Toddler Tuesday: The big red monster

I've been pinning sandboxes since last fall and was really hoping Craig wouldn't mind building Lucy one so when he mentioned buying lumber for one more raised bed, I saw my opportunity. I think he saw through my "its just the same as a raised bed but a little bigger...with seats... and painted" pleas but he went with it anyway because who doesn't love a sandbox?

We basically came up with our own "plan" and Craig might chime in later with the deets on the build but I'll skip to the fun part. He finished it Sunday afternoon and it has already gotten hours of use. Of course, just as Murphy would have predicted, Saturday while he was finishing building it the weather was gorgeous and sunny but by the time the paint has dried and it was filled on Sunday, it was cloudy and gloomy. Lucy didn't mind though.

We took a gamble since she has only ever played in a sandbox one time last fall. And she started out a bit timid, only playing playing from the outside, a little afraid to get messy but I was able to convince her to give it a try.

Now I'm not kidding when I call this thing a monster. It's 6x6 and currently holds over 1000 lbs of sand - that's pretty big for a kid that is barely 2 ft tall. But we had the space and I figured we will have at least 2 kids and Neighbor J has two already so even if it is just the four of us, each kid will need space to build without sitting on someone else's castle. But it does look a bit massive when it is just her standing in there.

Yesterday we played outside in the morning for about an hour with friends and then another hour after nap time. By the afternoon, she was even willing to take off her shoes and put her toes in. Once she gave that a try, she loved it so much she made me try too. Not that I minded. Elaine commented on my last post about playing with your kids and I agree, playing with Lucy doesn't come as naturally to me as I thought it would. And frankly, some of her "games" are boring. But I might be enjoying the sandbox as much as she is. Hmmm, maybe that's the real reason I insisted Craig make it so big. Either way, thanks Superdad for another job well done!

(ignore the baby head of the well's roof, not sure what that's about)

Although now the little well looks so shabby sitting next to the bright sandbox. Perhaps it needs a cute of coat of pretty geranium red too? We still have paint left over!