Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Things have been changing around the Van Rij house, so I figured it was time for a blog change. Ya know, new changes, new year, new blog - or something like that. One of my big changes is, as of the end of November, I will no longer be designing. Mason started school a couple months ago to help with his speech issues and we're hoping to get some outside speech therapy started soon too. Plus, Bailey will be 2 soon and I really want to spend more time with her. Taking the time to teach her all that she needs to know right now. It was a hard decision, but definitely one I think was the best. I'm excited to be going back to being a mommy, a scrapbooker and a blogger again!

One of my last blog posts on my last blog was this one and I loved it so much, I wanted to repost it here to kick off the new blog. Check out, save the blog and be sure to keep checking back!

So I've been going through my Pinterest boards Learning Through Play and Great Stuff for Kids and making a list of little things to help keep Mason engaged during the day. Here's what I came up with:



By no means is this complete. I've thought of 2 or 3 things to add today alone, but it's a good start. And today went pretty well - though we were gone a good chunk of the day running errands and having a Mama + Mason lunch date...

Anyway! This afternoon I took some time to make our colored rice while Mason did some water play in our highchair (keeps the mess contained as much as possible!) This is a super easy way to make a tub of great sensory play. Here's what you need:

- bag of white rice
- rubbing alcohol
- food coloring (I used the neon colors)
- baggies (I used gallon sized ones)
- wax paper
- cookie sheets (how many depends on how much rice you make - I needed 4)
- a little sunshine
- small bowls, plastic cups...anything to mix the rubbing alcohol & food coloring in

So this is, like I said, super easy. First off, you're going to mix the rubbing alcohol and food coloring together. What I read said to do 2 Tblsp and a few drops. I had a lot of rice though, so I ended up doubling the rubbing alcohol and food coloring.



Next I divided the rice into the 4 gallon sized ziplock bags. They weren't perfectly divided, but I wasn't worried about it. I just got it as close as I could.



Then, one bag at a time, I poured in one of the color mixtures, closed the bag (pushing out most of the air first) and then squished, shook and mixed it all together. I did this until the rice was totally covered.



Then I opened the bag and checked the color. They were all lighter than what I wanted, so I just dumped more food coloring in (no rubbing alcohol, just food coloring). Then I closed the bag and squished, shook and mixed the color around again.

Once I had all four bags colored, I covered each of my cookie sheets with a piece of wax paper and dumped the contents of the bags on a tray each. I used a spoon to spread it out in a layer that covered the whole sheet. Okay, I used my fingers on the green tray before I got smart and used the spoon. My finger tips are still a bit green now...



Now here's where the sunshine comes in. Take your cookie sheets of rice outside and set them in direct sunlight. This dries out the rice pretty quick. The instructions I read said a couple hours. Yeah, here's where being in the desert is helpful. It was 110 today, so those bad boys were dry in less than an hour. Score 1 for the desert.



Once they were dry, I took them inside and dumped them all in one gallon sized baggie, shook it up and set it where we can dig in (literally) this weekend.





So what are you waiting for? Get some rice and get to coloring. Your kids will love you for it!