This weekend was both my sister’s and sister-in-law’s birthdays. My sister lives in Boston so we weren’t able to celebrate with her but we were able to join my sister-in-law (SIL) and my brother-in-law (BIL) for some of her birthday celebration weekend. We met them at the Warwick Valley Winery for lunch, wine, and apple picking. 
It was a beautiful day and the winery was packed. The options for lunch were pizza from a wood burning oven, hot dogs, hamburgers, pulled pork, sausage sandwiches, and a sit-down cafe. I had heard really great things about the pizza. I don’t think the winery was use to having such a large crowd because you had to wait an hour for the oven to heat up again to place a pizza order and then it would be another hour to pick it up.
We decided to get hamburgers and hot dogs but had to wait in a line for over forty-five minutes, and all of the orders were mixed up so it took another thirty minutes to get our food. Thankfully, the line for wine and beer was a little bit shorter so at least you could drink while waiting. My Grouchy Husband and I are on a 21 day sugar detox so we ate beef stew in the car and salivated watching everyone eat their food and drink their wine. We’re only in our first week of the detox and will post a summary at the end.
While the girls waited for lunch, they played with rocks.
When everyone finally got their food, we found a stone wall to sit and eat. The lawn at the winery was filled with people who had brought blankets and chairs to picnic, eat food, and drink wine. There was also live music. It was a perfect day to be outside.
After everyone ate, we jumped on a tractor-pulled wagon to the apple orchard.
Honey crisp apples are one of my favorite apples and they were available to pick that day. Yay!
I love moments like this. My girls love my SIL. My Baby is still saying, “Mama, Oo-Oo Birday” (Oo-Oo is their kiddie way of saying Father’s younger sister).
I love moments like this also. My Grouchy Husband is a tough guy but he has two huge soft spots in his heart for our girls.
This was my Baby’s first experience at an orchard being able to walk. She was so excited to pick an apple from the tree and eat it.
A surprise to the day was picking pears. They were high in the tree so we had to use this long stick with a metal basket at the top. My Princess found her own stick to pick the pears.
There weren’t that many pears in the trees to pick but we were able to pick almost a whole bag.
It was a beautiful day and we were so excited to celebrate my SIL’s birthday. Everything about the winery was perfect except the food. It is definitely a place we would go back, picnic with a blanket and chairs, order a bunch of wine, and bring food in case it takes over an hour to order again. A perfect combination…orchard and winery.
Happy Birthday Oo-Oo!
Chrissy xo