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!

i joined the amador mother’s club just in time to attend the annual mother’s day brunch last sunday at the callippe preserve golf course. what a beautiful place, btw … just another gem hidden amongst the rolling green foothills of pleasanton…

i was also lucky enough to bring bekki along, a dear friend of mine i don’t get to see very often because she’s a working mommy and our weekends are always filled to the brim with pre-existing plans, so it was wonderful to have the chance to catch up in such a relaxing atmosphere.

everything was set up so cute. from the knit cupcake centerpieces to the little name tags at each place setting, i loved it all. we even got little cupcake favors filled with candy and a coupon for a free organic frozen yogurt from blush! mmm :)

oh, and the food was fantastic! they had several tables of platters with everything from cheese and crackers to chocolate chip pancakes and crepes, scrambled eggs and eggs benedict, muffins, bagels, sausage and bacon. they even had shrimp and salmon (which i didn’t touch, but fancy nonetheless!) it was a brunch lover’s dream come true :)

one of the many highlights of the brunch came at the end when they raffled off the centerpiece baskets filled with those adorable little knit cupcakes (all made by one of the moms). i wanted to win them SO BADLY! alas, i didn’t … but bekki did! and she was kind enough to give me one :) she was excited because she “never wins anything.” awww, i’m so happy she came and went home with a prize.

and of course it was nice to see my mommy bff tara without all the hustle and bustle of little girls screaming and running in circles around us <3 thanks to her i'm forming a really cool circle of moms i trust and admire and adore spending time with, so i owe her a lot. thanks, tara, for being all assertive that one day at gymboree last fall and asking if we wanted to meet at a park sometime. it’s lead to so many fabulous adventures for all of us and i love you for it. xoxo!

thanks, amc, for a lovely sunday morning and the perfect jump-start to mother’s day!

we had a great time last saturday night celebrating jeff & andrea’s engagement (an event many thought would never happen) :) but it did, so hooray! also, i ate indian food. it was a little spicy, but i handled it like a champ. i would even consider it delicious! ryan was so proud.

it was good to see everyone from jeff and andrea to brian and taj and nolan and beth and dan and carlene, etc. basically, the crew ryan spends every sunday with during football season and the people he goes to beerfest with every year … except not this year because he’ll be on a business trip in london *tear* :(

we’re so happy for the future mr. & mrs. badarello and can’t wait for their wedding in september 2012!

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!