Ten on Tuesday

Every now and then I post on the Ten on Tuesday - I do love reading them and Carole always has some good ones...so this week I decided to participate on the 10 Ways to Entertain a Child. I'm going to put a slant on it and make it specific to how I entertain(ed) our kids at the beach during the summers.

1. Go for a walk on the beach and find sea glass and other treasures (I still do this).

2. Water balloons - they are fun to fill and quick to go but always amusing. One time our kids and their friends started a water balloon fight and all of a sudden half the kids are on the block in an all out water war. It was hysterical!

3. A bike ride and looking a the flowers, houses, people.

4. Crabbing in the canal - a few chicken necks, some string, a bucket to put them in and a net. The bonus is I get a few crabs every now and then and steam them up for a nice little crab salad.

5. Poker Chips or Dominoes - my husband's grandparents must have played a lot of poker and there is a huge collection of chips. They also have dominoes. Just pull them out, give them some cards and let the kids make up their own rules. Dominoes are fun to line up and then have them click down in a pattern.

6. A bucket of tennis balls and a racquet - I would spend hours feeding tennis balls to our kids and then we'd pick them up and start all over again. Tires them out too!

7. Lemonade stand - busy time setting up, making signs, making lemonade and ice tea then selling it. Then divvying up the money to go spend a the candy store.

8. Paper cups - one rainy day out of desperation I took a stack of those mini paper cups that you use in the bathroom. They were too small for anything. Our kids stacked them up in a pyramid then used a nerf blaster to knock them down. They were totally consumed with this and trying to catch the whole thing on film as it collapsed.

9. Painting/decorating clam shells...glitter glue, paint, sharpies - whatever works. You can also sell them at your lemonade stand!

10. A tidal pool...nothing beats playing in safe water while at the ocean. You can paddle around, pull your friend on a boogie board, skip stones, create canals back to the ocean.