WHEELCHAIRS & BEACH BALLS

We went to Long Beach last week for Kids Day, an event for special-needs kids in the area, held in conjunction with the Catalina Ski Race. This was our fourth (fifth?) year and as always it was uplifting. Even though my favorite "kid" Tray wasn't there, I met lots of other sweet kids and parents. This year I handed out mardi gras beads and beach balls. I only made one guy flash for the beads - he was a boat driver with a cowboy hat and was hot. The Girl didn't want to give any of the 100 beachballs away. She just liked being in her "ball forest."

The Hubby as usual spent his day on the shore and in the water lifting kids into the speed boats so they could go for a ride. The smiles on their faces are truly amazing.

Before we went, I reminded The Girl that some of the kids couldn't talk as well as she could and some would be in wheelchairs. She of course didn't notice any differences (god, kids are great, aren't they?). She loves wheelchairs (ever since getting a ride on a purple one at last year's event) and kept commenting how cool each chair was. The kids all thought that was neat.

But The Girl's highlight was getting her picture taken with all the clowns. I know! They freak me out too, but she just loves them.

So once again, I left feeling extremely lucky to have a healthy little girl and very humbled by all the other parents' daily workload. And the kids, well they were just the icing on the cake.