Alli got older while we flew back from Boston, so we decided to celebrate on Saturday by taking a trip to Arrington Vineyards.

It's about 35 minutes Southeast of us, but it attracts quite a crowd on a lovely Spring day like we had Saturday. Alli had been just once before, but this was my first time, and I was quite impressed. I knew they were good with people coming and bringing picnic supplies- everything short of alcohol- but I didn't know how much effort they would go to in order to be accommodating. They have people directing you to parking spots and providing golf cart rides to and from the hillside. There are a number of picnic tables set up and free to use. They have wine tastings all the time (though, a bit of a wait on a busy day to do this) and sell their wines by the bottle. Finally they have nice restrooms, and there is live music most evenings.

In honor of Alli's big day, I got us a few yummy cheeses, a couple baguettes, some pears, and some fancy cupcakes. And one candle.

Several of our friends and kidlets met us there and brought more food.  Between us, we bought a few bottles of wine and shared them freely. The kids mostly entertained themselves playing in the grass and dirt, sometimes stopping in at a stranger's picnic blanket to blow some bubbles or beg for snacks. Hamish actually stayed pretty close to the adults, not so much because she was interested in us, but because she did not stop eating the entire 4.5 hrs we were there. Even here you can see she is eating while the others are playing:

It was all Alli's idea, and a good one at that. I'm hopeful we'll do it again soon.