The Tale of Two Beaches

We love the beach! Two weeks ago the boys & I went to Crosby beach with our good friends Angie & Christian & their kids James & Elizabeth. It wasn't at all the kind of weather to visit a beach really but we ploughed on anyway! It rained & rained so we had a car picnic when we arrived. This seagull was sitting looking at us for the whole time that we ate our picnic. He was so still Jordan asked if he was real! After dinner we hit the beach to make sandcastles. Ironically, the sand was too dry to make proper sandcastles!
Christian spent most of our time on the beach trying to put together a kite. It was so windy that in the end he disappeared back to the car to sort it out! There was a brief time of flying before it was decided that perhaps it wasn't put together quite right (hence its dodgy flying!!!!)
The 4 boys had fun making a house with the bricks. I think Luke is laughing at Christian flying the kite in the photo above!
There was much cuddling of baby Elizabeth too. Luke spent a lot of time pushing her in her pram & holding her hand through the rain cover!

To finish off our time on the beach we went for a walk. Somehow I managed to climb the cliff whilst holding Timmy & Luke & stop them from falling over the wobbly bricks & keep myself steady too! It was a great view when we got to the top but coming down was another thing! Just as we were leaving the rain came lashing down again. We did a quick toilet stop & then bought the customary ice creams before heading back home to Lee (who had just got back from working in Manchester). All in all it was a great day out despite the elements.

Last week Lee was working in Blackpool so we hitched a lift with him & spent the day on Blackpool beach. It is a totally different seaside experience to Crosby. The weather was dull but very warm. I was a little nervous as this was the first time I had been to the seaside with 3 kids & no other adults. I dressed the boys in very bright polo shirts just in case I lost them!! We had a lovely picnic on the beach & the boys went bare foot on the sand for the first time (Crosby beach is a little too industrial for no shoes in my opinion).

Timmy made lots of sandcastles which he took great delight in. (Luke made lots too but his delight was more in the knocking down part!)

Luke loved digging holes to bury his feet in. When his feet were buried he would wait a little while before kicking his feet really fast out of the sand sending sand everywhere!! Then he would start all over again.

Jordan dug many many deep holes in the sand with a plastic flower pot (we discovered we had only brought one spade with us when we got to the beach!) & enjoyed burying his feet too.

We ventured into the sea for a paddle too. Jordan spent ages jumping the waves & got quite wet but Luke & Timmy were much more cautious & spent most of the time running away from the sea squealing! The tide came in really fast & our bags nearly got washed away several times!

We found a little crab in the shore too. When Timmy saw it he said 'I want her to be my friend!' How sweet!

Not surprisingly, the boys loved seeing the trams going along the prom (in fact Luke had spent most of the time on the beach drawing tram tracks in the sand & trying to see the real trams going past) & were delighted that we could actually ride on one! We managed to get on an old fashioned open top one & had a lovely ride along to Cabin.

Once off the tram we went for a walk further up the coast & had a snack on a bench looking out to sea. Jordan couldn't get over where the beach had gone so fast! We got the tram back to the Pleasure Beach & sat right at the front so we could see the driver driving. Jordan was fascinated & announced that when he was older he was going to live in Blackpool so that he could drive trams all day. He asked me how you got the right clothes. I explained that you needed to take a test when you were older, then you might get offered a job & they would give you the uniform. He was a bit disappointed that he would have to wait so long before he could do it! When the new driver came on he said to Jordan 'Are you going to drive for me?' Jordan replied 'I can't I'm too small!' to which the driver replied 'I thought you could drive so I could have a rest!' At the Pleasure Beach we watched the roller coaster & the water slide in the Sandcastle pool. Timmy was desperate to go on the roller coaster despite the fact that a few weeks earlier he had cried so much on a little kids train at St Helen's Show that just goes round & round that we had to get the man to stop the ride!!!!!

And here's something random! This morning Lee found a cat in our office! We have no idea how long it had been there, where it came from or how it got in but it was certainly not keen to leave & sat hissing on the window sill for a long time! We decided to call in our neighbour who has cats & eventually she coaxed him off the window sill & into her cat carrier. She took him to her vet's who checked him over & said he was ok. They have kept him overnight & will take him to the RSPCA tomorrow if no-one collects him (he didn't have a collar so we think he may be stray). Jordan has been playing RSPCA men all morning!!