then we broke out the swim diapers. jocelyn, of course, didn’t need one of those!

some of my favorite photos of the day are ones of jocelyn jumping over the water. check out that air!

it took awhile, but once ellie grasped the fact that even though the pool and the sprinkler belong to her, it is important to share your things when your friends come over, she allowed herself to be happy and even enjoy herself a little. imagine that! the girls wrapped up their playtime in the backyard by using cups and pool water to feed the plants.

simple pleasures :)

after everyone dried off we went inside for fruit, cheese and crackers, the perfect snack combination on a warm, spring day. i really like the pictures of the girls sitting around the table, too. they just look so sun-kissed and happy.

even kate!

thank you, tara, jocelyn, jenna, michelle, audrey and kate, for venturing out of the valley and over to our side of the hills. we had a wonderful time and would love to have you all over again soon. we’re looking forward to more summer-like weather and plenty of outdoor play!

we know this really great guy named kevin. he’s so great, in fact, that he was the first person we told we were pregnant with ellie (after our parents, i think … and maybe the ginns, but you get the point).

he’s been a close friend and co-worker of ryan’s since he moved to california from indiana a few years back, so we’d heard a lot about his parents but never got the chance meet them. then we became friends with his mom, deb, on facebook, and we commented and conversed with each other so often that we decided we had to meet! so, when we heard they were making a trip out here to see kevin and meet his lovely girlfriend amy, we made plans to have a sunday afternoon barbecue at our house.

ever since we became friends on facebook, deb has been a big fan of ellie. she comments on her photos, shares stories about her own kids when they were toddlers and even offers advice when we need it, though never unsolicited. she’s been a great long distance mother figure, cheerleader and friend, especially to me over, the past few months. needless to say, i was looking forward to meeting her … and to her meeting ellie!

she was a bit shy at first (ellie, not deb), but she warmed up quickly when deb whipped out the first of several presents she had brought along. after all, everyone knows the key to a toddler’s heart is a special something wrapped in pretty paper just for her!

and it wasn’t just a present or two, no way. when deb thinks you’re THAT cute, she lets you know by showering you in gifts :) ellie received all kinds of goodies, so many that i might even neglect to mention one or two of them!

she got a magnetic farm scene (above), which she loooved, and played with for a good 20 minutes straight. she got a set of little tennis rackets and balls (in honor of kevin’s tennis star sister steph). she got an adorable summer outfit including shorts, a t-shirt, matching visor and a pair of sunglasses.

is that all, you ask? not even close. she also got the MOST adorable pair of converse shoes (you can also see those in one of the pictures above), dora the explorer goggles for her upcoming adventures in swim lessons, AND a princess castle of her very own.

she loves it, as you can see. is she a lucky girl or what? thank you, deb, for giving our little girl so much to smile about <3 our living room looked like her 2nd birthday party all over again.

in addition to all the fabulous gifts for ellie, deb and gary brought presents for us "adult children," too :) ryan got a little foam airplane launcher and i got the toy formerly known as skip-it :) i wouldn’t dare try it in front of anybody, but amy and deb both gave it the old college try (and did a fabulous job, i might add).

we had such a great time with deb, gary, kevin & amy that i haven’t even mentioned the food! in typical ryan fashion, he grilled up some delicious barbecued chicken (and hot dogs for deb and ellie), kevin made his famous homemade pasta salad, and deb made these amazing cinnamon & sugar coated almonds. we also had chips and fresh salsa and they brought pretzel crisps and fresh fruit salad with the most delicious dressing ever. each dish complemented the others and it was a plethora of deliciousness. and it was a beautiful day, too!

thank you so much for spending an entire afternoon of your california vacation with us, deb and gary. it is now so easy to see how kevin turned out to be such an awesome guy, a great friend to our family and a wonderful “uncle” to ellie. xo!

finally, easter sunday had arrived! ellie received her basket from grandma the day before, but she was eagerly anticipating the one from the easter bunny himself. so we left a plate of carrots out the night before and hoped he would find the special treat before hiding our eggs :)

as you can see, he DID eat the carrots and even left a few crumbs behind, but all ellie really cared about was her loot. her basket included a stuffed bunny, a flower headband, dora the explorer lip balm, two bouncy ball eggs, squinkies, an abby cadabby cup, jelly bellies, dumb-dumbs, a (plastic) pink pearl necklace, a slinky, a shirt from old navy and a book i loved when i was little called the country bunny and the little gold shoes. needless to say, she was thrilled.

after the excitement of the goodies wore off, we ran out to the backyard where ellie was sure the easter bunny had hid her her decorated eggs. it was pretty gloomy outside, but we made it out early enough to beat the rain that started shortly after.

as soon as we stepped out the door, ellie was off and running. she found the entire carton of eggs in a matter of minutes, even thought the easter bunny did his best to hide them well!

the egg hunt was so much fun, she was so disappointed when it was over. i guess we’ll just have to do more next year.

later in the afternoon we went to dinner with ryan’s side of the family. i had a small salad, ryan had an appetizer and ellie munched on some bread so we would still have an appetite for dinner at my mom’s, which wasn’t only for easter, but also for my brother’s birthday.

we brought balloons for danny and nan & pop set up a little easter egg hunt of their own for ellie. she was thrilled!

we had a delicious spaghetti dinner, watched danny open presents and blow out his candles, and ellie spent a little quality time reading with pop <3

then it was late and time to head home with all the new easter friends ellie had made over the past few days. can you tell which one is her?! ;) hope everyone had as magical an easter weekend as we did. all our love to you and yours!

i guess the easter eggstravaganza has been going on for years in the city of dublin … i just never knew about it because i didn’t have a kid, or a nice friend named tara who knows all about these kinds of events in the tri-valley :) luckily she told me about it months ago because it’s one of the city’s most popular events and it sold out in a matter of weeks.

there was a big easter egg hunt for the kiddos (for the plastic kind with little goodies inside) and all kinds of other activities from face painting and coloring to bounce houses and a balloon clown lady. there was even a little petting zoo. ellie had a great time collecting eggs and looking inside them to find candy, stickers and other little surprises.

we missed tara but ran into our friends eric and alicia, which was nice because we hadn’t seen little miss brylie in months and she’s almost 1! however short, it was nice to spend some time with them.

after ellie got her flower balloon (which i later popped when we went to sit down on the grass – oops) and a little coloring, we sat down to have a snack and relax a bit. we enjoyed the break, as you can see :)

i think we’ll have to go next year, too <3 thanks for the 411, tara!