I learned my lesson.

After the first test of every semester the school throws a big beach party. I did not go to the one last semester so I decided to try it this semester. I thought it would be great - free stuff to do, free t-shirts, free food. How could I go wrong? I took the five kids to the beach and expected to just walk all the way down to where the party was... I forgot that when the hurricane came through it changed the beach and we couldn't make it all the way down so we had to take a detour through campus. Minor set back, we over came it - and ran into a friend with his two dogs so four of my kids were loving it. We finally made it to the part of the beach where we can walk along and eventually got to the "party" - the slowest member was Kemiah who has decided the sand is really cool so next time I'll leave her in the stroller until we are ready to stop. So the kids took off their clothes and played in a stream and the sea. They love having the floaties on to ride the waves and they only got washed over a couple times. Another highlight was coating their arms and legs with the black sand. It looked like they had tights on. So then I waited in line for a t-shirt. Then I finally decided to go get in line for some food - we each got one hamburger. Luckily they each came in their own container so the kids could carry their food back down the beach, all the way to the pool so we could rinse off and eat. I was really ready to get away from the loud obnoxious music the DJ was playing. The kids ate and shivered and then got in the pool - it actually felt warm to them because they were so cold. It was dark by the time we left. So, what did I learn?

1. Don't go because it's not worth it. The loud offensive music was more than enough to keep me away. The t-shirt is just that, a t-shirt. The food was just that, food. All the kids said they were still hungry so it just wasn't worth it all the way around.
2. If you do go, be faster about getting into the lines. I was there and should have been the first one in both the t-shirt line and the food line but because I had 5 kids to watch in the water I was slow. Next time I'll move faster.
3. Go to the beach on your own time so that you can really enjoy it - even invite friends because it is fun to have other people there just not that many.

So, the first test is over. Kevin did alright and is back to studying tonight. I think the kids are all tuckered out and have drifted off to sleep. I have some tax work to do so I'll go for now. Thanks for reading.