Birthday Bash

Our son's birthday party was this weekend. Because he has a summer birthday, he chooses to have his party outside each year. This year, like last year, he asked to have it at the beach. We all love spending a day at the beach, so we're more than happy to plan a party there. It's really one of the easiest parties to put together - just bring food and the entertainment is provided by the location.

This year, Mike grilled Fred's steak to make steak sandwiches. It was fantastic and every bite was eaten right away. We also had hot dogs for the kids, fruit, vegetables, brownies (our son doesn't like cake) and we made ice cream there. We used an Ice Cream Ball last year and it was so much fun, that we bought a second one to be able to make more at the same time this year. It's a great way to have ice cream at a picnic.

I got down to the beach at 8:15 that morning to get a covered picnic area. By the time I got there, all of the pavilions were taken and we were only able to get 2 picnic tables and a grill. Luckily, we had a sandy area right next to us, so we were able to spread out there. Mike stopped at Target on his way down (he brought the kids a bit later) and got 2 shade tents and a tarp and we created our own pavilion. It worked out fine, even if it wasn't exactly what we had planned.

The kids played baseball in the sand, did some boogie boarding, built sand castles, and just generally played for the day. There were dolphins just offshore all day, feeding and playing, so we had an impromptu show for everyone as well. Our guests came and left at various times, until it was just us and one other family. Our kids were all playing in the sand and we were talking until one of us looked at a watch and realized it was 6;45 and we really needed to do something about dinner. Mike noticed that one of the nearby grills was still hot, so he added more charcoal, got it cranked up, and we pulled out the leftover hot dogs, fruit, and brownies and made dinner for us and the kids. We finally left the beach at 8:15 when the rangers came through and told us we had to go.

It was a great day and we all had a lot of fun. Check out the pictures below to see what we did.