It's a Rain Outside, Rainbow Inside Kind of Day

It's an overcast and rainy Saturday morning, a site that is relatively unusual here in West Texas. Having lived in the Pacific Northwest a good part of my life, I'm loving every minute of it. It's one of those mornings where I am happy to be indoors as I work on my writing. 

The majority of the family feels the same way: My husband is playing a computer game and our son is watching Aladdin on TV (which brings forth even more emotions now than it did as we remember the late Robin Williams). Our daughter, however, woke up bored and kept insisting she get to go outside and play in the rain. While I don't necessarily have any objections to playing in the rain, I was looking forward to a cozy day indoors. 

So in contrast to the gray weather outside, I thought I would bring out the rainbows. The rainbow rice, that is. It was a project the kids and I did back in February where we used rubbing alcohol, food coloring and rice to create a bright alternative to sand. 

Our daughter was clapping her hands as I spread the sleeping bag on the floor, collected a variety of items for her to play with, and then opened the container of rainbow rice. Since then, she has been creating rainbow rice milkshakes, burying her feet in it, and letting it slowly flow out of a funnel into another container. 

Even Jessie, one of our dogs, got into the action. Laying with her body just off the sleeping bag, she expertly used her tongue to grab rogue piece of rice as they bounced off plastic containers and scattered her way. 

This is a great way to keep little ones (and even big kids) busy when they are stuck indoors!

If you are interested in making some rainbow rice of your own, check out this blog post and recipe from Joybilee Farm! Just be prepared to have fun. And if you happen to have a rainbow-rice-eating dog, cleanup is a breeze! ;-)