Timmy and Tommy jumped up and down. Mama was taking them to the beach today. She bought them each a shovel and bucket and a new pair of swim trunks. “Hurry, boys. We want to get to the beach before the tide come in. That way you can build a big sandcastle.

Off to the beach they went. There weren't many people there so they had a lot of room to play. Mama set up her chair and umbrella and sat reading a book. Timmy and Tommy grabbed their buckets and shovels and ran down close to the water.

“Look Timmy, there's a seashell.” Tommy ran to get it before the wave sucked it back into the sea. “Here's another.” He picked that one up too.

Tommy found three seashells. They ran to their mama and left them sitting in the sand next to her.

“I think I can build a bigger sandcastle than you can,” Timmy said.

“No you can't. My sandcastle will be bigger than yours.” Tommy started filling his bucket up with sand. He dumped it over once it was full and filled another.

Timmy pushed sand into a pile with his bare hands and then when it was big enough he started putting some into his bucket and building towers around it.

They worked for an hour.

Mama woke up and saw the seashells next to her. “How did these get here? I might have stepped on them and cut my foot.” She saw the boys playing in the sand. She gathered the shells and carried them down to the waves, tossing them in. After she brushed the sand off her hands she went over to see the sandcastles. “Tommy, yours is very creative. I like all the towers and moat.” She said the same to Timmy. “Look at all those towers!”

“I'm done,” shouted Timmy. He stood proudly next to his sandcastle. “Look, Mama.”

“I'm done too,” shouted Tommy. He smiled and called to his mama. “Come and see what I did, Mama.”

Mama watched in horror as a wave rushed in and knocked both boys sandcastles away. Tommy cried and Timmy cried. They ran to their mama. “At least we've got our seashells,” Tommy said.

Mama felt bad. She'd just thrown their shells back into the sea, not knowing who they belonged to. “I think we should gather some more.” Mama ran down to the waves and whenever a shell bounced in, she picked it up and washed it off. Tommy and Timmy did the same. Soon they had two bucket's full of shells. They carried them back to the chair. Both Timmy and Tommy had forgotten about their other shells and Mama was glad of that.

“We can build another sandcastle next time we come, Mama, but we'll make it far away from the waves.” Tommy hugged her.

“Thanks for the fun day, Mama. Can we go and have some fish and chips now?”

Mama laughed and took both boys by the hand. They held their buckets of seashells in the other.