1. Welp. Time for the birthday recap. For starters, we “Drewed” the shit out of canoeing. We planned on having a picnic lunch at the beach so I had to basically pack an entire pantry’s worth of food: chicken salad, pretzel rolls, a cut up watermelon, a box of chip bags, box of sour gummies, 2 12-count juice boxes, 24 water bottles, and a partridge in a pear tree. I filled up an entire big blue IKEA bag and that sucker was heavy. We also had a beach bag with 6 towels and 4 sweatshirts because you never know when my kids will decide that they’re freezing to death and will never ever possibly warm up even if it’s 90 degrees outside. Oh. And 7 life vests, 2 puddle jumpers, and 4 paddles. We’d never been to that beach before so we didn’t realize you had to park about a quarter of a mile from the actual beach- meaning we had to get all of that stuff down there and back up. Additionally, we were worried that the canoe trailer was going to grow legs and walk off because it’s super nice. When we pulled in, I thought for sure the day was ruined before it started. The good news is that the trailer was very light and the canoes make very excellent crap holders. We loaded everything up in the canoes, unhitched the trailer, and off we went.
The kids loved canoeing and playing in the muddy muddy water. They were FILTHY and EXHAUSTED when we left. I made the executive decision to leave after about 2.5 hours because I wanted them to leave while they still loved it. There is a thiiiiiiin line between “OMG this is the best ever” and “NEVER AGAIN I hate this so much” and it is all dependent on exhaustion levels. Ask me about cross country skiing sometime. We made it out from the beach under exhausted enough that they’re already begging me to go again. I am seriously tempted to buy an inflatable paddle board. I am telling you. It was fun. It was made even more fun by the fact that we haven’t done much in 5 months. Thank you Corona for taking a good birthday and turning it into a magnificent one.
2. My kids were so excited to give me my presents when we got home. The kids saved their money and picked out a very special necklace for me. They’ve known they’re giving it to me for MONTHS and they must have had some sort of secret blood oath because not one of them spilled their guts. I am impressed. Jerry also got me a very clever and super thoughtful “apple for the teacher” bell that is engraved “Mrs. Meagan Drew PreK, 1, 4, 5” I ordered WingStop for dinner and had Target red velvet cake for dessert with number candles that said “36 ——- 1” because we didn’t have a 7. Then, I had a walk with my friend to round out the day. After I crawled into bed, I watched TikTok videos until I dozed off. It was pretty much the perfect day.
3. The only downside to my birthday day was that all that outside time bathed me in allergens and today has been rough. I have had to take Benadryl on top of my usual prescription allergy meds. Today, my bubble besties had a super fun birthday party for the early August birthday buddies. I took a calculated risk and took 1, not 2, benadryl before the party because I couldn’t stop sneezing and coughing and scratching my eyes. If there’s one thing you don’t want at a party during coronatine – it’s someone rocket sneezing their germs on to the lovely homemade cakes and smoked queso dip. Believe it. Was I Benadryl stoned for my party? Yes. Yes, I was. No heavy machinery was operated or hurt in the making of this party. The birthday party was still amazingly great, full of people we love big, even if I was doing my best Lindsey Lohan impression.
This birthday (all of it) was one for the books!
drewonpaper.com 