Friday, January 25, 2013

Winter Activities

The winter has set in and the girls haven't been able to play outside for a while. After our Christmas-time snow melted the backyard turned into a swamp. We took a LONG walk to the park last weekend to take advantage of some favorable weather but otherwise the girls have been stuck inside for a couple of weeks now. 

The slide has made its annual appearance indoors. I think this is its third winter indoors. I swear, this slide sees more action during the winter than the summer! I'm so grateful for it! The girls' form of play this year, though,  has been sending chills up Dave's spine. They're a little more...daring, shall we say?


While they spend lots of time on the slide they've also spent loads of time in their new rice bin. I made this a couple of weeks ago and I swear that this rice has seen more play time than all their Christmas toys combined. I got the idea from a blog that was pinned on Pinterest but didn't follow her instructions. I gathered suggestions from the comments and put together this recipe:
4 cups rice per batch (I bought the 15lb bag for $9 at Sam's Club)
5Tbsp Rubbing alcohol
10-12 drops food coloring
-Pour alcohol and food coloring into a gallon ziplock. 
-Swish around a bit to mix.
-Pour in rice.
-Seal bag and mix well.
-Bake at 250degF for 12 minutes to dry out
This bin consists of 10 batches. It took a long time but was a lot of inactive time. It was totally worth it.
And this is what the rice looks like after it's all mixed up. This color is less striking but it also looks better in person than in the picture. They play with it every single day.

Later on today I'm going to teach Solana the hand game, Say Say My Playmate. My sisters and I loved them when we were kids. I'm surprised she hasn't learned any from her friends at school. I can't wait to teach her!

5 comments:

Melissa said...

That is SO cool. I am on the hunt for indoor activities for Daphne in case we decide to pull her out of school. And for after transplant.

A Goldsworthy Note said...

You're such a good mommy with fun ideas. I hope I get my act together and make the ice bin.

The Hillbergs said...

Okay -- tell the truth. How much rice gets OUT of the bin??? Are your children just naturally more careful than my kids? I mean, even my dang cat tracks cat litter out of his box every day. This looks totally cool, but I also don't want to be sweeping rice up every day...

Cyndi Hendrickson said...

LOL! I'm not gonna lie. I sweep up rice every single day. Fortunately, it's pretty well contained to an area immediately surrounding the bin so it's really not that bad. I would say I throw out about 3Tbsp. per day and will need to cook up some refill rice in the next couple of weeks. But honestly, it's worth it. They love it so much. :-) And it's not nearly as gross as sweeping up cat litter... ;-)

Angela Maggard said...

Ok, I'm totally doing this tonight! We have been cooped up too! I've done it in a small bowl before, but never with colors, or on that large a scale!!!! Lol! Rice on hardwood floors doesn't sweep up well, as I recall... My girls aren't too careful, like yours!! Lol! I think it's funny to see them doing crazy stuff on the slide! I can see Dave watching in horror!! Lol!!