Winter Sandbox

One of my friends pinned this on Pinterest and I thought it would be a fun project for Harlie and I to do, since it sounded so easy (see: I DON'T CRAFT).  Also, I knew that I had some alphabet macaroni leftover from a bag that mom gave Harlie in her Easter basket, and I had read in the blog comments that some readers had used pasta instead of rice. So then after some google searching I came across this recipe that had a smaller yield. Colored ABC macaroni would be fun, but I only had a little bit so I decided to try both rice and macaroni!  They both worked great, and it was so easy.  Harlie ended up playing for close to an hour with the final product. I thought it would be good to document some of these fun and successful crafts on here, so I can revisit them on a rainy day.

***Reminder to self:  Do not leave play rice outside unattended....birds can eat it and die. Also, not to be ingested by humans either, as this recipe uses hand sanitizer (oh yum!).

You'll need rice (or macaroni), food coloring, rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer (an alternative I picked up from a blog comment, since I don't have rubbing alcohol handy), plastic bags, and a trusty assistant.

The original recipe called for 1 cup of rice per color, but I only had a about a cup of macaroni so I cut the recipe in half so I could use all 4 colors (2 of rice and 2 of macaroni)

Add 4-5 drops of food coloring and 1/2 Tbs of hand sanitizer to a plastic bag and then seal and squoosh around to get it mixed.

Add 1/2 cup of rice and then seal again and more squooshing.

Spread on baking sheet and then let dry (alcohol will evaporate so this only takes 30 min to an hour).

Once dry, dump the rice into a baking dish or large plastic container and let your kid let loose with some spoons, cups and bowls (or sand toys would work too, but probably with more rice).

It looks really pretty laid out all neatly, but it's even more fun once the colors mingle.

Pretty pretty rainbow!!!