Rice Box!

For Easter, my mom mailed each grandchild a card and enclosed $5 with instructions for me to buy them a small gift. I decided that I wanted to get creative and spend the money on 50 lbs of white rice. Not to eat, but to play in! We have had so much rain recently and I thought it would be a fun indoor activity. I made the rice box from a long under-the-bed storage container. I added some sand toys (shovels and rakes), some dinosaurs, and a dump truck. I thought about placing the box on the hard floors, but worried that if they spilled some rice, they might slip and fall. I decided to put it on top of our storage ottoman in the living room over carpet. Before the kids saw it, I made sure that any spilled rice would vacuum up easily and it did. I secured it to the ottoman with a bungee cord so that they couldn't accidentally dump it. The storage container has a lid so when the kids are done playing, all we have to do is slide it under our bed and save it for another rainy day.

The kids were thrilled to see the "sand" box in the living room when we got home from school. They wouldn't even stop playing long enough for me to take their coats off!

They like to bury the dinosaurs and then try to find them.

I decided that it was a good thing that the box wasn't on the floor because they may have tried to climb inside the rice box then.

The rice was a lot cleaner than sand and I don't have to worry about them (or the dog) eating it.

The kids have already enjoyed several hours of rice play! Thanks, Grandma and Papa!