We live less than a mile to the beach, one of the reasons why we chose to live where we live and in a smaller Cape style home. We recently got the nicest beach kit from Beachmate and we have been dying to use it. The weather has been so weird, really rainy it seems and colder than normal. Finally we had a nice night and decided to go test out our new beach kit. It was a little too cold to swim and it was after dinner, but I know my five year old would have swam if we let her. It was a great night to play in the sand and have ice-cream cones. Now that we are beach bums, we have learned a few things about making beach life a little easier. Here are our tips and squirting each other in the face with squirt guns is not one of them. (I have to watch those girls!)
Tip #1 Good Shovels. Last summer I struggled to find good shovels. I bought a couple I think at Target and they cracked after a few uses. Once they cracked it was too late in the season to find any to replace them at the store. I loved that this kit from Beachmate came with two sturdy shovels that are a hard plastic, safe with kids rather than a metal one but also very sturdy. Who knew how important a good shovel was.
Tip #2 Less is best. If you go to the beach often or have traveled and made frequent trips to the beach you know how frustrating it is to haul everything. Seriously, this goes through my head “how will we get all of this crap to our spot on the beach without yelling at my kids.” It is so nice to finally have something that holds cell phones, snacks, shovels, buckets, beach towel and more all in one. The less you have to carry in and out the better.
My girls love to swim at the beach but half the time they play in the sand and especially at night when we go after dinner. We went to Hawaii after Christmas and we were using plastic cups to make sand castles. I would have totally have brought this if I had it by then, so worth it for the hours of play and imagination.
We brought our newest family member, Finn who was three weeks old here. He loved the beach too.
Tip #3 Bring snacks not meals. We had already eaten dinner so I threw some ice-cream and cones into the nice cooler that came with the Beachmate kit, it was so convenient. Normally I wouldn’t haul something like that to the beach because I would need a separate cooler for it, but now we are in trouble with the treats we can bring the beach. I like to feed my family before we go to the beach and just pack in snacks. It is hard to get my girls to sit down to eat when there is water and sand around and then they get a healthy meal before we get to the beach. Then they can have the snacks and treats and that is much easier to carry in.
Like seriously in trouble! And this picture is so my girls, one doing all the work while the other is concerned with her next treat.
Tip #4 Get creative with sand. Every year at our local beach they hold a sand castle contest. Last year we just happened upon it, and we had cousins in town. It was so much fun. They hold it when the tied is low, making the best wet sand available. Ella and her cute cousin Chloe walked around with me and admired all of the unique castles. We were very inspired. Here are all of the amazing sand castles everyone made, that were not limited to just castles.
This one was the big winner. They brought coolers and different buckets, they had a plan and stuck to it! I was very impressed with the talent and commitment everyone put into their sand projects.
This was our little creation, very sweet and so much fun. We didn’t really have the right tools, but now with our Beachmate and our new brother Finn we will be bringing our A game this year!
The Beachmate kit includes- two shovels, five buckets that can be used to hold supplies then turned into the perfect thing to build sandcastles with, a tote bag and a cooler. They can also customize your kit with your name, I love that little addition. Check out Beachmate kits HERE. Beachmate is offering 10% off with promo code MEMORIALDAY (code expires Monday 5-30-16 midnight).
Thank you Beachmate for sponsoring this post. All of the opinions expressed are my own.
hey girl this is so cool! Love the pics!
Thank you Shawnna!
Cute t-shirts on the girls..Where did you find the short sleeve baseball shirt?
At Old Navy! thank you:)