red truck bakery + the lavender farm

We rounded up some friends last week to spend a day in the countryside. Our first stop was the Red Truck Bakery. I think this was our third visit here and I have yet to find anything that isn't absolutely delicious. The girls picked out brownies and a chocolate croissant. We also tried the strawberry cream cheese croissant and the chocolate orange twist croissant. Amazing. And the buttermilk chocolate cookies. Divine. I also picked up a sandwich for lunch later. (Their sandwiches are fantastic on their delicious freshly baked bread.) I'm kicking myself for not trying a raspberry chocolate muffin. Next time. And there will definitely be a next time.

Our next stop was the Seven Oaks Lavender Farm. We cut lavender here last year and had so much fun that I was eagerly anticipating this year's visit. We were nearly the only people there last year and mistakenly thought that would be the case again. It was a busy morning (turns out a lavender farm is a hot spot for the older ladies, who apparently do not care for children) but the crowds didn't interfere with our good time and because we lingered so long, things quieted down toward the end of our visit (I recommend an afternoon visit).

We paid a visit to the bunnies first, then the kids spent most of their time playing in the fun play house and on the rocking horses and swings. The weather was unbelievably beautiful and it turned out to be the perfect day for hanging out in an idyllic country setting with friends.

We finally got around to cutting our lavender. Oliver was hard to contain as usual. The girls did all the cutting while I frantically tried to prevent Oliver from causing trouble (dumping out the basket of scissors, the basket of rubber bands, other people's baskets of lavender, pouring lavender tea onto the ground, etc). Thankfully Simon was sleeping at this point.

The girls got to make little sachets filled with dried lavender.

It happened to be Amelia's birthday. Ben was out of town so we delayed celebrating until he returned (as if an awesome day at the lavender farm with friends wasn't celebrating) but I did let Amelia open a few presents from family that night. She immediately got to work reading her new Thea Stilton book and finished it in one sitting. The girl loves to read and Thea Stilton is her absolute favorite.
 

We also stayed up late playing a new game from Aunt Steph, Fairyopoly. She knows Amelia all too well. The dining room doubles as Simon's bedroom at night but thankfully he slept peacefully through our game playing.