Sandy Screamers...

We headed to the beach today. I had promised the girls they could go all summer, saying that once it cooled down and the big kids went back to school they could head to the beach. Well yesterday I gave them a choice; they could head to the beach or the Botanical Gardens, and they enthusiastically chose the beach. Thus far, they've been to the beach less than a handfull of times, and each time they refused to even approach the water and screamed bloody murder each time we attempted to creep near the shore. Since the last time was over a year ago, though, I hoped for better luck. NOPE.

We met with my buddy Holly and her preschool age gang of cuties, Linda, Ryleigh, and Jack, who all LOVED every minute of their time there. Caleb enjoyed himself, too, and I learned that to babies, sand must taste much better than their baby food, because he was loading it into his mouth hand over fist! First we played at the park structure at tenth street, but we headed to the shoreline at all of the kids' insistance (including mine), so I was hopeful. Alas, as we approached the water, they dipped their toes in for a moment, showed a fleeting smile, and then Hannah lost her balance and landed on her butt in an inch of water. They then BOTH then proceeded to scream bloody murder and throw a hissy fit as if we'd dipped them in acid. We never did get Hannah into the water (except for the few moments I tried the "just throw her in and let her see it won't kill her" approach... unsuccessfully), but Sarah did allow me to hold her hand whilst she clutched my leg for dear life... she stayed in for about 2 minutes and then announced she was done, too. They sat there in the sand watching their three friends and Holly and Caleb and I play for about 20 minutes, after which time we ate lunch up on the boardwalk.

So all told, they spent about 30 minutes at the park structure, much of which was spent in either time-out (Hannah) or begging to go in the water, less than 3 minutes in the water, and the rest of the time either eating or sitting watching others have fun. After loading them in the car to go home, their first comments were:

Sarah: "Mommy, I wish we could spend all day long at the beach"

Hannah: "Yeah Mommy. Someday we can go back to the beach again?"

Huh? We're these the same children sitting screaming on the shoreline just moments ago?

Fat chance, kiddos... as they say, fool me once...

Maybe next year. Thanks to Holly and the kids, though, for meeting us. I don't think I could have managed the three without their help, and I'm really glad her kids had a great time :)