Beach Baby

I know ya'll must be thinking we fell off the face of the Earth, but I promise we're here and we'll be back blogging regularly soon!  We're in the middle of a little blog overhaul, changing up our topics and focus a little.  


Aaaanyway, I'm packing right now for our yearly beach trip and I thought I would let ya'll know my fave products to take to the beach for preschoolers and my tried and true products for beach babies!


Let's start with those itty bitties, shall we?  We took Noah to the beach for the first time when he was 5 months old.  Here's what worked for us...

The Bumbo seat was awesome!  Noah sat in his in the sand and at the edge of the ocean and just giggled up a storm.  I would show you a pic, but I'm still working on seeing what 40% of my data I have from my computer crash.  Boo! :(

We also took this sun dome by Kel-gar and Noah loved taking naps in here and cooling off in the shade.  It's also very handy for the backyard.  

Now that Noah is 4, he can play in the sand and ocean ALL day, so here's what helps us now...

I bought one of these pop-up mesh bags at Dollar Tree.  To pack, it folds up flat and then we put all of his sand toys in it to carry back & forth to the beach.  You can actually wash off everything in the bag at the same time and the water drains out.  

image via The Idea Room

A trick I just learned about, but haven't tried yet is using baby powder to get the sticky sand off of little bodies.  That is something we've struggled with for the past 3 years, so I'm anxious to see if this really works.  

My boy has always been really bothered by the heat, he sweats just walking out the door.  So, the swim tops that they make for boys don't work for him.  The sleeves come down to his elbows and they have high necks......can we say HOT???  So, I found out that mesh tank tops work great!  The fabric can get wet and dries super fast!  So, when I don't want his tummy & back to get burned, he wears these.  ***Walmart has these on sale right now for less than $3.00 size 6 month to 5T.  

And, finally...whatever you do, you must protect that sweet skin from the sun.  I've tried several different brands, but keep coming back to this Coppertone Water Babies.  It is the least sticky, no scent, and has the best coverage.  For active little ones like mine, I like the spray.  It takes less time and I don't have to hear, "Mommy, are you done yet?" five hundred times like with the lotion.  

Ok, better go get packing!  See you soon!