Weekending it

It's birthday week in the house! Mandy and I had our birthday on Monday and Kip will be a fabulous six year old tomorrow!!! We had a great birthday celebration weekend with Auntie Jagee in town. 

The kids call Jess "Jagee" which is the nickname Mandy and I used for Jess when we were super little and couldn't correctly pronounce her name. I'm thrilled the name has a second life.

Jagee arrived Friday night so the next day we made plans to head to Seaside Heights to spend the day at the beach. 

Despite some awful traffic, we made it to the shore and raced right to the arcade that Kip fell in love with back in the spring when we came here for the first time with Aunt Judy and Grandma. Kip has had his heart set on the racing games at this arcade so he was in heaven with Jagee as his race partner.

We did some of the other games too, including the Squishmallow claw games and won some tickets for junk trinkets at the prize counter.

We stopped for lunch in the arcade before heading out to the boardwalk for the rides.

We all really loved the retro Fun House and Ivy was thrilled the elephant ride was working this time. After a break for ice cream, we grabbed our sand toys and headed to the beach.

The beach was crowded and there were a lot of rip currents so the lifeguards were going nuts with their whistles. The kids stayed close to the beach and we were always holding a hand (with Ivy) or super close to Kip if he got knocked by a wave. Beaches are stressful for parents but the kids had an absolute BLAST in getting wet in the water and playing in the sand. After a couple of hours we cleaned up and headed to a nice dinner.

On Saturday we hung out at home. Kip got to open his birthday presents from Jageee and work on building some of the many Lego sets he joyfully received. 

We headed to the pool for the afternoon.

Then we went to The Cheesecake Factory for an early dinner to celebrate Mandy and my birthday. 

After dinner, Dan took the kids back home and us sisters enjoyed the Barbie movie at the theater. It was a fun night.  

On Monday, I worked from home but we made time to take the kids to a new-to-us playground. Mandy, Jess, and I ran around like kids playing lava monster and bird family with Kip and Ivy.

Mandy made a delicious chicken schwarma for dinner and we opened presents and had cake. It was a great weekend and super fun to have Jagee here with us to bring the fun.

Miss you already Jagee!