My Favorite Way to Spend One Dollar Bills

I just realized that that title could totally be taken the wrong way....so it's staying.

Friday is a family day. I don't "work" on Fridays, so the boys and I get to hang out. Since Wyatt was protesting his morning nap, we decided to head to Hobby Lobby to pick up a bag that I left there a couple days ago when checking out. (And while I love Hobby Lobby, this post is not about Hobby Lobby. I'm sure you already know how to spend your dollars there.)

We took Wyatt in in the jogging stroller, I picked up the already paid for merchandise, and we decided to look around a bit. I mean, you pretty much have to. I picked up a couple things that I had no idea I needed until I knew they were on sale, and then we headed to the kid aisles. 

They have so much cool stuff for kids at Hobby Lobby. Science stuff, history stuff, art stuff (obviously), so we took our time looking around. At this point Wyatt was asleep and had been for a while, but we eventually filled the stroller to capacity with all the things we decided we needed, so we had to go check out. I didn't want to take Wyatt out of the stroller and put him in his car seat because I knew he'd wake up, so we unloaded our Hobby Lobby loot in the car, and walked over to the dollar store. 

I don't frequent the dollar store. Sometimes I go in to see what kind of deals I can snag. But it's a blast to go in there with a kid. 

Luke found some ninja toy he wanted, and looked up at me like, mom? And I said, "you can have that," and his eyes just lit up. And after the 2nd yes, he was in heaven. 

But I say all that to tell you that I love buying busy box things at the dollar store. A busy box is a toddler "to do" box. It's the magic box I pull out on "those days." We have several busy boxes stored away in our playroom out of reach of my children that are ready and waiting to save me on a "mommy needs some patience" kind of day. 

One of our busy boxes is full of dried beans. We actually have a few boxes with beans in them, but they have everything you need to make a bean busy box at the dollar store. 

We grabbed a few bags of dried beans, so aluminum baking containers, kitchen utensils, funnels, and some measuring cups, and we were set. 

Here's the result. This keep Luke (4) busy for a solid 30 minutes today (which I call impressive), and Addy (6) headed right to it when she got home from her riding lessons. 

I know it sounds crazy, but I have been letting my kids play with beans since Luke was old enough to know not to put them in his mouth. One of our favorite things to do with them is bury little animals or people in the beans, and dig them out with shovels or spoons. It's a lot of fun. 

So there, you have it. One of my favorite ways to spend my dollars at the dollar store.