3 F's for the Beach: Fluff, Family and Food

For me, packing for a week at the beach requires 3 things to boost the excitement.

1) Twofer Thumbs Up for My very favorite food in the whole wide world: peanut butter & fluff sandwich. That sticky sweet, yet surprisingly filling treat made it's great comeback into my life when I was pregnant with the girls. And since I'll never be pregnant again, I had to find other times to treat myself to it.

2) A shopping trip to Costco: today's trip was a mere $300 (nothing in comparison to my usual $500) and consisted mostly of crackers, chips, and diet coke with a few chickens and veggies thrown in for color.

3) Email banter with my family:
After an entire day spent emailing back and forth and sideways with 8 of the 11 adults going on this beach vacation, my dear mother comes home to a full inbox and replies:
.
Grammy L: “Once again after WORKING a long day caring for the sick & disabled I come home to find the entire family has been e-mailing for hours. Just because I actually WORK at my job I am penalized from having my thoughts & opinions included. Let me just say NO ONE IS SELLING MY SISSY, D. She is a true gem & is the only one who really understands me."

That last part I'll have to explain another day :).

L & M's Fabulous 5th Birthday Bash (A survival guide)

How to throw a party for 40+ kids
without losing your mind... or one of the kids!

Thank You to my helpers!
My family, friends, and other parents who helped collect presents, pour drinks, cut cake, watch over the chaos on the swing set, roundup the escapees, and in general be everywhere I couldn't be while Daddy took over 800 photos (the miracle of digital cameras).

We had perfect weather.
After days of rain I was thankful that we could be outside where everyone actually fit. And mysteriously the mosquitoes took the day off.

Two cakes for 2 little Girls.
I let L & M each pick out their own cake AND made the crowd sing twice. I think they were thrilled to have their own moment of glory and their own candles to blow out. And a bonus...I actually had enough cake!

Another TWOFER....2 DJs came instead of one!
Twofer Thumbs Up to Charlie and Patrick at Unique Dreams DJs who were not only really sweet, but got the kids dancing and jumping for 2 hours straight. They handled the prizes, they helped manage the timing for the cake, they even turned the traditionally chaotic pinata into organized fun!

There was only one real ScaryMom moment...
When I tossed the last of the candy and realized I'd survived. I did a celebratory dance and anyone who saw me would agree it was a wee bit scary how happy I actually was ;)!