Salome with her Grandpa (my father)

My farmer friend Phil hangin' out at Willow

Busy, busy weekend! Saturday was Farmer's Market and then the kids and I headed out for the Willow Creek Folk Festival that is held in a picturesque little churchyard in the country about 25 minutes away from here. Willow attracts a ton of amazing talent from all over and is a big thing for all the crunchy/ hippy/ liberal folk around these parts, but believe it or not, we've never been. We made a special effort this year, as my husband's brother's band had secured a timeslot to play. My husband was feeling really low with a rib injury, however, and decided to stay home and rest.

We had a WONDERFUL time. I had a few welcome but unexpected encounters, including with my parents! My parents had decided to take a little mini-vacation and stayed in a hotel in Stockton with my four youngest siblings. The sibs decided to sit out the festival in favor of swimming in the hotel pool. But my parents had a great time. It was nice to visit with them a bit. The kids ran me a bit ragged, especially at the end, when two of them disappeared into the darkness and it took a little while to find them. We enjoyed hearing my brother-in-law's band... They played a really fun cover of Folsom Prison, by Johnny Cash, an original murder ballad that my dad deemed "inappropriate for a churchyard," and a White Stripes song.

Today, we had Salome's birthday party in a local park. Nobody blinked when we served a watermelon cake. Aside from a lot of sweating and my nephew Sam's dramatic spill off of a swing, a rolicking good time was had by all.

Food from today and yesterday (* denotes local)

LOCAL WATERMELONS ARE HERE! I am so excited.

I ate a lot of watermelon* and some cukes*, tomatoes*, lettuce, peaches and a few grapes.