Yesterday was my birthday. Yippee! My sweet boys and husband made me a special cake and we spent the day on the beach (and the day before as a pre-birthday). We planned to go to our favorite beach, but when we got there it was closed due to the parking lot being already full. Instead we headed back to the trusty RISD beach. Not quite as clean, but we definitely had a great time! The boys practiced their swimming and had a great time riding the "water taxi" (which was R.C.). Russell is getting braver in the water and is catching on to the act of swimming. Max loves to pretend he is swimming and splashing everyone. He is not afraid of dunking which is a big difference from Russell!

Jumping with excitement!

Swim practice.

My special cake. Max picked the pink frosting and blue letters and Russell picked the special princess candles (not pictured. The boys pulled them out to lick them before I could get a good picture of them). R.C. and Max spent time in the kitchen baking it and they all decorated it.

And finally...
It's been really hot here. We have no air conditioning. We could. We have one in the basement, but we choose not to put it in to save electicity/money/our earth. Due to this, we like to search out the coolest place in our apartment and gather there. Sometimes it's the back stairs, sometimes it's the livingroom, sometimes it's the boys bedroom. Last night it happened to be the kitchen floor. There is about 2 feet (give or take a bit) between the counters and R.C. decided, in the middle of the hot hot night, that he was going to sleep there. I awoke to find Max in our bed and Russell was awake drawing in the livingroom, but R.C. was no where to be found, until Russell informed me that, "Dad is sleeping on the kitchen floor. (said quietly under his breath) Weird." I guess it was cool though since he had a blanket over him. In any other room you do not want a blanket, even wearing your skin feels like too much.

Tomorrow promises to be one of the hottest days yet...UGH!

A note to the garbage men in Providence who pick up trash on our street:

Please, the next time your garbage truck breaks down in front of my house quietly wait for the repair truck. I don't want to hear you and your garbage buddies hitting your truck with wrenches and laughing and yelling at 6:30 am. Consider yourselves lucky. Sip your coffee and enjoy an extra (quiet) break.
Repair truck man: When you arrive park your truck, do what you need to do and get on your merry little way. There is really no need to park, reverse, pull forward, reverse, pull forward, reverse, reverse, reverse, reverse, reverse and reverse again. Did you know that each and every time you reverse, your truck beeps quite loudly? This is not something I enjoy hearing over and over and over before 7:00 am.

Thanks! Other than this, you do a great job picking up our garbage. :)