Our First Sensory Box

Ever since becoming a Pinterest fanatic, I've started reading and seeing these posts and pictures about sensory boxes.  I have to be honest- when I first looked at them I saw... MESS.  And beyond the MESS, I wasn't sure how much my kids would really like it.  I mean, we take them to the beach all the time- that's the hugest sensory box out there, right?! 

For the next 8 days, Ryan is working until 7 PM.  (UGH).  That means the kids and I are flying solo for everything except baths and bed time.  The kiddos absolutely love their time with Ryan, and I wasn't sure what we were going to do during those haunting hours (that's what I call them) between nap and dinner time. 

I jumped on pinterest, and have now compiled a board filled with activities for "when dadda works late."  On the menu for this week is,

• a shaving cream table (spray barbasol all over our little tikes table outside and let them go at it)
• 4 different sensory boxes
• bath tub fishing
• and a bunch of our normal run of the mill, arts and crafts stuff

As far as the sensory boxes go, I decided to start verrrrry basic.  I'm creative to a certain extent... but not like the uber pinners on pinterest (where do they come up with this stuff???)

The Dollar Tree was where I started out.  Here's my list of items:

• rice, rice, and more rice (like 8 bags of it...)
• beans (red, ham and black)
• 2 HUGE containers of oats
• 2 clear storage bins
• 2 packs of fake bugs
• 2 packs of fake coins (thank you mardi gras!)
• 2 packs of beaded necklaces
• 2 packs of mini farm animals
• fake flowers
• fake birds
• construction paper

Yeah... I spent around 37 at the DOLLAR TREE... where everything is $1.00- I had about 20 bags coming out of that place.

Anyways, I assembled two of my sensory bins last night- our garden bin and our bug bin.  (which in hindsight. really could have- should have been combined into one bin)

Today we did the bug/bean bin.  I cannot tell you how pleasantly surprised I am with the success of this project.  The kids were enthralled with it.  Henry had absolutely no direction- he just spooned the beans from buckets to cups, and ran his trucks through them.  I had a few activities for Maeve to do with hers- the first order of business was finding all the bugs.  This dollar pack of bugs, hidden in a bunch of beans, delighted my child more than I can tell you.  Every time she found a bug, she'd get a huge "OHHH" on her face, just beaming!

Along with bugs, I also stuck in "leaves" (construction paper cut-outs) with numbers on them.  The goal being, to find all 10 leaves (one for each bug).  And because I could think of nothing else to stick in this bean/bug bin, I cut out yellow squares- yeah... what?!  haha :)  Still though, Maeve loved digging for them!

Here are a few pics of our afternoon.

(disclaimer- these pics are straight out of the camera- no cropping/editing/nada... they're not pretty!)

On tomorrow's agenda- the "garden bin" (black beans with fake flowers, worms and gardening tools)

Wordless Wednesday (the life is GOOD edition!)

Today we (my mom, grandma and the kids) decided to take a visit to the local dolphin sanctuary.   I can't count the number of times we've been here, but this was the first time visiting since we had moved here.

We'll definitely be bringing the kids back.  I mean, how cool is it to go sit on a deck watching dolphins swim and flip around in front of you, with the ocean just a few feet behind you? 

Pure bliss... life is good. :)

thank God for the beach!

There aren't enough words to describe how amazing and wonderful it is to be able to end each day with a walk down the beach. We don't get there every night, but we make it a point to go and walk at least a few times a week.  Especially when the day happens to be particularly stressful... like yesterday!

School's back in session, which means most tourists have gone home (yay!) and the beaches were empty besides a random fisherman here or there.

We let the kids loose, and Ryan sat and watched the two older ones.  I decided to shell and walk with Stella.  Let me tell you, there is NO better medicine than the beach! 

We are SO blessed to live by the beautiful ocean!  And I'm vowing to never live more than 15 miles away from it again! :) 

Snap It UP Saturday!

I think I'm going to start making "Snap it UP Saturday" a weekly thing... I'm going to try it for a few weeks and see if I can get a linky party going with some of my friends :)

It's a pretty straight forward theme... basically, grab your camera, snap some shots of your Saturday and post!  Would anyone want to play along next week (or maybe the week after?) :)

Here are my snap ups  .. :)

The Farmers Market...

"Burrito Works!"

Checking Out the Rain :)



"Music By The Sea"

Every Wednesday night, the city of St. Augustine hosts "Music By The Sea""- its basically a huge party at the pier.  Each week a different restaurant sponsors it, making the food choices really exciting ;)  We don't get into the music much, but the kids absolutely adore the splash pad that's located at the entrance to the pier.  Tonight was so beautiful, we played in the splash pad for a bit and then walked the kids down to the beach.  Needless to say they were wiped out the second they hit the car!  Here are some photos from our night :)

a little bit of a random photo... but I discovered Rita's on the beach tonight... OMG.  SO SO SO good.

 He gets so wacky on the beach ;)

 I don't know how this photo got smushed in the middle of all the splash park/beach photos... but this is a pic of Flagler Hospital... where I will be delivering baby girl in a few weeks! :)