Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Artist of the Week: Sand Castle

Enemy ship by Teckelcar
Enemy ship, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.
The artist, or rather artists, of the week are Jake, Nate, Max, and Rebecca. It was a real pleasure watching all four of them working so well together during our entire time on the beach. They were very happy to help each other build various structures in the resulting sprawling complexes they created.

In the top picture you can see all four working away with the Lost Pearl in the background. I couldn't resist taking this picture of the pirate party boat in the background. It gives the fortification a little more meaning.

bridge by Teckelcar
bridge, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.
In the next picture, featuring Miss Rebecca, there is a close up picture of one of the many bridges. The kids found the sand to be ideal for building all sorts of ambitious structures. No internal drift wood supports were needed. The sand was just wet enough to hold together and form almost any shape. They didn't need buckets of water to keep the structure from crumbling away. The biggest threat was stray toddlers (of which there were mercifully few with the notable except of two cuties that were well corralled by their doting father) and the advancing surf.

The kids were careful to erect the main body of their fort high enough on the wash to lessened the danger of advancing waves, but not where the sand was too dry to stick together.

the complex by Teckelcar
the complex, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.
In the third picture you can see Nate and Rebecca working on the details of the fort. They discovered that the sand could hold a squared edge and as a result they made small houses throughout the structure. Near Nate you can also see a few more of the bridges. Nate was the main bridge builder and was in fact the one to request documentation of their efforts.

Anyhoodle as you can see the whole thing did sprawl out over a large area. The beach wasn't terribly crowded, which may have been been due to the fact it was early in the day and rain clouds were sweeping in. Either way the kids could build to their hearts content until it was time to go.

the tide by Teckelcar
the tide, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.
Now at the water's edge Jake made a sturdy structure with dribble castles on top. He had help from his siblings to create what was initially a thick wall to repel the waves. Then it evolved into a squat tower. It got washed over a few times,but that didn't deter Jake. He would repair and replace as needed. Max was more than happy to help out with the connecting wall.

Max, in fact, was happy to help out wherever he was needed. His siblings would remain working in one area, while he bounced about.

tower by Teckelcar
tower, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.
Here is one final view. Again it is looking out towards the ocean, but as opposed to the top picture it is down by the tower. I like how the breaking wave gives a note of impending mayhem.

It was a good weekend at the beach.

I am particularly proud of how well the kids got along and even went so far as to invite others to join in on the fun. On Saturday (these pictures were all taken on Sunday) two boys roughly the age of Jake and Nate helped work on the day's sand castle. For a brief moment I had six children and all was good in the world.


2 comments:

Diane said...

You've got great kids :) Everyone is growing so quickly, and it seems as if the siblings are all going to be good friends as they age.

Sarah said...

Thank you, mind they have their differences. But that just means they are human.