Spiderman symbiote

String of mussels

Forts Rule!

Mussel Beach

"Kids! Go get dressed, we're going hiking and to the beach." As I'm getting myself ready, I hear the kids rushing around getting dressed. I am thinking to myself how great it is that they are all old enough to pick out their own clothes and get themselves ready for the day. This is what they picked out to wear: J was dressed fine, in the 10yo boys' uniform of cargo pants, t-shirt, and fleece jacket. H was wearing not one, but TWO Spiderman costumes, only one was kind of half-hanging off him and twisted around his arms, and the other one was his black shiny "symbiote" costume. "I'm Spiderman when the symbiote is taking him over, mom." Oh, of course. That's what I thought. O is in sturdy blue pants she got from H's drawer, 3 sizes too big, white flowered sandals 2 sizes too small, purple shirt, on backwards. G comes floating down the stairs in a full princess gown, Cinderella purse, and backpack with an Etch-a-Sketch in it. "I'm wearing my boots, mom!" She lifts the hem of her floor-length dress to show me.

We finally got into appropriate getting-dirty clothes and hit the road. This beach is walking distance from our house, but we've never gone when the tide was so low. The kids had a total blast hunting for shells, crabs, rocks, sand dollars, and all kinds of cool things. Even G got filthy and didn't even mind. As a reward for getting dirty, we went down to the Coupeville Ice Cream shop and got cones with sprinkles (nobody ordered praline this time). Went to the library for some new books, and back home for some much needed (for me) rest. H said, as we were going into the house, "I can't believe we live here, it's like a vacation. Only you don't let us get sugar cereal like when we're on vacation."