Beach Sand...Sans Beach

I haven't been tempted to venture outside since our week of rain and clouds at Lake Chelan. But keeping an energetic 3 year old occupied in a 900 square foot house is no easy task. Last night, I ran across a fun activity on Pinterest and, once I discovered I had all the ingredients, did not hesitate to try it out!

We mixed some flour and baby oil together and ta-da! Moldable sand! If you have ever been to a children's museums or indoor play center, you may have encountered it before. This stuff feels awesome, it's like crack for your fingers. Oh yeah, Jacob liked it too.

First it was a home for his dinosaurs.

Then it became a construction site.

Then we went a little crazy, filled a storage bin full of the stuff and took it outside (things were getting a little messy!).

Jacob played with this stuff for 2 hours straight! Then right after his nap, he requested to go outside and play with it some more.

This stuff feels so awesome. Admittedly, during Jake's naptime, I went outside to play with it myself..... But look, it's both crumbly AND moldable!

 Not so awesome: the mess it leaves behind. Definitely an outside toy!

Don't worry daddy, we cleaned it up (mostly) before you got home.

How to make it:

1) Measure 12 cups of flour into a large bin (or bowl)
2) Add 1.5 cups of baby oil (I found a use for all the baby oil I got at my baby shower!!)
3) Stir it all up with your hands and crumble the mixture until well combined.

If it's too crumbly to form into a ball, you may want to add more baby oil. Oh yeah, and the baby oil smells AMAZING! It's crack for your nose (um, you know what I mean).