East Nashville Tomato Festival 2011

This past Saturday was the annual East Nashville Tomato Festival. It's definitely the biggest thing that happens in our neighborhood each year and always something to look forward to. Lilli's first tomato festival was a pretty big bust - she and I were supposed to run the race together (and even had a sponsor for it), but we ended up with what was seriously the absolute worst stomach virus this household has ever seen. Last year was MUCH better and we all got to enjoy the festival, but it was absolutely wicked hot.

This year I totally forgot to get her a tomato outfit, but everything else worked out great. We walked down about 10 am as everything was really kicking off, and made it just in time for the doggie fashion show. This was our favorite - tiny dogs in little outfits are just hilarious.There was also a Boston Terrier in a tomato outfit - Pippin is SO lucky!
Then we just walked and walked around for a long time. We ran into SO many of Lilli's little friends from daycares past and present. Since so many of us work and live downtown, most of her classmates have also been neighbors which means we run into them out and about all the time (and have chatted with so many of them who walk past our house since we live in such a popular street!) Brent oh-so-wonderfully captured my "shocked" face when Belinda was telling me the little boy in red was Alex, an old classmate of Lilli's from her first daycare. All in all, we ran into 3 of her classmates from her first daycare, and 3 classmates from her current daycare, as well as other neighborhood friends of hers. She's a popular kiddo. (And we ran into several of our neighborhood, work, and art circle friends, too.)
We've learned (the hard way) that the local popsicle we LOVE must be bought early! By noon they were completely sold out! I had a choc chip and Lilli had strawberry.
And then she had two and I had none....
You might have to click on this one, but there was a Boston Terrier stretched out in the doggie drinking pool just having a soak. Totally reminded me of Spike growing up, but this is something Pippin would NEVER do.
This booth was for a new dog boarding/spa/daycare opening in our neighborhood we are super excited about. It's just a few blocks from our house and will be SO convenient for Pippin. Lil loved their mascot.

Crowds and crowds of people! All in all we were there about 5 hours, by the time we did all the booths and the Kids Festival area. Lilli ran into her BFF Katherine there - the two of them are hilarious and they both squealed when they saw each other. They're absolutely inseparable and are always together each afternoon when I pick her up. Before we walked back we got some Izzie's Ice for the hot walk home.
It was 3:30 when we got back, and Lilli was so tired. I gave her some milk and she absolutely passed out - but as soon as I laid her down in her bed the milk, Izzie's Ice, lunch and popsicle all came back up. Too.much.sugar. From there she was fine, but wasn't going back to sleep so we hit the pool to cool down.
It was nice and not too crowded, and a nice way to end our Tomato Saturday!