We had an incredibly dreary Labor Day Weekend. It rained almost constantly, and with J making his annual trip to the cabin with his father and two friends, I was left with a wild toddler that either needs those damn Bubble Guppies on 24/7 or wants Mommy to do the dog and pony show from sun up to sun down. Usually J is my performance partner, but this weekend, I was on my own.
J's sister had spent the summer sending box after box of beach toys, but lets face it, Alaskan beaches aren't especially known for their beach fun unless your idea of fun is freezing while slipping over mussel covered rocks, so the toys had stayed packaged up. But by Sunday afternoon I was out of ideas for keeping her entertained, so I remembered a recipe for "moon sand" I ran across somewhere and thought it would be a perfect distraction.
Supplies:
- 1 large plastic table cloth
- 1 large, shallow, plastic bin
- 1 5lb bag of AP flour
- 1 bottle of baby oil
- 1 food processor
- assorted beach toys
The ratio you are looking for here is 8 cups of flour per 1 cup of baby oil, but I basically did an entire 5 lb bag and 1 bottle of baby oil, since I figured the measurements were about right and I had just cleaned the kitchen so I didn't want to sling flower everywhere. I started by trying to mix everything together in a big bowl, but that quickly just created giant clumps, so I ended up pulling out my food processor and putting in about 3 cups at a time to pulse together. It really didn't take that long and it worked like a charm. Next we threw the plastic table cloth onto the floor, tossed in some of the beach toys and had a blast making towers to knock down and and little animals.
She did end up trying to eat it a few times, but isn't that what 18 month old's do? This kept her entertained for a good hour, then she just started flinging the "sand" around, which isn't exactly what I want done inside the house. Clean up was a breeze though. I just put the lid on the plastic tote, and shook the table cloth off outside and I was done (besides having to dust buster up a few spots where her flinging was extra enthusiastic).
I will admit that the entire house smells like baby oil now and the scent has not dissipated at all over the course of the week, but the moon sand will stay "wet" indefinitely, so in theory we have years of fun ahead of us, as long as she doesn't eat it all.
J's sister had spent the summer sending box after box of beach toys, but lets face it, Alaskan beaches aren't especially known for their beach fun unless your idea of fun is freezing while slipping over mussel covered rocks, so the toys had stayed packaged up. But by Sunday afternoon I was out of ideas for keeping her entertained, so I remembered a recipe for "moon sand" I ran across somewhere and thought it would be a perfect distraction.
Supplies:
- 1 large, shallow, plastic bin
- 1 5lb bag of AP flour
- 1 bottle of baby oil
- 1 food processor
- assorted beach toys
The ratio you are looking for here is 8 cups of flour per 1 cup of baby oil, but I basically did an entire 5 lb bag and 1 bottle of baby oil, since I figured the measurements were about right and I had just cleaned the kitchen so I didn't want to sling flower everywhere. I started by trying to mix everything together in a big bowl, but that quickly just created giant clumps, so I ended up pulling out my food processor and putting in about 3 cups at a time to pulse together. It really didn't take that long and it worked like a charm. Next we threw the plastic table cloth onto the floor, tossed in some of the beach toys and had a blast making towers to knock down and and little animals.
I will admit that the entire house smells like baby oil now and the scent has not dissipated at all over the course of the week, but the moon sand will stay "wet" indefinitely, so in theory we have years of fun ahead of us, as long as she doesn't eat it all.
