Very last minute, about a week out from my actual birthday, I found an option that wasn't easy to plan (poor communication on the part of the vendor) but was ultimately a nice, novel idea - a "luxury picnic" at a vineyard about an hour west of us. The grandparents split duties - my in-laws picked up Aura from preschool and watched her for the afternoon and my parents came to our house and watched Iris, who was napping for half the time.
The picnic setup was lovely but it was definitely one of those looks-nice-but-isn't-exactly-functional things. I tried to set up the pillows to sit on but immediately slid off and looked like a complete idiot, landing on my front on all fours. It provided a good laugh but obviously, the seating was not optimal. The vineyard has Adirondack chairs scattered all over the hillside so I'm not sure why no one thought to put that together and combine it with the picnic setup but we did! Evan pulled over two chairs and we sat comfortably while we snacked on a very bare bones charcuterie box that we ordered from the vineyard. They indicated that the charcuterie box was enough for 3-4 people but it was barely enough for Evan and me. We arrived starving and so with barely any food in our tummies and a full bottle of sparkling wine (which we also ordered) we got buzzed very quickly. Fortunately, the buzz helped me to overlook some of these little snafus but the thing that really bugged me and I will never let go is that the picnic planner couldn't be bothered to personalize the chalkboard that said "Happy Birthday". When I perused the picture gallery on their website they always personalize with "Happy Birthday Sue" or "Happy Engagement Jack and Diane". They couldn't take an extra two minutes to make me feel special on my milestone birthday and say "Happy Birthday Denise"???
Anyway, the environment was lovely. Even though the leaves were past peak there were still some colors left, it was an unseasonably warm day with a breeze, and we had the hilltop to ourselves. After an hour (we had 90 minutes to use the picnic setup) we moved over to the vineyard seating. We sat in a swing bench and enjoyed our buzz. If we did this again, and we might, we'd not even bother with the picnic part and just go to the vineyard and sit in the Adirondack chairs overlooking the valley. The sparkling wine was so good that we bought two bottles and brought them home. We'll open one on New Year's Eve.
When we got back home we reunited with the kids, brought dinner home from a local restaurant and ate on our deck, and then had cake that we preordered from Wegmans. It was a low-key but ultimately satisfying and lovely birthday. I loved sharing part of the day with Evan (it's so rare that we get time alone together) and part of the day with my girls. I also had a nice little picnic and outing with Aura the day after at a local park. And today we're going to a baby shower for friends of ours that have been trying to have a baby for over a decade. It's been a good weekend!
I'm still hoping that we can do something big for our 20th anniversary/45th birthdays to make up for some of these challenges. Evan and I need to put our heads together and figure out where we want to go. The girls will be 9 and 6 in five years, more independent and both potty-trained, so our chances of going somewhere cool are much greater. We should start saving now.
