Sam's Birthday and a couple of A.W.O.L frogs

Our Sam man had a birthday last week!    We were so very thrilled to get to celebrate this 10 year old of ours, but we were also so very tired of all the parties we've been having.   

It's hard, partying all the time, you know?

In our family though, we alternate between "friend Parties" and "Family Parties" and unfortunately for me - this happens to be the year for friend parties.  

I tried to talk Sam out of it, suggesting alternative ideas, offering to pay HIM what I would have spent on a party ... all to no avail.  He wanted his friends and that was that!

About four days before his birth date, I finally buckled down and faced the reality that there was one more party to plan and worry about enjoy;)  Luckily, we had the most genius, last minute idea EVER!

...Wallys Beach!!!

If you've never been to Wally's beach before - well...you've obviously not come to visit us.  It is where we take all of our family when they come to visit and we can't think of anything else to do.  

It's fun.

It's laid back.

It's sandy.

It's.....

...usually much much wetter than this!

When we arrived with Sam and his friends, we were shocked to see just how low the water had gotten.   You see that pile of rocks, right there?That used to be covered in water.
 (In fact, just a few weeks earlier, we had been paddle boarding on that very spot!)    You can see the trees off in the distance that mark the Island that the kids often talked about swimming out to.   Of course, on this day, all it took was a dry, hot, sandy stroll  -and they were there.   Crazy!!!

Thankfully, there was still some water to be enjoyed.

We recently heard someone refer to Wallys beach as Cardston's Caribbean.   It's a suiting nickname.   

We spent a chunk of Sam's party playing in the sand, swimming in the water, soaking in the mud and catching frogs!  (the receding water has made for great swampy areas - perfect for frog hunting!)

As an extra effort to make Sam's party fun - John was equipped and ready to feed us all burgers or hot dogs, watermelon and more!  Mmmmm....

It ended up being the most relaxing birthday party we've ever thrown.   How could that me?

I was inwardly super thrilled when, on the way home, as I was buying them slurpees before dropping them off, I heard one kid tell Sam, "This has been the coolest birthday party ever!" 

VICTORY!!!

Listen up parents - I seemed to have figured out the key to throwing a successful party and I am willing to share it with you now:

1. zero planning

2. marginal effort

3. Mud

4. Water

5. Sand

6. Slurpees

It really was a pretty fun day and I enjoyed watching Sam with his buddies, all of them are such fun boys!

If I had to point out any negative part of the day it would be that many of them returned home with frogs in tow.  

 Nate had one stored up in a paper cup and I really don't know when he decided to not care about it anymore, but I've not seen it since taking this picture.   One friend of Sam's apparently brought several home in his water bottle.   We didn't know this at the time, but figured it out much later that day as we were cleaning out the van and found a piping hot bottle of water under the back seat.   (it was gross and quite frankly a tragic way for a bunch of frogs to die.)   Jessica actually brought two frogs home, made a Tupperware container cage for them and took loving care of her new found pets for the entire day!    We were relieved to find that at least someones frogs had survived.  

Sadly, the next morning we woke up to Jessica's confused exclamations that her two frogs had gone missing.  A few things I'd like to point out at this time:

1.  A Tupperware container is NOT a cage

2.  I have said it before and I'll say it again - we are not a PET kind of family.

3.  There is not a thought more gross to me then to wonder where, in my house, those two frogs could be.  Sometimes, as I fall asleep at night, I worry that I'll wake up in the morning with one of them staring me in the face.   

Oh for the love - that day had been almost perfect.

Now, please excuse me while I go search for some missing frogs!;)