Beach Baby

I am always on the hunt for activities for Anna. I love the age she is at so much, but it can also be kind of tricky. She is not a baby anymore but not quite a toddler. She is still limited on the things she can do but is also into EVERYTHING. I love it when the weather is nice because we live outside and Anna loves going out so much. It gets a lot trickier when we are cooped up inside for several days and she starts to loose interest in her toys. So, when I find an activity that will keep her entertained (and keep her from climbing onto the counters) it is a win!

Liv and Finn keep asking me when we can go to the beach and how much they wish they could play in the sand. So, that is what inspired this activity. I thought of how much Anna would love to play in the sand. The problem with babies and sand, is that most of it goes into their mouth and changing sandy diapers is no fun. I knew there had to be a recipe for baby friendly sand out there somewhere and, thanks to Pinterest, I was right.

This baby friendly sand recipe is made out of graham crackers and coconut oil. This sand is so fun because you can mold it and play with it like normal sand (and it smells amazing). Anna loved it and sat squishing it between her little fingers for a while. She had a lot of fun scooping and stirring it all around. Once she realized that it also tasted pretty good then she started eating it by little handfuls.

Liv and Finn also had a lot of fun playing with this when they got home from school. Pretty soon we had "sand" all over the house and it really felt like we had just been to the beach. So, what started as an activity to keep Anna entertained, turned into a big mess for me to clean later. C'est la vie. Luckily, Liv is great at using the vacuum and Finn loves to help me sweep. Once, all the sand was cleaned up we filled a tub with soap and water and they washed all the little toys off. They all were equally excited about this activity and all ended up soaking wet. I love kids so much because even something as small as soap and water can be turned into the best thing ever.