Miss M turns 5!!! At the Beach

Miss M unofficially turned 5 on March 5th this year.  I asked her about 132 times where she wanted to have a birthday party.  Her response all 132 times was that she was going to be in FL for her birthday and therefore wasn't having a party.  I finally wised up and decided we were going to have her birthday in FL. I recognized I would be saving hundreds of dollars and a headache to change her birthday by a week.  

We had wanted to go to the beach while we were at Poppy's and since Andrew wasn't working on Saturday (Miss M's birthday) we took a road trip to Sanibel Island. The beach wasn't crowded. It was a beautiful day.  I assumed we would stay for 45 minutes to an hour b/c that's about how long Big Will stays anywhere without a fit to follow.  Around an hour he did say that he wanted to go home but quickly got over it when he was sidetracked by something.  

Walking to the beach. 

Girl wasn't bothered by the sand at all.  None of them were actually. They had sand in every crevice and didn't mind a bit.

Grammy packed bags for each of the kids so they could collect shells. There were so many shells on the beach it made it fun and easy to collect. Miss M proudly wore her princess birthday party hat for most of the day. Turning 5 was a BIG deal.

There's poppy in the background sitting in his chair with his sun hat and blanket covering his legs.  One would think he hated the sun.

Big Will and Andrew played in the water for a long time. There were lots of waves crashing which Will was excited about. The water was miserable cold so I tried to stay out of it as much as possible.

Blowing bubbles.

Everyone playing together.  A joyous sight.

Pretend sleeping in the sand.  Gross.

She's 5!!! I don't know whether I should be sad or excited. I am a little bit of both but the sadness doesn't stick around for long when I remember how much work the little ones are on a regular basis.  She yells at me and has some serious attitude occasionally but the yelling and attitude feel so much more manageable than the screeching, hitting, tantrums.  She's a lover though.  As a baby she wasn't much of a snuggler but now it feels like I can't get her off of me!.