Birthday Blast

What do you get the girl who has everything?  Well, Zaira might not have everything, but she does seem to have what she needs.  So, when her birthday came around this weekend, we had to find a way to make it special.  We thought long and hard about not wanting to bring any more toys into the house.  In spite of the fact that we have all these boys in the house, we also have a lot of girly things left over from Amanda (and also my old dolls and toys).

Then I had a brain storm... for those of you who have read the blog or seen our pics on Facebook, you know that we had a very special butterfly bench at a park for Zaira to take pictures throughout her first year.  We have really missed that bench since we moved away.  SO...I looked into buying her a butterfly bench.  We could never afford the one like the park, but we found a nice one (on a much smaller scale) for a price we could afford.  Michael put it together and set it out for Zaira to find.  We were so pleased when we saw how much she loves it!  We hope to have many happy butterfly pictures for a long time to come!

It happened that her birthday was also the last day for the summer reading program at our local library.  The boys had been telling Zaira all week taht the library was going to help celebrate her birthday with an ice cream party.  The librarian heard and made a big show of her arrival.  We have such an awesome librarian!  The boys were almost as excited as Zaira as they walked through a spray of bubbles to start out the fun afternoon...all for Zaira they insisted! (more on the library event in my blog later this week).

Michael had his military weekend so we did not have a lot of time to celebrate, but we did make an amazing FOUR layer CHOCOLATE cake with CHOCOLATE icing...emphasized because it was really that extreme!  We also had Amanda come for a visit.  She had made Zaira a special gift...her very own tail!  It is so cute and Zaira loved wearing it and rubbing it on her cheek!  I thought she would sleep with it but we distracted her with the chocolate cake.  However, the tail will be a cherished play thing I am sure!  She also opened her card from Gramma.  Zaira was very excited to learn she was going to go shopping (Lord, help us when she is a teenager!) with her cash gift!

On Sunday, after a Family Fun Day at the park with Michael battalion, we added to the fun weekend with a trip to Corpus Christi.  It is a short drive down that way (as we discovered when we took Henry to camp) and we thought Zaira would enjoy a special memory.  Of course, we all would be able to enjoy the memory with her so I guess it ended up being a family gift for Zaira.  We had a restful evening at a hotel and went to bed early, so we could go to the beach before the break of day to see the newly hatched Kemp Ridley sea turtles released into the ocean!

All I can say about the experience...if you have never had this opportunity and are able to get to the Padre Island National Seashore, you need to find a way to do this.  While we waited for the release, we also had a chance to photo the large full moon of the season (known as the Sturgeon Moon).  We got a few pictures before listening to the ranger talk.


It was a great visit to the beach and the sea turtles are adorable.  They are highly protected from being endangered.  We were able to stay gathered around the release area in order to clear the way for their successful trip into the water.  It was a wonderful experience.  This makes you remember that all life is important...no matter how small...and that is certainly true for these little turtles as they are only the size of an Oreo cookie..."a bite size morsel" as the park ranger told us.

The picture I missed...found on line.

To continue our nature theme, we headed to a nature preserve in Port Aransas in search of the Roseate Spoonbill and other coastal birds.  We traveled down the Salt Water Trail and saw various species.  However, we had almost returned from the trail with no sign of our "Rosie-bird."  Henry and Edward had run ahead while the rest of us lingered on the trail to look.  When we were almost back to the trail head, Henry and Edward ran up and told us that they had seen it!  Did we see it fly overhead?  NO!!!!  So we dejectedly headed back to the van.  However, as we were walking through a pavilion, we saw it!!!  I tried to take a photo but it was amazing how fast this big bird could soar through the sky!  But, it was a beautiful sight to see.  It makes me want to return in the fall when the population increases.

We also stopped at the beach here to let the children enjoy a salt water swim.  Zaira did not think much of the waves and clasped on to Michael the entire time.  The boys had a blast jumping through the waves and watching the surfer camp next to us.  Brendan splashed in the lower waves close to shore.  I got to take pictures and enjoy the breeze.  It did not take long for the sun to warm things up.  The sand got hot and we decided to stop and look for a cache with our GPS.  We found it under a bus stop bench near the pier.

After that excitement, the plan was to cross over on the ferry and find a place to have an early lunch and head home.  The ferry ride here is not very exciting as it only lasts about 3 minutes, but we were out on the water along with the larger ships for a little while.  We were not doing well at locating a restaurant, so we continued the path home.

We were heading back into Corpus Christi and there she was...the USS Lexington!  Brendan saw her first and hollered out..."There's an aircraft carrier!"  I was surprised he knew what it was, so I asked him how he knew..."I am a genius, Mom.  I can think!"  Oh my!  So, our nature study then became a history lesson.  We postponed our hunger for food to sustain our hunger for knowledge.

My favorite part of the tour was speaking to a Korean War veteran who was refurbishing a large scale replica of the USS South Dakota.  He had been working on it for over three years and had at least  two years before completion.  We talked about the replica we viewed at Pearl Harbor, which got us talking about his father in World War II.  He told me how he was too young, so his father had to go in his place.  It was another chance to hear about history from someone who lived it.  I love those kind of opportunities!

Of course, the boys loved going through the ship and pretending to LIVE the history through their imagination.  They loved walking through the hull of the ship to see the daily routine on an aircraft carrier.  There were also several historical airplanes on the flight deck.  The children all enjoyed exploring the area and taking pictures with all of the fighter planes as these are highly decorated and bright colors.  Zaira even inspected areas that most would have ignored.  I think she would make a good inspector!

We did finally enjoy a seafood dinner (instead of lunch).  It was great to talk about the day with the children, while we sat out on the open patio.  It was especially nice to re-hydrate after a full day of being outside.  The waitress was kind and always kept our glasses full!  I wrote on several postcards to send home...as I love to do this when ever we go on an adventure.  There was even a live show and Zaira insisted that Michael dance with her.  She is such a Daddy's girl!  A great way to end her birthday weekend!

Well, we also got home to half a birthday cake!  So, we enjoyed our dessert before crashing in bed!  Michael especially enjoyed his sleep as he had only had about 8 hours of sleep over a four day period!  However, I think we all enjoyed a good sound sleep after the adventure at the coast!