It’s a snowy day here again, and I realized that I somehow never wrote about my birthday last month, so what better time to reminisce about the beach-themed day we enjoyed?

Just after midnight on my birthday, Michael surprised me by telling me that he was taking the entire day off of work, just to spend it together! Time is really the best gift you can give anybody, and I appreciate his time so much because of how incredibly busy he is. I was also pretty excited that I got to sleep in for an extra half an hour! Kaya and Michael had been planning some secret special activities, so I didn’t want to sleep too long and lose time.

Even the weather felt like a gift to me- it was just perfect for running, and because Michael wasn’t rushing off to work, I wasn’t on a time crunch and could run as long as I wanted. I felt good, so I just kept going, and I ended up with 7.5 miles. I think a long run was definitely the perfect way to start my birthday!

It was a good thing I ran for so long, because it gave Michael, Kaya, and Kaelyn time to put all this together:

I walked into “Irwin Beach”, where there were coloring pages decorating all the walls, streamers, beach-themed music, and Michael finishing making pancakes while wearing his Hawaiian swim trunks. They couldn’t take me to my favorite place in February, so they brought it to me!
They didn’t just make any pancakes, either… these are modeled after my very favorite “Nutella S’mores” pancakes that I have when we go out for breakfast down in Myrtle Beach.Just imagine… Fluffy pancakes, covered in Nutella, whipped cream, graham cracker crumbs, marshmallows, chocolate chips, and sprinkles. Mmmm! I ate 1.5 and was so FULL!A couple of little girls were really excited about the sprinkles! This baby girl was just as happy with a tray full of marshmallows!Great post-run fuel, right?Michael had been keeping the rest of the day’s plans a secret, but the girls spilled the beans about us needing our swimsuits shortly after breakfast was over, so I knew we were going to the aquatic center! It took a little while to collect everyone’s necessary suits and towels (we haven’t been swimming since last summer), but it was so worth it when we got there and saw the smiles on the girls’ faces.This was actually our first time going there, and I think Kaya and Kaelyn were equally excited and terrified by the water that would fall from the upper beams. And, as you can see, we were the only ones there besides one other family.The older girls loved going down this crocodile slide! Kaecakes, you crack me up.This was Nella’s first time ever swimming! I can’t believe it took us so long to take her to the pool, but it’s just not as easy as it was with Kaya and Kaelyn, since we had access to a neighborhood pool when they were babies. Nella had the best time, and although the water was a little chilly, she still didn’t want to get out.She was happy as long as she had this big red ball. Kaya had Daddy give her a mini swim lessson, mostly just practicing floating and kicking her legs up and down the short end of the pool. She really wants to learn to swim for real so she can go down that huge water slide in the back (no life jackets are allowed, and parents can’t wait at the bottom to catch their child, either, so she’d need to be completely independent).I love all these baby girls more than I could ever say. This outing had me feeling especially grateful for homeschool, too, because it allowed us to all be together, Kaya included. These are the best days.Michael did have to go and teach his afternoon class, so while he headed off to do that, we all washed up, ate lunch, and had naps. Kaelyn gave me about a thousand sweet homemade cards that she had hidden about a week before my actual birthday. Our sweet new baby girl spent a lot of the day kicking in my belly, which felt like a little gift, too. We ended the day at one of our favorite places- Red Robin!I honestly couldn’t have come up with any better way to spend my birthday. Thirty is looking really great so far.