Tot #1 and Tot #2 love spending time outside at Grandma and Grandpa's house. One of the great things about Grandma's house (vs our apartment) is that you can stash some great, big messy toys, like say... a sand and water table ... and it doesn't really bother anyone. Here's what was important to our decision:
Proportions/Size
You need just enough sand to build things and just enough water (with enough built in features) to keep floating things interesting. But not so much that it get too heavy to move.
Elevation
The older I get, the more I learn to like the beach. But as a mom the one thing I hate is a large amount of sand in a diaper. A classic sandbox was out, so we looked for something that could bring the sand up to toddler level, preferably with some room for adjustment as they grow.
Drains
After my experiences trying to carry and dump our first baby bathtub (which did not have a drain), we realized how critical this was for a sand and water table. Preferably on both the sand and the water sides since the water will never stay on its own side.
Cover
My mother always raised us to be a little leery of sandboxes by explaining to us at an early age what neighborhood cats did in uncovered sandboxes. Needless to say, we never played in an uncovered sandbox. Ever. As a mom I totally get it. Because wouldn't you love to hear your toddler say "Mommy! I found a tootsie roll in the sandbox!".
What we chose:
After looking at a lot of sand and water tables we decided to go with the Step2 Play Up Adjustable Sand & Water Table
. For $59.97 (plus free shipping on Amazon) it met all our criteria in a budget friendly way without being too big or too small. We also bought some "sandbox" sand (look for the specific label) at our local home & garden store. Assembly of the table was a extremely easy (especially if you skip the extra unnecessary screws they offer). It is good to note, that the umbrella provides some shade, but it won't shade the whole table so plan the placement/orientation of the table accordingly (the table is light enough to move if you want to change the angle of the shade).
All in all, this has been a great buy and we're having a hard time tearing the kids away from it!
