Beach Toy Essentials

Favorite Summer Beach Toys

Summer is officially here. Gulp and double gulp. Alexa tells me there are 70 days until school starts so my wheels are turning for ways to keep these children happy and entertained! Disclaimer: My kids are super happy just to chill at home, but I try to have something planned *most* days of the week just to keep everyone from getting on each other’s nerves!

What’s In Our Beach Wagon?

One of the obvious activities for our clan will be the BEACH! We have loads of town beaches to choose from and I can’t wait to load up the car and roll out our beach wagon filled with goodies. I’ve listed everything we have in our beach wagon below. In general, our wagon has things like beach toys, chairs, hats, a blanket, extra sunblock and water.

This nesting set of buckets has been a big hit because of the sifter… always the hope for a gem or jewel buried in the sand. I also picked up five of these mini kids chairs! This one is from Homegoods, but I found these that are super similar from Amazon.

This paddle game called Kadima was a childhood fave of mine, and the kids can’t get enough of it! Oliver plays with Mark anytime he can, but I’m trying to encourage them to play with their baby brother a bit too, because Arthur loves nothing more than swatting at the ball!

Another fave? A simple plastic truck or two. Arthur spends most of his time pushing the trucks around the sand and loading/ unloading rocks and shelves.

Eleanor’s our sand castle queen and she’s been perfecting her technique. Our sand is super rocky so it doesn’t hold together as well as fine sand, but she’s getting better and better. This set of buckets has helped!

Last summer my sister had some of these larger shovels when we were together on the Jersey shore and the kids loved them! They’re much easer for digging serious trenches and body sized holes. Fingers crossed, that Wonder Woman suit will make it through another summer! #socute

This surfer was everywhere at the beach last summer and I never grabbed one so this summer, game on! Our Long Island Sound surf isn’t as great for it as other places, but the kids still love to watch the surfer float back to the beach, and because of the way it’s made, it stays upright like a real surfer!

Another game that Arthur loves is this little net ball. I love this one because we can wade in the water and play it there too! Arthur brings it over and likes me to toss it into his net.

Remember that sifter I mentioned earlier? Here it is again… combined with a watering can, it’s a fun sensory play game for them. Also, still no gold or gems.

Last summer, I grabbed a bunch of terry cloth beach cover ups for the girls. It makes getting ready for the beach super easy and provides a little protection from the sun/ cold water.

I didn’t catch a picture of it, but I found these reusable water balloons and the big kids were obsessed! You can fill them up from a hose or faucet or also by dunking into the water. They’re made of a soft rubber material so it doesn’t hurt when you throw them at each other and water ‘bursts’ out just the way it does from a real water balloon!

These umbrellas technically go with the beach chairs, but the kids took some liberties and started recreating their mermaid fantasies. I love these striped turkish towels and leave a thick patterned Mexican blanket like this in the wagon for sand lounging.

As for me? No selfies on the beach this most recent visit, but I wear this inexpensive straw hat (I have it in tan and blue) and this embroidered Mexican tunic.  It’s so nice to wheel out a wagon filled with games and activities that the kids can enjoy and engage with for longer than 12 minutes!

Summary of beach gear

• Beach Wagon
• 5-in-1 Beach Toy
• Watering Can
• Beach Hat
• Kadima
• Chairs with Umbrella
• Net Ball
• Reusable Water Balloon
• Surfer
• Shovels
• Sand Baking
• Turkish Towel
• Girl’s Beach Cover Up
• Wonder Woman Suit
• Mexican Beach Blanket
• Mexican Embroidered shirt
• Ladies Mexican Cover Up