Beach Bag Must Haves

As many of you know, I’ve spent the better part of this month on vacation. I know it sounds heavenly, right? Yes, I’ve had about 7 days of awesome but 21 days of melting in the sun by the pool, at Disney World and in Chicago. That’s a lot for a Mommy who blogs and is used to spending her days in the house, under the cloak of central air and room darkening blinds. Mama doesn’t like to sweat, especially not profusely in the Florida death ray sun.

Not to mention that I had to make sure that my girls survived the heat and sun. Have you seen my kids? They are blonde, with fair skin and blue eyes. Thank you German husband and recessive genes for giving me beautiful children who I’m constantly afraid will be burnt to a crisp. I look like their nanny.

Obviously, my main concern during the summer is trying to protect them from being scorched by the sun or withered by its heat. While on vacation, all my girls wanted to do was go swimming, lounge by the pool and ride every single ride we could possibly fit in, all in 100-degree weather. Of course, they want to do the things that will most likely cause their untimely melting.

So every morning, I had to pack a bag. Some may call it a beach bag. I like to think of it more as a survival bag for my girls and myself. It was pretty simple, filled with what I consider the essentials of vacationing bags, especially when you are going to be in the sun and on the run all day long.

Sunscreen SPF 50, Sunscreen for the face, Sunscreen lip balm ( What can I say, I like my kids medium and not well-done.)

Water to drink(But Mommy can not live on water alone…well, I could but how boring would that be?)

Cheez-its(Come on I have kids, at least we’ve graduated from Goldfish and Cheerios)

Bobby pins and rubber bands(Have you seen little girl long hair after a day at the pool? It’s about 7000 times worse than bedhead.)

Sunglasses(Because Mommy is creeping up on 40 and doesn’t want to help those crows feet sneak up.)

I.D. (just in case Mommy needed a cocktail) cash (in case the girls needed an ice cream) and my room key(in case we all needed a nap).

Towels

Extra clothing(Kids+heat+pool=accident waiting to happen.)

iPhone ( Because it goes everywhere I go. If I ever unplug completely there may be some sort of involuntary institution stay involved).

Rain Panchos (Because it rains a freaking lot in Florida).

Lipton Tea and Honey packets to give us a little variety from just water, without the calories of soda. It only has 5 calories because it’s sweetened with real honey. (I loved the rich taste of Iced Black Tea with Lemon because I am old school and my mama is from the south but my husband loved the Mango Pineapple and the girls liked the Blackberry pomegranate. The packets were so convenient, I just opened the packet and poured it into my water bottle, shook it all up and voila, I had tea.)

These were my essentials for our “ by the pool, on vacation” beach bag, what’s in yours?

Tell me how you add flavor to your life or what your beach bag essentials are and the first three people to comment on my blog will win a sample of Lipton Tea & Honey to try for themselves!

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Lipton Tea. The opinions and text are all mine. Official sweepstakes rules.