Happy 2nd Birthday My Sweet Beach Girl!

Our morning started out extra early (4:30 AM, in the car at 4:56 AM...) for our 2.5 hour drive. I really thought sweet M would go back to sleep, but she was wide awake! She eventually fell asleep, of course, an hour or so before we arrived. A lot of things I had planned (family beach portraits, cupcakes for dessert, dinner, forgot my beach shirt in the car, and E's dress shirt in the car, etc) did not happen. I knew before I went that there was a good chance we wouldn't get to do everything - we were really cramming a lot into one day. Anyway, Miss Madeline was not a fan of the beach at first.... she screamed, had her tantrum, etc. She didn't like the ocean at first, but that was because a wave got her. Eventually, she morphed into a super beach girl. We ran all over the beach hand-in-hand, running into the water, running away from the waves, etc.. She played with her sand buckets, and just overall loved it! Soon it was time to go and get her balloons, dress for the boardwalk, and have lunch. It was very special since one year ago, we (E and I) ate at the same place and this year, we had M with us! Afterwards she played Skee Ball, which she loved- and also loved pulling the tickets out. Daddy won her some stuffed animals, she had a 45 minute nap in which I won her a care bear (loves them), and when she woke up we had dippin' dots ice cream, played games, shopped, had funnel cake, and by then it was about 5 PM and she had had enough. She was in complete meltdown mode and was ready to go. She was very scared - and I had to hold her little (dirty) foot for an hour an 15 minutes while we drove home. Thankfully she felt a little better/more secure and I was able to have my arm back.

Overall I think she had a great birthday, she looked oh so adorable, and she was a trooper! Tomorrow we're going to a somewhat local aquarium, and on Friday we'll go back to the beach to spend more time on the beach.