TB Questions

Someone above mentioned the cooling towels for hot weather. We also include a smaller cooler for team use that we fill with ice that the girls can use to keep their cooling towels in.

Like mentioned above, our must haves are always cheeze its, fresh cut up fruit, plenty of water, gatorade, sunscreen, and of course enough sunflower seeds to last DD and I for the entire weekend. I try to leave it up to DD to ensure all her game related stuff is packed and ready, but never a bad idea to double check it.

All good advice, based on years of experience. Your priority is for the girls eating and drinking healthy. IME, the teams that rely on the concession stand usually go home early on Sundays.

ETA - bring ear buds, even if they're not actually plugged into something, they excuse you from having to talk to people you don't want to listen to!

For us here in the South (and for fair-skinned people like me), SHADE, SHADE, SHADE! A chair with an attached umbrella, a tailgating tent, or both! The umbrella comes in handy for those brief showers we get down here too.

CMMom1740 said:

For us here in the South (and for fair-skinned people like me), SHADE, SHADE, SHADE! A chair with an attached umbrella, a tailgating tent, or both! The umbrella comes in handy for those brief showers we get down here too.

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Yes! Shade is essential in Southern California, too. Last year DD had to play multiple tournaments in triple-digit weather. Chairs with shades and our pop-up kept us (and the team) from disintegrating in the heat.

We packed so much for tournaments that it looked like we were moving out every single week, but it was worth it.

We always go tournament shopping. I don't like relying on concession stands. I'll bring chicken salad or PB&Js, fruit and pudding cups, pickles, fresh fruit, cheese and crackers.

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Longer I have done this, the less i take. I am down to:

- Cooler with lots and lots of water and lots of ice
- Fresh fruit salad and cut up cantaloupe.

I have also learned to stop messing about with cheaper chairs and shade canopies. Buy quality and spend 2x the cheap stuff and you will save long term.

- ALPS OutdoorZ King Kong Chair (steel, heavier, rated to 700lb plus which feels over kill until 3 kids decide to sit on you or 4 of them sit in it on uneven ground, 3 years old now) - for $50 this is the chair.
- Coleman 12x12 Slant Legged Shelter (Steel legs, quality opening/connectors, 5 years now)

Same with Wagons... buy quality.
- Everyday Sports 4th Generation Outdoor Utility Collapsible Folding Wagon - expensive but again worth it over the other cheap stuff out there.

Most of this had already been covered but here are a couple of thoughts:

Invest in a really good chair. We got a couple higher end chairs from Dick's with a warranty that was cheap and allows us to replace the chairs when they break.

Get an "Under the Weather" personal tent. Worth every penny when you play on that rainy, 45 degree, 20 mph winds weekend. It will keep you warm and dry and you don't have to talk to anybody!

Get a high end soft cooler. Rtic has some really good deals right now because they are trying to get rid of their inventory due to a lawsuit from Yeti.

As far as food, we get the pre-made Smuckers PB&J pockets. Those are great and really easy. We also love the pre-sliced apples. Grapes, beef jerkey, cheese sticks, pretzels, trail mix, simply go-gurt yogurt tubes are all things that are regularly in our cooler. We try to have good proteins and natural sugars. Plenty of water and G2s or Powerade Zeros. We stay away from the high sugar versions. Thumbs up to the pre-made sandwiches from Wal-Mart. If we have a long time between games, we will have some of those on hand as well.

Cool towels and sunscreen are musts and make sure your DD has some sunglasses. You never know what way a field may face for morning or late afternoon games.

My wife carries a first aid kit with her as well. I am pretty sure she has a sewing kit, too. Yes, she's the go-to Mom for that stuff.

And, make sure you have a wagon to put it all in.

For the coolers, we have a Yeti soft cooler and hard cooler. We use the soft cooler to take drinks and some snacks, like string cheese and apple sauce pouches to the field. The hard cooler we leave in the car with food like chicken salad, sandwiches, etc and extra drinks. Ice will stay in both all weekend, even in the hot trunk. The hard cooler has the little tray to hold anything you want to keep out of the ice, like anything with bread. The premade PB/Js, the little circle ones that are individually wrapped, forget who makes them, we bring those a lot also. (guess its Smuckers after reading all the posts..)

We almost always bring chicken salad from the store and the little slider rolls. Don't forget plastic cutlery.

Gatorade Energy chews....my kids love them. We give them half the pack before warm ups and then the rest before the game, just to spread it out a little. Only do this on Sundays for games later in the day. Maybe last one or two depending on how many we brought.

As others have mentioned, the wagons are awesome also. Get one with big wheels. Most of the ones you get at Dicks and other places have the bigger wheels, but stay away from the smaller ones. They get hard to pull loaded up in long grass, big rocks, stuff like that. Bigger the wheels the better.

PEPPERS said:

I for got to mention some facilities limit food, drink and limit coolers to 1 per team. When they do that we keep a cooler with food and drink in the car and visit the car between games.

One facility we used to play at rents the concession stands to private individual and part of the agreement is they limit colliers to 1 per team with no food allowed.

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I pack my cooler in a wagon underneath the three feet of other stuff I bring to the ball park. Always works.

CMMom1740 said:

For us here in the South (and for fair-skinned people like me), SHADE, SHADE, SHADE! A chair with an attached umbrella, a tailgating tent, or both! The umbrella comes in handy for those brief showers we get down here too.

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I told DH that we are definitely investing in a tent this year! DS and I are too pale to be roasting in the sun, lol.