{ Rita's Ice - Custard - Happiness }

Whenever we go to Atlantic Beach or Neptune Beach, we have to make a stop by Rita's on the way home. We HAVE to. It's not a, "Hey, so do you wanna go by Rita's when we head home?" It is more like, "So what flavor are you gonna get at Rita's on the way home?" There is no question about whether or not we will be making a stop at Rita's. It is assumed.

And let me tell you, the line is well worth the wait and I like the way their sign advertises

 * Ice * Custard * Happiness *

I will stand in line for Happiness that's for sure....well, I'll stand in line for Italian ice and custard too.

Rita's has a huge variety of Italian Ice and their best thing is a Gelati Cup which is 1 layer of custard, 1 layer of Italian Ice, and topped with one more layer of custard. Today, my husband ordered the mango Italian ice blended Gelati and I opted for the orange creme blend. Saylor went for the sprinkle loaded vanilla ice cream. We were as happy as 3 beach bums could be on the way home with our yummo icy treats......until the brain freeze hit.

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 12 }

A winter's day walk on the beach in the coat that Grandma made.

Merry 12 Day of Christmas to you!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{Driftwood}

When we found this driftwood on the beach the other day, my 3 year old nephew reacted as though we had discovered some sort of washed up pirate treasure. Maybe he was right. I'd like to think so.

I love driftwood for it's simple smooth aged look. It reminds me of dinosaur bones displayed at the museum. My husband knowing me so well will say, "You want me to take the driftwood home." not as a question, but as a statement.
I like to ponder which shore it came from. Perhaps it traveled from a far off coast where a child once spent a summer climbing a tree to which it belonged. Or maybe it was once part of a tree that provided shade to an old fisherman as he lived out his old age on the shore in his beach house feeding sea gulls in the morning. Or maybe it came from just an ordinary tree on some other coast and wasn't anything special....until I found it.

"At the beach, life is different. Time doesn't move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides and follow the sun." --- Unknown

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

All Creatures Great and Small



"Look, Mom."

"I see it, Honey."

"Is it dead?"

"Yes, sweetheart."

"That's so sad. I feel bad for it."

"I know. Me too."

"Do you think we should bury it?"

"No, the ocean will take care of it. When the tide comes up at night while you are sleeping, the wave will take it back to the sea where it is meant to go."

"Are you sure it's dead?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"I am gonna say a prayer for it."

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

Remains of Summer

photo found here

I am a summer girl. I love summer far too much for it to end. If I was any of the girls in the above photo, I'd be the one on top with her arms outstretched totally blissed out.

 I love the laziness of summer days with the sound of locusts filling the air as if they are children humming into a fan vibrating their voices. I enjoy endless afternoons with my daughter far too much to have to wait a whole year before summer eases it's way back into our days.

photo from here

The last remains of summer leave me feeling melancholy. I feel like a child who has been told it is time to go home after spending only moments in a candy shop. Or I feel like it is similar to when you know you will soon have to say goodbye to someone who you aren't ready to see leave. If only summer and I could visit a little longer.

photo found here

In 3 short days, it will be back to the routine of packing school lunches and sending my daughter off to school--sticking to a weekly bedtime routine, checking homework, and signing papers. If only I could capture summer in a jar to keep on my nightstand.

Beach and pool days have been the best with my husband and daughter. I like how my husband gently rinses my ankles and feet with a bucket of ocean water before we get seated in the car. I feel like Cleopatra or a Greek Goddess.

photo found here

I love how simplified a day at the beach can be where the sound of my daughter's laughter carries out over the water like a message in a bottle. Can you hear her joy on the coast of Africa sailing over the waves as she dances on the sand here in Florida? Come back to me, Summer. I'll be waiting.

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

To the Sea!

“"maggie and millie and molly and may"

maggie and millie and molly and may

went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

millie befriended a stranded star

who's rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)

it's always ourselves we find in the sea.”

E.E. Cummings

Ocean's Playmate

My daughter is the ocean's playmate. I love how a day at the beach can renew my belief that children are indeed capable of having fun without 21st century gadgets---where a piece of drift wood and the ocean are all it takes to enter a world of make-believe. 

Conductor of the Mermaid Symphony

---Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

Sandy Toes

I love to walk along the beach, sandals in hand, and look for sea glass.

How simple and simultaneously grand the ocean can be between my toes!

---Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

Growing Up Coastal Style

Where is the best place to spend the 1st weekend of Summer Vacation and Memorial Day, as well? The beach of course! My modern day Gidget wasted zero time getting on her bikini and grabbing her boogie board while my husband and I grabbed the picnic basket and beach blanket. Her shrills of laughter as she splashed in the waves matched the endless shrills of the sea gulls. With each wave, she joyfully hollered, "Wow, what a wave!" or if a wave carried her boogie board just right, she would exclaim, "What a ride!" She certainly has the surfer lingo down. Today the Boogie Board--Tomorrow, the Surf Board. 

---Sealed with a kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.