39 Amazing Years All Leading To This Perfect Night

Abizella, our event planner, had my special day planned about a month ago. The night before my birthday she presented me with a menu of treatments at "You Spa". I quickly selected all of the above! Hey, it's my birthday. I deserve the best.

I especially like my festive birthday hair-do!

Pops had dinner brought in, Panera. 

The broccoli cheese soup is legendary around here. 

Then we were off to the beach. A quick stop at our favorite seal.

And a spin on the carousel.

A crowd pleaser, for sure.

LC wanted a pony with "chocolate" hair.

Then we ran down to the beach.

Abizella left me a birthday message in the sand...

I tailed this little guy while he ran and ran and ran ("nun, nun, nun").

My little ninja refined his moves...

And when I turned back around I found Superkid and Abz had left me another message.

I begged the kids for a birthday group pic, not too bad...

 

We played tag and giggled our guts out.

 

And wandered in the surf.

I wish I could freeze this moment in time forever and jump back into the scene at will. Sadly, I did not get a time machine for my birthday. But at least I have a stack of pics and the best family and friends of all time. If you weren't here for the raspberry cheesecake from Cold Stone, no worries. I ate a piece for you.

Daddy Summer School

Pops has a rigorous program of academics lined up for each of the children this summer. Every one must read for an hour, complete a math set (algebra for Superkid and Abizella), and typing drills. 

This fills the day from 9:00-2:00. 

How's that for summer fun? I asked Superkid about it and he said, 

"If Dad's summer school was like a war, I would have a Purple Heart for injuries sustained in combat."

Good times.

Our New Family Tradition

It's settled. 

This is a new family tradition. 

Cape Camping the day school gets out.

Sunday morning we got up, had a delicious breakfast that couldn't be beat, broke down camp, played at the playground and then came down to the beach. We strolled along, picking up pebbles and seashells as tokens of the fun weekend.

Heaven.

We made a pit stop on our way out back at the campground potties before we hit the road. One of the stalls was occupied. Abz and I filled the remaining two. Soon after I heard a big "splash", followed by a loud "clink". I should have just let it go but I said, "Um. Abz, I think I know what that was." She confirmed my nightmare. It was one of the rocks that she had stowed away in her swim suit. She said, "Mom, my rock fell into the toilet, what should I do?" Ugh. I felt like this was the ultimate parenting spotlight. Suddenly the opinion of the lady in the adjacent stall was crucially salient to me as I weighed out our options. Do I tell my daughter to do the socially responsible thing and stick her hand in the icky communal campground toilet to fish out the rock or do I do make the sanitary, albeit reckless choice of telling her to flush it? I went with the socially responsible choice, but only because of the audience, adding that she should scrub her hand when she was done (like that would make it all better?!). Then, in shame I remained in the stall until the other lady cleared the premises. As we were walking back to the car Abz tried to slip her potty hand in mine and as I freaked out she said, 

"What!? I washed it! ...Oh brother, this is going on the blog, isn't it?"

More Fun In The Sun

"Head of The Meadows" beach is where it is at. 

Beautiful white sandy beaches, a fabulous sandbar that makes for a wonderful tidepool for the littlest Toads to romp, waves for the big Toads, dolphins and a shipwreck. The best part was that we were pre-season, but just barely. That means it was toasty enough to enjoy but no crowds. There were probably 20 cars in the lot that would accomodate 200. We had the place to ourselves and the tide was perfect, all the way out at high-noon when we got there each day. 

Everything about each day was perfect.

But first we had to get the sleepy heads out of bed.

And feed them dutch oven brownies for "first" breakfast.

Then there were the morning calisthenics. 

Jaws learned to say the word, "run", pronounced, "nun-nun-nun-nun-nun" while clenching fists, running and laughing his guts out.

And there were also several visits to the latrine.

A mid-morning nap (while the bigs played at the playground)...

Story time...

And a field trip to the Highland Light.

Superkid was determined to muster his strength to hold it in one hand. 

He makes it look so easy.

Next year we're taking the tour when LC is big enough.

Then to the beach,

where Superkid, Pops and I played catch in the wide expanse. 

Superkid was very impressed with the impact the football made with his super-human strength.

Jaws' favorite pass-time was being buried up to his waist... which also made it easy to keep an eye on him.

Our little entomologist LC loved the little millipede friend he found.

Superkid and I were curious, but preferred to keep our distance with a shovel.

Then there was the sand castle building contest! 

Superkid and LC

vs. Tadpole and Abizella!

Then we just buried them all.

And plenty of more life-guard practice!

What a wonderful wonderful day!

Day Two in Paradise

No matter how miserably you sleep with wiggly babies, sleep-talking-walking kiddos, and nightmares about Frankenstein robots from the Goosebumps bed time book, it is all forgotten over camp-side bacon.

Seriously, everything tastes better camping. Even bacon! 

Who knew bacon could get any better?!

We are ready for another day in paradise.

You thought I meant the beach, right? Nope. The campground playground was actually the highlight. All because of the carousel. Seriously, the kids spent every morning and evening down there for hours.

The old school slide wasn't too bad either.

Eventually we did wander down to the beach!

Surf's up!

And the sand was grand!

Catch a wave...

And you're sitting on top of the world!

Can't get enough of that!

Unless there's a vacant lifeguard tower to dominate!

We practiced a few rescue jumps.

We'll be in good shape for our summer lifeguarding job in about 8 years.

Doubles!

And speaking of miserable sleeping, I thought of this golden moment when Pops told me about Little Chief getting up in the middle of the night, shaking his head like a dog, hearing a shower of sand, and crawling back into bed. THIS is a kid who will sacrifice comfort for fashion.

And did I mention the fabulous bird watching?! 

Jaws spent most of the day chasing them down or calling them to land on his hand.

Then back to camp for some grub. Cape Cod Stew! 

Superkid wanted to know what the secret ingredient was...

It was a handful of sand and twigs. Jaws' contribution when Pops and I were pouring the ingredients into the pot. Delicious to the last spoonful.

Yummy and crunchy!

Abz, LC and I also squeezed in a trip to downtown Wellfleet and found this cute little shop, "Abiyoyo". This is a nick name Superkid and I gave to Abz when she was a toddler. We read a folk story about a monster named Abiyoyo that comes into town and crushes the city. This was strikingly similar to a certain monster that crushed all of our train sets and Lego buildings. We even made up a song called, "Abiyoyo". We since have lovingly sung the song to all toddling Toads who have come through wrecking our fun. We also just sing it for fun in the car when little ones start to fall apart.