Birthday at the Beach

Last year I promised Elliott that he and I would have our birthday at the beach, and we did.

But next year I’m upping the specificity: we’re going to have our birthday at a beach where it’s warm.

Not that I’m complaining. Cold beaches beat no beaches any day. And a couple days after our birthday it warmed up and we had a week of great, relatively warm, weather.

The birthday celebrations started dark and early. Elliott was out of bed and asking to open presents at 5:30 in the morning.

After some breakfast it warmed up enough to get outside and play. And there was one more present waiting outdoors.

The most played with item of the day was… the cardboard box the bike came in. It was a raft, a houseboat, and several other things I wasn’t allowed to know. For all the plastic in the world, it’s been my observation that kids are best entertained with cardboard, sticks, mud, and the occasional bit of rope or twine.

It wouldn’t be a birthday without a pinata. As happened last year there was nothing around to string it up with so we just stuck it on the end of a stick and hoped for the best. Two years running with no injuries is probably pushing it.

After plenty of cake — and no, it was not waffle cake this time around — we headed down to the beach to burn off some sugar-driven energy. It may not have been all that warm, but there’s pretty much no such thing as a bad day at the beach.