diff --git a/changelog.rst b/changelog.rst
index 580734d8..01bd77c1 100644
--- a/changelog.rst
+++ b/changelog.rst
@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@ Pyinterpolate is the Python library for **geostatistics** and **spatial statisti
 Changes by date
 ===============
 
+2024-07-
+--------
+**version 0.5.3**
+
+* (bug) https://github.com/DataverseLabs/pyinterpolate/issues/428
+
 2024-06-26
 ----------
 **version 0.5.2**
diff --git a/pyinterpolate/processing/transform/transform.py b/pyinterpolate/processing/transform/transform.py
index a27f2d26..4f22a325 100644
--- a/pyinterpolate/processing/transform/transform.py
+++ b/pyinterpolate/processing/transform/transform.py
@@ -334,7 +334,7 @@ def transform_blocks_to_numpy(blocks: Union[Blocks, gpd.GeoDataFrame, pd.DataFra
             raise KeyError(f'Given dataframe doesnt have all expected columns {expected_cols}. '
                            f'It has {blocks.columns} instead.')
 
-        bvalues = blocks.data[['index', 'centroid.x', 'centroid.y', 'ds']].values
+        bvalues = blocks[['index', 'centroid.x', 'centroid.y', 'ds']].values
         return bvalues
     else:
         raise TypeError(f'Blocks data type {type(blocks)} not recognized. You may use Blocks,'
diff --git a/tests/test_pipelines/test_smooth_areas.py b/tests/test_pipelines/test_smooth_areas.py
index 077462d2..9d58c773 100644
--- a/tests/test_pipelines/test_smooth_areas.py
+++ b/tests/test_pipelines/test_smooth_areas.py
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
 from pyinterpolate import smooth_blocks, Blocks, PointSupport, TheoreticalVariogram
 
 
-DATASET = 'samples/regularization/cancer_data.gpkg'
-VARIOGRAM_MODEL_FILE = 'samples/regularization/regularized_variogram.json'
+DATASET = '../samples/regularization/cancer_data.gpkg'
+VARIOGRAM_MODEL_FILE = '../samples/regularization/regularized_variogram.json'
 POLYGON_LAYER = 'areas'
 POPULATION_LAYER = 'points'
 POP10 = 'POP10'
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
 
 THEORETICAL_VARIOGRAM = TheoreticalVariogram()
 THEORETICAL_VARIOGRAM.from_json(VARIOGRAM_MODEL_FILE)
-DIRECTIONAL_VARIOGRAM_MODEL_FILE = 'samples/regularization/regularized_directional_variogram.json'
+DIRECTIONAL_VARIOGRAM_MODEL_FILE = '../samples/regularization/regularized_directional_variogram.json'
 DIRECTIONAL_VARIOGRAM = TheoreticalVariogram()
 DIRECTIONAL_VARIOGRAM.from_json(DIRECTIONAL_VARIOGRAM_MODEL_FILE)
 
@@ -51,3 +51,24 @@ def test_directional(self):
                                        number_of_neighbors=NN)
 
         self.assertIsInstance(output_results, gpd.GeoDataFrame)
+
+    def test_blocks_as_geodataframe(self):
+        blocks_gdf = gpd.read_file(
+            DATASET, layer=POLYGON_LAYER
+        )
+        # ``centroid.x, centroid.y, ds, index`` - must be in geodataframe
+        blocks_gdf['centroid'] = blocks_gdf.centroid
+        blocks_gdf['centroid.x'] = blocks_gdf['centroid'].x
+        blocks_gdf['centroid.y'] = blocks_gdf['centroid'].y
+        blocks_gdf.rename(columns={
+            'rate': 'ds',
+            'FIPS': 'index'
+        }, inplace=True)
+
+        smoothed = smooth_blocks(
+            semivariogram_model=THEORETICAL_VARIOGRAM,
+            blocks=blocks_gdf,
+            point_support=POINT_SUPPORT_INPUT,
+            number_of_neighbors=NN
+        )
+        self.assertIsInstance(smoothed, gpd.GeoDataFrame)
diff --git a/tests/test_processing/test_blocks.py b/tests/test_processing/test_blocks.py
index f9b398b4..2f7c7fae 100644
--- a/tests/test_processing/test_blocks.py
+++ b/tests/test_processing/test_blocks.py
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ def test_keys_and_values(self):
         self.assertEqual(expected_columns, columns)
 
 
+
 class TestPointSupportDataClass(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_get_from_files_fn(self):