Because she said she wanted to go to the beach for Spring Break...

Sophia has her heart set on going to the beach.  She loves all things ocean-related and thinks going to the beach will  be A-M-A-Z-I-N-G because she can collect sea shells.  Only one problem.  We live in Kansas.  We're about as land-locked as you get.  But, I thought I'd humor her on Friday and tell her I was taking everyone to the beach. 

You can imagine the excitement - until I told her we were going to the beach at a El Dorado Lake.  Totally not the same, I know.  She didn't want to even go because the whole point in going to the beach would be the sea shells.  No sea must mean no sea shells, right?  I took them anyways. 

After about 10 seconds at the beach, she was one excited little girl!  Because, lakes do in fact have sea shells!  The kids ran around collecting shells, walking in the FREEZING water, and finding "treasures."  Sophia found a glass bottle to put all her small shells in and two pairs of sunglasses.  Nice. 

 

She even wrote in the sand, "I'm lovin it!"  And there's just something about little footprints in the sand.  It makes my mama heart smile! 

 

The kids didn't want to leave, but we needed to head home to make dinner.  We promised we'd take them again after they all thanked us for taking them to the beach.  So funny.  But, it just reminds me how thankful I am that they are so easy to please and have such low expectations of us as parents!!  Someday, they'll get to see a real beach!  Now I just have to figure out what to do with all the shells they brought home.