For next to nothing…

Last week, while at Walmart, I picked up a bag of pinto beans.  Today we pulled those beans out of the cupboard.  I gave each of the kids a cookie sheet, bowl, spoon, plastic cup and a pile of beans.  The only instructions were to keep them on the cookie sheet.  They had a great time scooping, pouring and dumping the beans.  In fact, two of them played off and on with them for 4 HOURS!  They took a break for lunch and would walk away here and there, but for the most part they stayed at the table. 

I’m still shocked.  Even more unbelievable…the fact that this bag of beans only cost me 68 cents!  That’s it, talk about frugal fun.

All four of the kids have runny noses and aren’t feeling that great today.  I think Hosanna would have played longer then she did, but she wasn’t feeling like doing much at all.  Even Shiloh, who is currently 14 1/2 months old, thought it was fun to dump and pick up the beans.  She was, of course, very closely supervised when she was playing with them and was not happy when I took her to do something else.

The best part, they can be stored away to use again soon for the same activity or something else.  I’m lovin’ it!