we did an arch after i took the pic that was stepped (top and underside), and had a house on top. that is a bit tricky.

with the two boys helping more and more, it's better to go for height and speed than intricacy.

there was a guy maybe 50 feet away who was literally digging with a full-sized shovel and piling sand for over an hour before carving. he carved for another hour after that taking the sand away, and was left with a pseudo-castle thing, a little shorter than the towers we were doing. in the same amount of time we had done all that and been playing in the water for an hour to boot. you can do the tower in maybe ten minutes. the hard part is actually forming that ball and setting it on top without the thing crashing down.

with those two boys, finesse is not a critical concern. we want height and speed, so we can knock them down!