Callie Turns Two

Believe it or not, this past weekend marked Callie's second birthday. The celebration started at Callie's daycare on Friday where all the kids enjoyed eating a delicious apple spice cake that Sarah made. And with a lot of coaching from Miss Donna Callie can tell you how old she is if you ask her. It's quite fun to hear her say that she is two.


But the real festivities took place on Saturday, beginning with a trip to one of our favorite places, Reed Valley Orchard. Again this year they had a fall festival that included a petting zoo, arts and crafts, live music, apple picking, and a variety of foods. Here we see Sarah and Callie petting a rooster.


Callie really seemed to like the rooster and the other chickens, although she wasn't quite ready to have them eat out of her hand. She was more than willing to throw the food in their general direction. Not pictured here are the other animals - sheep, pigs, and goats - that were also a part of the feeding/petting zoo.

Of course we also had to spend some time picking apples. Callie took a little while to warm up to it, but once she got going she wanted to pick more apples than our small bag could hold.



Although we tried to pick unique varieties, we ended up with Golden Delicious, Fuji, and Gala apples. But we got some fresh air in the process, so it wasn't a total loss.


As she gets older, Callie enjoys doing things on her own and in her own way. Something like placing apples in a big fits right into this category. Although some of the apples may have been injured in the process, they eventually got into the bag and made it home. Hopefully they will make their way into another great spice cake.


But our favorite part of the day was when we got to sit down, have some food, and listen to the music. Callie even got up to dance a few times when the music got lively. We have yet to have a bad time on a visit to Reed Valley and already can't wait for blueberry season next spring.


Clearly a birthday isn't a birthday without some singing, candles, and a cake. We are still in a low-key birthday mode at the Bowes house, but a good cake is absolutely necessary. We are also happy to report that the cake was an ice cream cake from Graeter's Creamery, our favorite local ice cream joint. So tasty.



The video above shows that Callie is still not completely comfortable with the singing and burning candle birthday tradition. Which made us happy that we chose to bypass the Mexican restaurant-big sombrero-mariachi singers celebration we had considered at one point. So you don't get a picture of Callie in a sombrero, but we also avoided a traumatized child. Maybe next year.

Once the candles were blown out we had the opportunity to capture the happy family on this big day. It truly is amazing that our little baby is now a little girl.



Although she didn't completely enjoy the birthday traditions, she definitely caught on to the importance of enjoying your cake. She had two pieces and would have had more if her parents had allowed it.

Callie also quickly adapted to the tradition of licking the cake off of the candles. And as is case with her bad habit of double-dipping chips in salsa, she kept licking the candles and sticking them back in the cake to get more frosting. She certainly has a sweet tooth, which is a trait inherited from multiple relatives on both sides of her family tree.


The Chrismans were able to celebrate Callie's big day with us by coming over for dinner and sharing some cake. It is really cool to see the relationship that they have developed with Callie. We like to joke about Callie becoming like Dennis the Menace and always bugging the neighbors. But at the moment they all seem to enjoy each other too much for her to be a complete menace. But there is time.

So the birthday weekend was a success. But there is more to come. In just a couple of days we head out to Denver to spend some time with Aunt Suzy. And course, with this second birthday it is time for Callie's second annual review. The assessment is currently under and details will soon be reported.