Top 10 Summer Must Haves

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Yes, yes, I know it’s only spring but when the last week has been 75+ degrees and even as high as 85 you can’t help but start to think of the summer. My kids have less than 28 days before the school year is OVER and I’m more than ready to sleep in (a little) and then spend most of the day outside.

There is hardly a day during the summer that the three kids and I don’t pack up and head out. Our top three spots are one of our local parks, the river or the pool.

Pulling from our last couple of summers here are our family’s Top 10 Summer Must haves for day trips with kids and why we can’t live without them!

Wet Bag: If you spend any time at all playing in or around water, a wet bag is an absolute must have. Most of the times when we’re at the river or the pool the kids are in the water until the very last second which means their bathing suits are often wet. As soon as the kids get out of their bathing suits I toss it right into the wet bag. It keeps the bathing suits contained so nothing else gets wet, and the second we get home I either hang the suits up to dry, or throw them in the wash!
Mineral Sunscreen: I’ll be honest and say that we’re not huge sun screen wearers. We’re 100% okay with letting the kids get some good ole fashioned Vitamin D. We also prefer to cover the kids up vs fight them to get sunscreen on! But when we do use suncreen, a non-nano mineral sunscreen is an absolute must for us. We LOVE Young Living’s Mineral Sunscreen. A little goes a LONG way with this sunscreen and we typically apply 1-2 times on days that are especially sunny. Pro Tip: When you think the container is empty, cut off the top–you’ll get another 2-5 applications AT LEAST!
Pop up sun shade: This was totally new to me last summer and I’m not sure how we surived without it in previous summers. This quick pop up sun shade made for the perfect shady spot on hot summer days and the perfect spot to set up lunch too! We got ours at Big Lots and the brand is no longer available but I found this comparable one on Amazon. I love how easy it is to open and put away. We often took it out at the river and whenever we had a swim meet!
Waterproof blanket: We spend a lot of time at the river so having a waterproof blanket to set up is an absolute must have. It’s super easy to clean and nice and large so that everyone has a spot. We got ours at Costco, and you can find similar ones there now or you can grab one here.
Planetbox Lunch Containers: This one was also new to us last summer and it quickly became a favorite. We spend so much time outside of the house that packing lunch and lots of snacks is an absolute must. I love that I can pack a Planetbox for each child, it makes it easy for me to see what my kids are eating (and what they’re not). I also love that it’s reusable. We’ve been working hard to reduce the amount trash we produce and these reusable and easy to clean containers make it much easier. My kids have also been using it to pack their lunch at school almost daily and it’s helped up well. They’re well worth the purchase.
Takeya Water Bottles: These were another Costco find and are significantly cheaper at Costco if you can them there. I love how they keep our water ice cold even when sitting in the sun though I do reccomend you keep them shaded if you can). They hold 40oz of water and we pack one for each member of the family so that we’re never thirsty! If you can’t find them at Costco or don’t have a costco you can grab a Takeya Water bottle here.
Covered Wagon: We’ve been loving our covered wagon for a few years now! It makes life so much easier and rarely a day goes by where we don’t take it out. When we’re headed to the pool I usually throw at least one kid in, plus all of our towels, our sun shade, our waterproof blanket and our cooler bag! I would purchase this wagon over and over again if I needed too!
All natural insect repellent: In case you didn’t realize we spend a lot of time outside over spring, summer and fall. While we love nature, we’re not huge on mosquitos and ticks sucking our blood. We’d like to keep that to ourselves, thank you very much! We’re huge fans of Young Living’s Insect Repellent, it’s made entirely of essential oils and skin nourshing carrier oils which makes it safe for babies, kids and adults! This is another one where a little goes a long way. We got one of these handy large roller bottles to help us easily apply it.
Over the shoulder cooler bag: With all the time we spend outside of the house packing lunch and snacks is a must otherwise we’d be spending hundreds of dollars on food! I’ve found that an over the shoulder cooler bag is the easiest to navigate. (https://amzn.to/2JisAat)
Summer Toys: So this is technically ten and eleven but they’re in the same category so I figured they’d go together. We keep it really simple as far as toys go during the summer. Our butterfly nets and dive toys are super simple toys that the kids adore. We use the butterfly nets to catch little fish at the river and the dive toys we use at the pool. They go everywhere with us.