Big Love Stories

Spring Break, Part 2: Loving the Chaos

The quietude of our first few days at the beach with Steve, Becky and Eliza fueled us up for part two of our spring break at the beach: The Party.  Okay, truth be told, it was mostly a popsicle party (with as much beer, wine, card playing and laughing going on as we could sustain while keeping the popsicle partiers happy).

 

Our friends Cris and Thalia and their two girls have been joining us for spring break at the beach for a few years now, and this year our dear friend Bevin and her two boys joined the fray.  Yes indeed, there was as much chaos as you can imagine with those six children running around, but not so much as to overshadow all the sweetness.

There is something about being at the beach that allows everyone to shed a layer of intensity.  Plus, there’s enough sand and water for everyone to play with, so no need to fight.  Except over that tractor, maybe.

 

What is so beautiful about playing at the beach is that eventually the toys loose their appeal because what is most fun is just being there, completely immersed in the elements…running in the waves, loosing oneself in the sand, feeling the strength of the wind.  And this is what we did.

 

 

But, because attention spans tend to be short in those six and under, we came prepared with a few special activities up our sleeves…

One day we presented the kids with twenty origami boats.  We made the boats from paper the children had been drawing on.  The, after folding the paper into boats, we dipped them in beeswax so they would float.

 

In theory, this was a great idea.  But, here is what really happened…

 

On another day, Bevin produced art supplies for each set of siblings to make themselves a real pirate treasure box.  She even brought pirate hats and eye patches.  The kids ran around the beach for two days collecting things for their treasure boxes.  Then, on the night before we left to go home, we sat up late after the kids went to bed and created treasure maps.  The next morning, the kids were delighted to be sent on a treasure hunt.

 

Not all the fun was had at the beach, though.  There were plenty of lovely moments spent reading books, baking bread with Thalia, building legos, sharing meals, and doing art projects.  Being together at the beach is fabulous because of all the special things there are to do there.   But, the real sweetness, I believe, was that for a few days our three families did all of the every day things that we always have to do, but we did them together.  In doing this, the activities and rituals that are simply routine at home became special.

 

 

We are so blessed to have such fabulous friends and family to share our lives with.  With deep gratitude and feelings of Big Love all around!