May 1st

Beach days were chaos.

Absolute chaos.

Lily - their ocean lover - had run for the water as soon as her feet hit the sand. Kate rushed off after her to make sure she didn't head too far in, leaving Castle alone to wrangle the twins, the towels, the toys and the picnic basket.

Fortunately, this wasn't his first rodeo and he was fairly certain he had figured it all out.

The trick was to keep the boys distracted; make them feel useful.

"Reece, buddy," Castle called out to the toddler just a few steps ahead of him on their journey down the beach. "This bucket and spade is way too heavy. D'ya think you can help me out with those big, strong muscles?"

"Hulk strong!" the boy declared in a rough grumbling tone as he flexed his arms.

"I strong, too!" Jake - never one to miss out - stated as he tugged the beach ball from where it sat tucked between Castle's hip and wrist.

With the inflated plastic armrest gone, Castle's arm dropped back against his side and the picnic basket he had clutched in his hand banged against his calf.

"Sorry Daddy," Jake said before running off to catch up with his brother.

"That's okay, Bud."

Castle smiled to himself as his little helpers, just a few yards ahead of him, picked out their spot for the day and dumped the toys on the sand.

"We wanna swim, too," Reece complained as Castle laid out the picnic blanket and anchored each corner with whatever he had available to stop it from blowing away in the breeze.

"Help me set up and then we can all race to Mom! How does that sound?"

"Yeah!" the boys cheered.

They dragged the bag of sand toys to the edge of the blanket and Jake began to pull out each toy, one by one, then hand it to Reece who would then place it onto the blanket.

"No, boys- that's..."

The boys stopped what they were doing and looked up at their father with beaming smiles.

"You know what? You're doing a great job," Castle praised them, accepting that scattered toys were a much better alternative to scattered twins running down the beach in opposite directions. "Keep going."

He watched as the boys got back to work with unbridled enthusiasm, working together until the very last toy had been unpacked.

"Swim now?" Jake asked.

"Yeah, buddy, we can swim now."

"Race!" Reece reminded them eagerly.

"Go!"

Jake and Reece took off down the beach, pushing their little legs as fast as they could go. Fortunately, as fast as they could go (especially on soft sand) was the equivalent of a brisk walk for Castle's much longer legs.

The squeals of delight when the first wave rushed over their little feet gained the attention of Kate and Lily, and Castle rushed the last few steps to catch up to them.

"Daddy, I'm a mermaid!" Lily called as she splashed about.

"I'm the mermaid queen," Kate bragged as she waded from the waist-deep water to help him with the boys.

"Daddy can be the king," Lily offered as she joined them. "I'm the princess. Jake and Reece can be the brave knights that protect our underwater kingdom!"

"No, I wanna be shark!" Jake protested.

"Sharks aren't allowed in my kingdom," Lily warned him.

"Sneak in!" Reece encouraged with a mischievous smirk. "And eat her!"

"Yeah, I will eat you!" Jake laughed.

With a playful squeal, Lily took off running through the shallow water - slow enough for her brothers to think they actually stood a chance catching her - and the boys chased after her with their arms in front of them, clapping their hands together in a 'chomping' motion.

As Kate turned to watch their kids play together, Castle stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"We made some pretty sweet kids," he commented.

She leant her head against his. "Yeah, we did."

"Do you ever think about, maybe, just one more?"

She pushed his hands from where they had - accidentally - stopped to rest on her stomach.

"Not a chance, Castle," she warned.

"Kidding." He smirked and pressed a kiss to her cheek before running toward the children.

"We need to save the princess, my queen!" he called over his shoulder.

She smiled and shook her head before joining them again.

A/N: tumblr prompts for "mushy May". A 'moment' for every day.

Some will be very short so I might post a few days at a time.

MAELSTROM is coming! I promise I have not given up on it! I just don't have access to a computer right now. Thank you for your patience.