Happy 6th Birthday little monkey!

Miss Alexis turned 6 on March 27, which was a Tuesday.  We couldn't do much that evening since we get home so late and it was a school night.  We asked her where she wanted to have dinner, if she could choose anywhere; she chose Mario's, our family favorite Mexican place.  Of course, we treated her to ice cream after at the Spotted Cow.  It was a great evening as a family, but not much in the way of celebration and bedtime comes so fast on work nights!

With the weather being as nice as it has been, we decided a picnic would be great.  She could play on a big playground structure, we could eat and visit and celebrate her six solid years as a great kid.  There would be cake too!  Along came Sunday, and with it did NOT come warm, sunny weather.  In fact it was damp and quite cool...not very conducive to picnicking.  The only back up location we could think of that was kid friendly that would allow us to bring the picnic indoors (food and all) was OG.

Original Gravity is a great local brewery that is extremely family friendly and does not mind at all if you bring your own food in. They were phenomenal.  They serve a little food, mostly toasted sandwiches.  Check out their food menu here and libation selection here.  We put a couple tables together, spread out the food and had a great time visiting.

I made her cake in a "Spring Garden" theme which, coincidentally went well with her garden themed gifts from some loved ones.  Her Grandma S got her some and Miss Vicki from Zilke Vegetable Farm did as well.  She will be well prepared to help out in the garden this season at home as well as at the farmstand in the fields.

The cake was complete with "dirt" and worms crawling into, out of and around the cake that was topped with twizzler "carrots."  She doesn't seem to understand that the goal is to blow out all the candles at once, but that's okay.  She blew and blew, but did not succeed.  Maybe it was because she had her nose plugged part of the time?!  Silly girl....

The cake was a marble swirl, the first of this type I had ever made.  We could not say enough for the fun we had with friends and family.  We are very low key, down to earth folks and this was the perfect way to show Lexi the value of quality time, instead of gobs of goodies she won't have time to play with.  She got useful things and had a wonderful time feeling loved that day.

She has so enjoyed all the geocaching we have been doing, that she asked anyone who could join us, to please do so after the picnic so she could teach them how to do it too.

When you share an activity with people you love, you spread the joy and excitement that goes with it, and further deepen the bonds you have with those people.

More on that in the next post.  :-)