Ethan folded his arms, studying the sandcastle in front of him with a raised brow.
It was… something.
The towers were leaning, the walls looked more like random lumps of sand, and the moat — while an admirable attempt — was uneven, half-dried in places, and barely deep enough to hold water.
But despite its flaws, he had to admit, Julia and Megan had put their hearts into it.
"You guys really went all out, huh?" he said, rubbing his chin as if he were an architect inspecting blueprints.
Julia beamed, hands on her hips. "We told you it was big!"
Megan nodded rapidly. "And we made a moat!"
She pointed excitedly at the shallow trench surrounding the castle, filled with seawater they had painstakingly carried over in tiny buckets.
Ethan had to admit, that part was kind of cute. The two of them had obviously put a lot of effort into this.
He knelt down and ruffled their hair. "Not bad. Not bad at all."