Making sand cakes

Do your kids like to play in a sand box? Who am I kidding, I love sandboxes myself! We have a sand box outside filled with purple craft sand. But we can't use it when it's 37F and raining.

Once for a party we made enough InstaSnow to fill a large storage box. But it did not last and it was difficult to clean up. We tried Moon Sand, but it was very messy. We use play dough but I don't like the smell of it and I don't like the clean up part, especially if it gets on carpets. So we were on a lookout for something better...

Finally, at the Toy Fair, I found a perfect compound for an indoor sand box. It is called Bubber and it is made in Sweden by the same company that makes Moon Sand. Bubber is lightweight, non greasy, non sticky, non smelly and it never dries out. It's very easy to clean up from clothing and floors.

You can mold it; you can make bricks and build castles from them; you can take a cup and make sand cakes; you can compact it and then carve it. It's the perfect material for pint sized sculptors. (And it makes a good substitute for a stress ball.)

So, today we received a bag of neon green Bubber in the mail. The 24oz bag filled a 5 gallon Ikea Slugis box (21x13x6 in). We took some plastic knifes, scissors, molds and cups, and went on building things. We spent the whole evening by the sand box making green sand cakes.

(images: Mamalya)