The boys rediscovered their tiny sand box in the garage the other day and had a blast playing with it. They kept asking to play with it, but since it is in the garage - I can't really let them play with it unattended while I am trying to make dinner. I was brainstorming on what I could do indoors that would be just as fun.

When it dawned on me that I could recreate the rice table like they have at school. Sure, some of the rice will probably end up on the floor, but it is much easier to vaccum up than sand. When I picked them up from school today I asked if they wanted to run errands with me so we could get the supplies for a rice box. They were so on board, they didn't even mind that it was going to take 2 stops! ;)

Also, a 25 pound bag of rice was probably too much, but I dumped it all in before I realized that. Oh well - at least their rice has some depth to it...!

We threw the construction trucks in there and then added a bunch of measuring cups like they have at school. It was way too many things for the rice box, so the boys decided they didn't need the trucks. Probably for the best - the rice was getting stuck in all of the nooks & crannies!

But they were having a blast with the measuring cups / spoons, small containers and the funnel.

Henry was happily filling up this little bottle full of rice. I tried to show him that if he left some space, he could put the lid on and shake it to make fun noises. Yeah no - he was filling it up to the top and then some. As long as he's happy!

Thomas made a giant ramp with his side of the rice table and rolled his bottle full of rice down the ramp. He was pretty proud of his "building" skills. I was pretty proud of how much they liked my cheapo rice box!

Ok, the one downside is how much rice ended up on the floor. It was pretty easy to vacuum up, but the two of them made quite the mess! I wonder how long it takes to go through 25 pounds of rice by losing ~500 grains to the floor each time? I'm sure we've still got months of quality play time at that rate. :)