An 8th Birthday and a Day at the Beach

We celebrated a special birthday last week, that of our dear Brown-Eyed Girl.  I have to admit I haven't been "on the ball" with birthdays and party planning this year.  But we still make it special.  I took the kids out for the day, our first stop at Dunkin Donuts, by request of the birthday girl.

The highlight of our trip out was picking out a fish tank and all the accessories needed for it, because the one thing BEG really wanted was a fish.  We've had a few betas in the past, but having kitties plus a fish is a bad combo, especially if you don't have a tank with a lid.  Since we still have kitties, we got a secure tank and Benjamin Beta the Third joined our family.  He seems to enjoy his bubbling tank with the LED lights that change color.

Daddy brought our girl home a bouquet of rainbow flowers.

The cousins came over to celebrate.  We had a candlelight dinner with music and silly straws set on the table.

The following day the grandparents came for her party. Nana made an adorable owl cake, complete with owlets. 

Brown-Eyed Girl was tickled to get the specific things she had requested- a wheelchair for her American Girl and the Lego Friends treehouse.

Monday we went to the ocean with our very close friends who will not be so close in distance anymore.  The Susens have moved to Florida by now, so we spent their last day in Maine together at the beach. It was overcast and a not as warm as the 78 degrees that had been promised, but the kids never care.  There are so many treasures to be found.

They built a little fort of driftwood and made quite a to-do about keeping the seagulls away.

Mister was thrilled to find a mostly intact dead crab.

The tide went out and we were able to do lots of beachcombing and walk across the shore to an island.

We found a seastar and razor clam, lots of crabs and several interesting shells.

When we returned from our walk across to the island, we found our picnic spot pillaged by seagulls!

They had torn into our bags and demolished whatever they could get their beaks on.  They peeled one banana and got at half of another.

They tore open the bottom of a chip bag since they couldn't get the clip off.

They even tore a square shaped hole into my beach bag.  Nasty critters. But it was all part of the memory making.

These are the moments we'll remember, the little things that really aren't so little.