Happy Family Birthday

Our 4th Family Birthday (aka, our anniversary) came up just over a month ago. We attempt to make a tradition to go on a little family trip/outing as a family to celebrate the Family Birthday side of things, then to go out for a nice dinner as a couple to celebrate the Anniversary side of it. Of course, it rarely works out quite the way we hope or plan for (eg., last year, despite planning well in advance, moving week wiped out a good majority of our plans). Perhaps it means that we need to do better at making our anniversary a priority and not letting other things crowd in and take over. We'll be experts come our 25th Wedding Anniversary for sure.

This year was no exception to the rule. Plans were made. The day before came. Plans (and babysitters) fell through and we were left trying to reschedule or come up with something new. In the end we did a combination of both (new plans and rescheduling).

First up, Jason was able to take the day off from work so that we could go on a family bike trip. We headed across the city and out to a pick-your-own-blueberries-farm and a corn maze. 

I asked Atticus what that face was, he replied "My monkey smile." ...nice.

That's better!

The ride there was beautiful. We had gorgeous weather, happy kids and plenty of sunscreen.

Perhaps it's a sign that it's been far too long since we were back in Calgary, but there were certain parts of the ride that felt very Calgary-esque. Like this nature reserve that we biked through. With big, blue skies, hay fields and plenty of cattle it certainly felt a little bit like our Canadian home. It was beautiful. (Still missing the mountains in the distance)

When we arrived we headed straight for the corn maze.

There were a number of markers that needed to be found throughout the maze and answer trivia questions. We managed to find all but one. The kids had a really good eye for finding the markers - we were impressed.

After the maze it was time for a quick lunch before heading out to the blueberry fields.

We were so pleasantly surprised how much both kids enjoyed picking blueberries. While there were a few distractions, like the occasional gust of wind...

or those special yellow flowers that Atticus enjoys picking so much...

for the most part it was just a whole lot of blueberry picking. The fruits of our labours were a few blueberry stained fingers and shirts and a nice big box of delicious blueberries!

We had to get a little creative about how to make sure that the blueberries didn't spill over on the bike ride home (we probably should have brought containers for that...) but they made it in tact and relatively unspilt in time to have some individual watermelon cakes!

Some of you may recall the first time that we made watermelon cake for Milayla's Birthday, well it's become a much-loved (and often requested) tradition around here. We decided to give it a little bit of a twist this go around. Instead of making a whole cake, everyone got to choose a cookie cutter shape to make their own little cake.

Then we piled on the "icing" (yogurt) and "sprinkles" (blueberries).

It was so good! We gobbled up a couple each.

We did have a nice dinner at home as a couple, but the nice dinner out had to wait for the weekend. We went to a wonderful local restaurant that focuses on in-season, local, whole foods. Their menu is constantly changing based on what is available locally and it is always creative. 

Well, it wasn't what we had planned, but we sure enjoyed celebrating. How blessed we are to have this little family of ours along with the knowledge that we can be together forever.