J had another birthday celebration on Sunday with MIL. We all had dinner in our backyard - and cake - and J got some more gifts. MIL got her a whole Puma outfit - pink skirt, sweatpants, t-shirt, and sweatshirt and enough money to have a nice trip to the mall. And I've been reminded daily about how desperately we need to go.

Tuesday night we drove out to my mom's house and had yet another birthday celebration for J. This is just how it goes for us every year with all the kids. We don't have 1 big party where everyone is together at one time. Well, not since they were little. Mom got J an Ashton Drake baby and a Sidekick ID phone. It's a nice phone, so nice in fact, that we bought a Sidekick 3 for K as a starting-high-school present.

Yesterday mom and I took the kids to the beach. One good thing about Long Island is that almost every town on the north shore has a few private beaches on the sound. This means no crowds, close parking, and usually a bathroom and food court right there. It was beautiful. J and W found rocks, shells, and dead crabs, made a few sand castles, and swam. K was happy enough just tanning herself. She did put a toe in the water and deemed it way too cold and sat back down. A bunch of other kids were swimming out to what was a beach version of a scary lake raft, and jumping off of it into the water. I know J and W wanted to go out there too, but were a little nervous as it was way out over their heads. I took pictures of our day there, but on mom's camera - mine was dead.

On the way home we stopped at Target and I spent about $50 replenishing our homeschool supplies. We got notebooks and folders (10/$1), Elmers Glue ($.20 ea), gluesticks, compass, protractor, rulers, looseleaf paper, erasers, pencils, pens, colored pencils, sketch notebooks, construction paper, staples, tape, small pencil sharpeners, and a huge globe (on sale for $10). K picked out some magnetic locker baskets, a pink combination lock, and a bright pink usb flash drive. I love these sales.