Amanda’s Top 5 Pool Must Haves

Maybe you’ve noticed the Facebook pictures of all your friend’s car dashboards with the temperature display, or maybe you’ve seen the Tweets with the forecast for the week, or maybe you’ve just walked out your front door in the last 48 hours — but by now you are probably aware that it’s hot out there!  Let me rephrase that – it’s TX Summer-Holy-Geeze-Louise-108-DEGREES-HOT out there!  So, in honor of the insane TX summer heat — I thought I’d tell y’all my top 5 pool must have list!

Puddle Jumper — We recently added the puddle jumper to our pool bag, but I’ve been waiting to buy it for a while now.  Before I knew better, I purchased those blue floaties and a vest for the pool.  Together the floaties and vest worked great!  But putting them on was such a pain.  The vest had to go on through the feet and up his body… the floaties went on separately and usually had to be re-blown up before each trip to the pool.  And combine that with the swim diaper, pool clothes, sun-screen and water shoes and I was exhausted before we even left home!  So when several friends showed us the superior Puddle Jumper, I was just waiting and hoping for the floaties to give up and deflate completely!  And last week then finally did.  I sadly happily trashed them and ran out and bought the very last puddle jumper on the shelf!  And I’m so glad I did.  This thing is SO easy to slip on, the arms and body are all connected – all you have to do is slip the arms on and clip the back.  HUGE difference!  And it works to keep Miles’ face out of the water while he swims and jumps all over the pool!

Water Shoes — Since running from the lounge chair to the pool is nearly impossible when the ground feels like it’s on FIRE, water shoes are a must in this TX heat.  We found these at Wal-Mart for super cheap and they’ve lasted so well all summer!  They also help prevent blisters from being in the pool all day!  We take these with us to every water fountain, splash park and pool we visit — we could not live without these things!

$1 Pool Toys — Keeping kids busy at the pool is super easy when you stock up with the plethora of $1 toys you can find in the $1 sections at Target, Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Dollar Stores!  We have cheap water guns, diving sticks, water balls, pool noodles, and anything else you can pick up!  In fact, now that stores are starting to stock up for back-to-school items it’s probably the perfect time to find all the pool stuff on sale for the rest of this summer and next!  But don’t worry… in this TX heat you’ll have at least another month or 2 to use it all!

Floppy Hat — Sun protection aside, floppy pool hats are always in style!   Sam Moon is my favorite place to try hats on, but you can find these almost anywhere!  And you always manage to look glamorous in a pool hat and some big shades lounging pool-side… even if your kid IS spraying you in the face with a water-gun!!

Cold Fruit — There is almost nothing (besides a Caprisun or two) that kids will gobble up faster than some ice cold fruit at the pool!  I cut up a huge watermelon, de-stem strawberries and wash tons of grapes to take to the pool with us and I’m the favorite mom there!  Throw in some ham, cheese and crackers and I call it lunch!

These are just a few of my must haves for our pool time… anything you think I should add to the list?