A Play Date

My friend, Jennifer, brought her two girls over to play with my girls today.  Jennifer and I met in kindergarten and have remained friends all these years.  While we live quite a distance apart, we still try to get together with our girls for birthdays and a few scattered play dates.  Her oldest, Sydney, will turn 6 in July,and while we aren't able to attend her birthday party year, we still wanted to make today special for her.  (Her youngest, Kiera, was born three weeks before Sam).

As soon as they arrived at our house today, we headed down to the beach before the sun got too hot for us -- afterall, the temperatures have been near 100 degrees here the last couple of days.

This was the scene in front of Jennifer and myself as we travelled the short distance to the water.  Both her and I whipped out our cameras to secretly capture this moment -- the girls did this all on their own, totally unpromtped and unscripted.  I think we both smiled the largest smiles possible.

Sophia set a record and managed to keep her hat on for the first half of our beach adventure:

Sam set to work making sand castles, of course.  It seems to be her personal mission everytime, and I love that ...

Sydney and Kiera joined in by gathering all of the water needed.

Before we left to head back home, Jennifer and I set out to do the impossible -- we attempted to take a picture of all four of our girls together on the beach.  This was the best one:

Sam and Kiera:

Blowing out the candles on Sydney's special cake:

And, finally, opening her gift from us.  It was all that Jennifer and I could do to hold the girls back and just let Sydney open her own gift!

It was a great day for all of us!  Hours later, Sam said to me, "Momma, Sydney is so great.  She's just so adorable ..."  Yes, she is a very special girl!