Trowbridge Family Journal: A windy beachy morning

Last night I looked in my diary and noticed that we actually had an empty Monday in front of us. What a treat! How to use it best? Digging over the vege garden ready for planting? Nah, an outing with my adorable preschoolers sounded so much more fun! I decided to treat them with an early trip over to our favourite summer spot, the beach next to the "Hot Chick" in Napier. This beach rocks, because it has toilets and food close by, not to mention a great playground and boardwalk for bikes/scooters too. It is not the greatest for swimming, but that wasn't an issue on this windy spring day!

I thought some company would make the trip even merrier, so I popped out an open invite to some mums. I did realise that most people have their days planned out in advance though, so as I was walking out the door I rang my mum, who is currently not working. She was keen as! Gramp Muz and Granny were ready to have a day "playing grandparents" as she called it, so we all piled in the car and headed over to the beach, with a fun stop on the way to take photos (and have petting time) of a friend's pony that mum is doing a portrait of soon.

Wow, was it windy! We braved the gusty wind with jackets, hats and jeans, but that did not stop the kids having a blast. Luke was a little uncertain at first about the sand, it has been a while since he played in it, and he pulled his hand away in disgust when I first rubbed his hand through the warm grains. After a couple more attempts, he got the picture - this is FUN! He was soon playing in a bucket of sand with a spade in the other, and there were tantrums at home time. Meanwhile, Kate tried to make castles, going down to the wet sand with her spade, then bringing it back to her waiting bucket. We had a really nice morning, even with the wind - and the playground made for lots of fun too...we had the whole place to ourselves! I promised Kate we will be back again, with time to ride her bike too, we will just pick a less gusty day next time.