The Bean Farmers

We got a great recommendation from a friend for a cheap and easy toy that you can make at home and toddlers love playing with it: a rice and bean bin. You buy bags of dried rice and dried beans from the grocery store and dump them in a bin and throw some other sand-type toys in there too and voila - instant entertainment. Joel and Silas love the rice and bean bin.

This toy is not without it's downside, however. When the kids play with it, of course rice and beans get everywhere. We tried to solve this problem by putting a blanket down under the bin, and that helped a lot. But it was still messy, especially when Silas could not resist chucking the beans across the room. So the rice and bean bin is now an outside toy. And that's where the fun really began!

We now have a nice little bean garden growing in our yard! Here is a picture of our two proud farmers, standing in their garden. I figured if a few dried out beans got in the grass, it would provide a little more food for the chipmunks and no harm done. I had no idea it was so easy to grow bean plants. Apparently you throw a dried out bean in the grass, add rain and presto, you've got bean plants. I've actually been clearing out tons of the bean plants to try to keep the grass healthy, but when I saw this latest patch, I couldn't resist taking a picture of my farmer boys.