Five years ago, when we first moved into our house, we bought Elias a sandbox and set it up in a remote corner of our backyard. After a couple of messy afternoons in the sandbox, the new backyard attraction was avoided by Mommy and Daddy and so the investment just sat there...neglected...with the area around it slowly turning into a weed infested swamp. Now with two kids, both much older, I have been meaning to clean up the sandbox and return it to it's former glory. But ya know, with all The Golden Girls marathons that are always on, it's just hard to find the time to get things done.
A few weeks ago while I was cutting the grass, I drove by the sandbox and noticed the amount of murky water and plant life that had been collected on the box's concave lid. I thought to myself, "Gee, I hope nothing is living in that mini-ecosystem I created." Before I could even finish my thought, a huge snake - the length of a small school bus, quickly slithered out of the water and around the box. It was a sign that now was the time to implement Operation: Sandbox.
I borrowed a neighbor's wheel barrow and the kids and I shoved out the five to six hundred pounds of sand in the box. We then cleaned the inside and out of the box and lid very thoroughly and let it dry. It only took less than an hour before the sandbox was ready to be placed in it's new home and ready again for business. I relocated our Little Tykes Endless Adventures Hidden Treasure sandbox to a position closer to the house and our swing set.
Later on, we bought an addition 100 lbs. of sand to give the sandbox that fresh "new sand" look. Elias tried to help carry one of the 50 lbs. bags of sand from the car to the box...
I love when the kids can forget about video games and movies and just have a good old fashioned kid-time playing outside with something simple like a box full of sand:
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