Summer Essentials

Everyone has their happy place, and my happy place is definitely the beach.  Come summertime, the family and I spend as much time there as possible. The girls spend hours building their sand castles, while Ryder is usually busy on his boogie board. With the kids content and occupied, it’s the one time and place that Jason and I are sure to hold conversations, uninterrupted, knowing the kids are safe, just a few step away.

Any activity with the five of us takes some time to prep for, so I start thinking planning and packing for the beach the day before. I lay out towels, bathing suits, snacks, drinks and sunblocks, before stuffing them into my huge beach tote, and then I prepare sandwiches for our cooler, so when we wake in the morning, the suits go on, and we are ready to go. If we are staying close to home, our beach of choice is Atlantic Beach, Long Island. It’s only about an hour away, accessible by the Long Island Rail Road, or a quick car ride.  Well, quick depending on traffic.  Somedays, especially on a beautiful weekend, we are better off on the train, to beat the jammed packed roads.

One of our beach bag essential, that I’ve been carrying since my first child is Johnson’s Baby Powder. Somehow, I never realized this growing up, but it works like magic when trying to get rid of sand. Sprinkle a little on sandy little ones, wipe the powder away, and the sand practically falls off.  Oh yeah, and it works like a dream on sandy bums too.

Johnson’s No More Tangles spray is another beach bag staple. As much as we love the salty beach water, it wreaks havoc on the hair, especially curly hair which my girls and I all share. Whether they are building a sand castle or jumping in the water, at some point, they are rolling around in the sand, which gets embedded in their heads.  Throughout the day, I spray their heads with No More Tangles, so by the time we get home, you can still run a brush through their hair, rather than dealing with a balls of knots. As an added bonus, it even moisturizes our hair too.

I recently attended a Johnson’s Baby event here in NYC, and even as a previous user, I was surprised by some of the unconventional uses of their product, which were useful to some of my everyday life. A little Johnson’s Pure Cornstarch Baby Power with Calming Lavender can be used as a dry shampoo to maintain your scalp, in between blowouts. And, Johnson’s Baby Oil Gel and Vitamin E can be applied to the ends of your hair to add shine, and even tame split ends.

There were plenty of tips for different seasons, but lets save those pointers for another time and just enjoy your summer!

Thank you Johnson’s Baby for sponsoring this post.