The Puddles

Ainsley just came in and said, “Let’s call this day GOOD!”

Tired. And coming in for a snack!

She is hilarious!

Ainsley’s birthday video

Ainsley got an iPod for her birthday. Check out her first video! She is so grown up.

Ainsley’s first video

First it was Ben.
Then it was Ben and Dad.
Then Madie joined them.
They played happily.

First Dad left. (had to wash the mud off)
Then Madie.(became frustrated with Ben-it was a sibling thing.)
All that was left was Ben (who had a grand time all by himself.)

Minus 10 years lived outside the boundaries of the sovereignty of Texas, I have always lived near the Gulf. I have never experienced anything like we are this year.

Every morning we wake up to this on the beach.

So I take this. . .

And play a game called “Fish Flicking.” I flick the fish into piles like this . . .

So we can have this . . .

A little piece of paradise!

Thank you Deb for making this movie.
beach movie

“Mom, why is it that they play the Mr. Bean song right while they are handing out the medals at the Olympics?” asks Ben.

First of all, I had to laugh. Mr. Bean’s performance of that song during the opening ceremony was epic. But I am sad that the regal sound of the song “Chariots of Fire” will forever be associated with Mr. Bean in Ben’s head!

What a wonderful day today was. The entire day was spent on the beach. Yesterday was an awesome and fun-filled day with family as we gathered together to celebrate Ainsley and Gordon’s birthday. Today was absolutely the opposite . . . Low key with no schedule.

Chris took the kids out early this morning and staked our spot on the beach. The beach had a lot of people on it. I heard from neighbors that this is the last weekend before school starts locally, so that could account for the increase in traffic. But an increase in people at Surfside meant that you had people within 30 feet of your spot. Still not bad.

I joined them later in the morning after some time to myself. I didn’t move so fast this morning due to the horrible sunburn I earned yesterday. Apparently I can’t spray my back with sunscreen or the backs of my knees!! I am a little red there. It was so bad today that I had a total stranger come up to me and offer to put sunscreen on my back for me. She said she had a 100 SPF if I needed it. Very nice! Ben told me that all I needed tonight was a little blue on my back and I could be the American flag. Very funny Ben!

When it finally got too hot we headed indoors to cool off. We ate lunch and watched a movie. Then Dad decided to take a nap and the kids and I headed to the beach again at 5:00pm. It was much cooler by this time. I had a book I desperately wanted to finish and the kids wanted to play secret agent on the beach. Something about having some cool missions to finish on the beach. They ended up building sand castles and jumping the waves. When the sun went behind the houses on the beach we headed inside. Dad had joined us by then and volunteered to relocate all of our stuff back to the house but wanted to take a long walk first. The kids and I headed into the house to shower and change and then we sat on the porch and read books, listened to iPods and played games until it was too dark to read any more.

After dinner, mom tried to finish her book while Ainsley and Ben danced to loud music and daddy and Madie a played Rummikub together. It was a perfect way to spend a day at the beach. I only had to threatened to take Daddy’s phone away twice. He was much better with it today. One more incident and I have permission to throw his phone into the Gulf. I hope it won’t come to that!