Beach Packing & Clean Up {FREE Printable}

I like to think of myself as a fairly organized person.

But for some reason, when we go to the beach - which is quite often - I seem to loose all sense of organization.

I get everything in the car - and it seems like we're bringing the entire house with us -  so I feel like I've got everything I need. But then I arrive and I've forgotten something critical...like towels! No joke, I seriously forgot towels one time. And then I had to buy a towel from the beach gift shop and it cost $15. Lesson learned...right?

Apparently not.

The last time I went to the beach, I forgot my entire beach bag. Like my bag that had the sunscreen, hats, reading material and MY CELL PHONE! Oh, the horror!

So, I am finally taking my husband's advice and making a family "Beach Packing List."

But alas...lucky for me, I did a quick Internet search and guess what? The awesomely talented Jen at "I heart organizing" has not only created a fun, colorful beach checklist...she's made it available for free download on her amazing blog. Just click here to find it.

 

I will be personalizing mine and then laminating it and storing it in my beach bag. I have a feeling I'll be using it quite a lot this summer.

One more thought while we're on the topic of going to the beach... the dreaded beach clean up.

No one likes all the gritty sand entering the house after a fun day of swimming and sandcastles.

My solution is an easy 3-step process:

1. Make sure you pack dry clothes and have your child rinse off at the beach showers. If you can do this, you'll eliminate almost all of the sand in your car and in your house.

If there are no showers, bring along a couple gallons of drinking water. (Just make sure they're not scalding hot if you've been at the beach all day.) Then have your children sit on the car bumper or edge of the car door and rinse off their legs & feet as best you can.

If there is absolutely no water available, and your kids are not wet, use baby powder to remove the sand. For some odd reason, baby powder makes the sand fall right off, like magic!

2. Lay a towel down on the floor boards of the front and back seat. This will catch any additional sand that is sticking to people's feet and hopefully eliminate the need to vacuum your car when you get home.

3. When you get home, immediately take the wet bathing suits and towels and throw them into the washer. Don't leave them in a heap on the laundry room floor. That will only cause the sand to dump onto your floors and thus, get dragged throughout the house.

Seems pretty logical and simple, right? That's because it is. And it will make your post-beach clean up a snap!

Happy Beach-ing Everyone!

Long Boat Key

Ever been to Long Boat Key? It's a tiny little key just past Amelia Island (near Bradenton) on the West coast of Florida. There is only one two-lane road that leads in and out of Long Boat Key (LBK) and it is mostly lined with condos, houses and an occasional waterfront restaurant. At the end of the Key is a round-about circle called "St. Armand's Circle." It's one of my happy places. Probably because the few times I've been to St. Armand's Circle has been to eat great food, shop at my favorite stores, and relax with amazing people. LBK is one of my favorite places to vacation.

Lucky for me, one of my best friends has a condo there and her daughter, Lilly, and Payton have been friends since they were babies. Literally...

And through the years as they've grown up, attended different schools, changed interests, and realized that they are different genders... yet nothing has changed. They are still thick as thieves and get along so incredibly well.

Spending a few days at their condo in LBK is so relaxing and so much fun. The kids play all day long alternating between the white sandy beaches and the two pools at the condo. They search for coquinas, play in the waves, make up extensive pool games and basically wear themselves out.

Of course Parker tags right along...until he crashes for his naps.

During this visit, my friend Rachel built them a huge fort across the dining room area. They played inside of it the entire visit pretending to be otters.

Notice Payton's "Otter stance".

They begged to sleep under this fort. But we thought it probably wouldn't be a good idea.

One evening we drove down to The Circle and did a little shopping at one of my favorite stores, Lilly Pulitzer. Even the dressing rooms in this store are fabulous! Brightly decorated with maps of Florida, floral pillows and a great bench, which Parker quickly rearranged so that all of the pillows were on the floor. I'm sure the employees would have loved it.

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Hey...they were having a GREAT sale!

 Even the kiddos love Lilly Pulitzer. :)

 Then we grabbed a quick bite to eat, followed by a stop at Kilwin's ice cream and fudge shop. Guess who got a huge slab of homemade chocolate fudge...

Our final stop was at my favorite little dessert shop, Le Macaron. The most beautiful French macarons you've ever seen... or tasted!

The next day was filled with more beach fun, seashell hunts and swimming before we headed home.

It was the perfect summer getaway and we are so grateful to our sweet friends for inviting us to stay with them. Thanks Lilly & Rachel - we love you gals!

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That's probably it for blog posts this week. Brian leaves on his mission trip to Haiti and I will be spending lots of time with family while he's gone. I'll be back next week with a couple more posts but until then, enjoy your summer!!

Memorial Day Weekending

It's almost 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening.
The house is silent except little scratches here and there from Mocha.
Everyone else crashed out early, so I just spent the past hour or so editing and uploading all of the pictures I took over the weekend.
It's a long, and sometimes tedious, process to go through the hundreds of pictures I take over the course of a few days. But at the same time, I find myself pausing on random photos, smiling - sometimes even laughing - when I see something that maybe I didn't notice when I originally took the picture. Sometimes it's an expression on someone's face; sometimes it's a moment that I had forgotten I had captured; sometimes it's just a sweet embrace between two family members that just makes me so happy for phone cameras... for without them, I would have only a fraction of the pictures that I do.
And although I would give anything for a big ol professional Nikon, my iphone has captured some pretty amazing pics this weekend. Tell me whatcha think...

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As I shared in my last post, I hosted a baby shower at our house on Saturday, so Brian took the boys to his parents' for the day. It was a huge help to have the house empty all morning to prep for the shower, but even nicer to have a quiet house all afternoon so I could rest after being on my feet for 8 hours straight. :) 

The boys were SO excited to go spend the day with Grandma & Grandpa. Here's a picture Brian snapped on his phone as they were leaving for their "Guys Day Out."

 

There was no shortage of fun that day, that's for sure!

They went to Payton's favorite breakfast spot when they arrived and then hit Walmart for a little toy shopping.

How precious is this picture? Good job Brian capturing such a sweet hug.

Then Grandpa to the boys out for some miniature golf.

Apparently that didn't tire them out enough, so Brian then took them swimming!

After that, Parker got his blanket and pacifier and climbed up in Grandma's lap for some snuggles...

and then...

CRASHED.

He slept like this for over 2 hours! My poor Mom-in-law, her arm must have been killing her. They ended up having to wake him up because it was getting past dinner time and Brian needed to head back to Tampa. Nothing like napping in Grandma's arms. The best place in the house!

On Sunday after church we headed out to one of our favorite local beaches with some friends of ours.

We were waiting in line to get into the beach and Brian had his window rolled down with his foot sticking out the window. I looked back and Parker is doing the same exact thing. Mini-Brian!

Parker had a great time playing with his friend Nathaniel and of course, big brother.

Parker did not want to come out of the water, so he wasn't thrilled when I took this picture. :)

My Dad sent us a "Memorial Day Care Package" with his famous "Paca-Corn" in it. So we made sure to bring it with us to the beach! {Thanks Dad!}

It was a beautiful evening and we stayed long after the crowds of people packed up and headed out, only to leave us with an empty beach and a spectacular show in the sky!

Stunning night sky.

Monday morning, I was treated to a pancake breakfast made by the boys.

 They were delicious!

Then we rallied the troops and headed up to our local pool with some friends to wear out the kiddos. It worked like a charm because Parker took a marathon nap and we ended up having to wake him up to go to our Memorial Day block party. Poor kid was so tired.

But nothing turns a cranky kid into a smiling one like giving him a special cupcake!

After the block party, we went to our neighbor's house for some swimming and sparklers.

It was a great way to end a fun-filled weekend.

Of course, even though we did do all of the traditional Memorial Day things like attend parties, eat hot dogs, and hang with family and friends, we also want to once again be reminded of the real meaning behind this holiday.

There are so many people who spend this day grieving over a lost loved one who gave their life for our country. The sacrifices that have been made are truly awe-inspiring if you stop to think about it.

So, thank you to all of our Veterans and current military service men and women.

Without you, our lives would look very different today.

We salute you.

We thank you.

We honor you.

Weekending

This is how I kicked off my weekend:

Yep. Painted my nails "Peacock" green.

(My mother is mortified right now, I'm sure of it.)

But I tell ya, the bold color on my fingernails must have translated into a carefree spirit somehow because I had such an incredible laid-back weekend with a variety of friends I haven't seen or hung out with in a LONG time.

But first things first, I have to brag on Payton for a minute.

His class had their Mother's Day Poetry Cafe on Friday morning and it was so precious.

The kids all sang "You Are My Sunshine" (handmotions and everything!) in unison.

 Then we were escorted back to our child's seat and treated to some breakfast goodies along with our child reading us their poetry booklet.

They even made a Mother's Day poetry card and a flower made out of tissue paper. So sweet!!

 

 Of course he wrote a poem about his bunny...

...and how good he is at Minecraft.

(at least I know that he's "not a bad guy"). :)

Each of the students also read poems aloud to the class. Payton did a fantastic job. I was almost in tears, which isn't surprising. He's such an awesome kid!

That afternoon, we had a little "car wash" in the driveway.

Parker and I have read the book, "Scrubbly Bubbly Car Wash" about 20 times in the past few days and I said, "Why don't we make our own car wash?" and that little boy got SO excited!

Really, all it was, was a bucket and a sponge with some dish soap. But when you add a garden hose and a toy car... it's a car wash baby!

Of course it didn't take long for the big kids to want to join in the fun too.

And after all the toy cars and bikes were clean, they all decided to lay down and enjoy a popscicle.

That evening, we went to a neighbor's house for a BBQ. We haven't hung out in a long time, so it was so much fun catching up and watching all the kids swim together. I didn't snap any pictures while we were there, so you'll just have to trust me that we had a great time. :)

Saturday morning, Brian took the boys to Dunkin Donuts and then to his office so I could sleep in. {He's such a good hubby.}

Later that morning, I took Payton to Cracker Barrel to meet up with my friend Rachel and her daughter, Lilly. (Brian kept Parker so we could actually eat and talk in peace & quiet).

We had the best time. Payton and Lilly laughed so hard they both practically couldn't breathe. It's so fun for me to see them together. They've been friends since they were about 2 and it never matters how much time elapses between our visits... they just pick up right where they left off. Like no time has passed at all. Fortunately, Rachel and I are the same way. We had such a great time just drinking coffee and catching up all morning.

The rest of the weekend, I got to enjoy my sweet friend Amy who was in town for her Doctorate graduation! (Hello... SO smart!!!!)

She used to live here in Tampa, but moved to Wisconsin last year due to her husband's job. We were SO excited to spend some time with them while they were in FL.

She has 3 darling little girls and she rented a beach house for the week to celebrate her amazing accomplishment. We were invited out to the house to let the kiddos play together...

...and play, they did!!!

 

This was all the kids on Sunday swimming together. They had an absolute blast!

Parker was thrilled to get his hands in the sand.

And Mommy got to soak up the sun on the beach for a few minutes too.

Happy lady right here...

So, I sit here tonight, writing this post. Side-by-side on the couch with Brian, a glass of red wine sitting beside me and candles lit on the table in front of me. Both of us with laptops in our laps, happily clicking away... I think:

 "Man... what a great weekend...filled with great friends and awesome memories. This is the way weekends should be."

And with that, I say, "Goodnight!" so I can encourage both of us to turn off the computers and enjoy some snuggle time while we catch up on our DVR.