When a day of surfing and swimming at the beach is not enough to entertain all of the troops, it’s time to get moving and be creative. Here are three fun activities you will be interested in trying, no matter what are your ages!

Sand Menagerie: Though sandcastles are always the classic choice of beach goers, let’s mix it up a bit by making gigantic sand animals. You can trace anything in the sand your imagination can think of, like dolphins, whales, seals, mermaids, sea serpents, and turtles. Simply draw the animal, then fill and shape the silhouette with wet sand. To make a giant sand turtle, trace a simple circle in the sand: trace an oval head, four curved flippers for legs, and a short pointed tail. Next, build up your turtle with wet sand, smoothing and molding it as you go. Lastly, decorate your turtle with shells. This is a great way to get the whole family including toddlers and teens involved. Make your sand animals as realistic or phantasmagorical as you like. All you need is sand, water, a bucket, and whatever you find on the shore for decorations and details like pebbles, shells, driftwood, sea weed, etc.

Musical Towels: A beachy twist on the birthday party classic game musical chairs, begin by arranging your beach towels in a circle from head to toe. Play your favorite music, while the players dance or march around the circle in unison. When the music stops each player attempts to lie down on one of the towels. The player who is left without a towel is eliminated from the game. (I promise that you will be amazed by how much adults love this game at an evening beach party).

Seashell Toss: Begin by tracing a big circle in the sand with smaller concentric circles inside. Next, draw a line about eight to ten feet back from the circle. From there, each player can toss a seashell into the circle attempting to hit the center bull’s eye. The player that gets closest to the center wins. Seashell Toss is very similar to darts. For another twist on Seashell Toss try Skee-Shell Toss. For Skee-Shell Toss, set up the circle drawing similar to a skee-ball game with non-concentric circles that are each worth different points (e.g. 10-20-30-40-50 points per circle). The player accumulating the most points with their shell tosses wins.