Beachbound

In a few weeks I have to pack for a week at the beach. We've never taken the kids to the beach, beyond a couple of chilly afternoons in Dublin and one at a sort of oily man-made sand-depository on the banks of the Chesapeake. I'm really looking forward to letting them just sit in the sand for hours on end and find out what happens when the water moves into the holes you dug.

Dash and Granny on a typical late-June day at the beach in Dublin

I'm optimistically thinking that Mabel is old enough not to have to be watched like a hawk every single second. By which I mean not that we'll be ignoring her and getting stuck into some riveting beach fiction and our mojitos, but more that at least we won't have to physically steer her away from running joyously straight into the waves the entire time. Or maybe we will, who knows.

Dash can swim, after a fashion, but is very leery of getting his face wet. I hope the extra buoyancy of the salt water will be a pleasant surprise, and that the odd splashlet from a wave won't be a huge tragedy. They both have "floatie" jackets that they wear at the pool part of the time, which gives me a greater sense of security. On the other hand, I wouldn't want anyone floatie-ing away from us - the no-boundaries ocean will be a bit of a shock on that front.

So I wanted to ask you, what should we bring? We're renting a condo for the week, in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, which I've wanted to visit ever since I saw it on a map.  Beyond some very basic sandbox buckets and spades, all we have are swimsuits and a few towels. Do I need to beg/borrow/steal a shade tent or canopy-thingy, and if so what sort is best? Should we bring the kids' bikes or scooters along? What sort of toys are good for the beach, that I might not think of?

A less-typical Dublin beach day; don't be deceived - the water was freezing