So we spent this lovely Sunday afternoon in October at the beach, it is probably the last time we will see the beach this year and while it seemed a little chilly as we left the house before we abandoned the beach Molly had gone in the water all the way up to her waist. We had our own little section of the beach until a rather odd trio appeared. They came on to the scene and immediately one of them curled up on the sand and began to slumber another slunk of to god knows where and the third began making her way over to us. It did not take very long to deduct that this member of the trio had been indulging in some early afternoon cocktails. She was a very friendly maybe a little too friendly and did not want to let the conversation go and she followed us every time I tried to steer the girls a little bit this way or a little bit that way. Finally something else caught her eye and she was on her way down the beach. As her friend continued to sleep a seagull found the picnic the trio had packed for themselves, within seconds the seagull was making a awful sound that seemed to signal the rest of the crew that he had hit the jackpot. Before you know it the sleeping woman and her picnic lunch were surrounded by birds going to town on what turned out to be a grocery bag full of food. The girls and I were down by the water as this was happening at the top of the beach by the sand dunes and I must admit that even if I had not been watching over two little girls I do not think the good Samaritan in me would have intervened in the situation that was unfolding. More and more gulls approached as number one peacefully slumbered not stirring a bit and #2 and #3 were no where to be seen. Some one else with a bigger heart than mine did try to persuade the feeding frenzy of birds but to no avail. After the sandwiches which were tightly wrapped in large sheets of wax paper and the bags of chips in cellophane bags had been shredded and devoured I see friendly member of the trio making her way back to her spot. She spots the commotion from a bit of a distance but the early afternoon cocktails are taking their effect on her making any sort of speedy approach. She ungracefully runs and stumbles and runs and stumbles to the birds shaking her fists and yelling, number one is still sleeping, and it takes her a good four to five minutes to get these birds to abandon the food. I watch as she salvages what she can, which really would you try to salvage anything from that scene? Then she glares in my direction as if I should have done more to protect her picnic and part of me wonders if maybe I should have, but anyone who knows my children knows that they are terrified of any living feathered or furry creature and would never have forgotten the horror they felt as I charged in to a flock of seagulls. Besides I had to conserve my energy to get my children and there gear back to the car and cleaned up. Which is no easy feat when you consider my kids strange dispositions. My girls are all for getting down and dirty until suddenly every speck of sand must be off of their body before a full fledged panic attack is under way. So a few hours at the beach involves careful planning on my part which for some reason I did not consider today and actually went to the beach on a whim without the proper equipment. The equipment consists of bottles of water to rinse hands and feet, changes of clothing, baby wipes for sticky spots and ice cold drinks for the ride home. Today we improvised and it was not as disastrous as I thought, dare I say that maybe they are adapting to life as "normal" humans sand and all. So today I had them rinse their hands in the ocean then their feet and then jump in to my arms and if you could only have seen me carrying them both all the way from low low low tide all the way back to the parking lot. Molly kept saying why are you making that noise with your breath? Well I don't know maybe carrying 70-80 pounds in wet mushy sand is a little hard for a mom as out of shape as me, you really don't need to insult the person who is carrying your little butt quite a distance just to avoid a little sand on your tootsies.