Water Beads

If you have never tried these – they are SUPER awesome. They are something I’ve seen on pinterest and thought – that would be cool, but that was like 6 months ago and we’ve never explored them.

Some places call them Water Gems, and I got mine at Micheals. You can get them in a jar already ready to play with for 4.99, or you can get a small bag that you have to hydrate for 2.99. You get TONS more for the 2.99 price. All you have to do is soak the beads from the bag in water (follow the directions) for 4-6 hours. You can get them at pretty much any craft store, they are with supplies for flower arrangements.

The whole process of watching them grow is amazing. So save a few bucks and soak them yourselves!

Landon spent about an hour just exploring them, pouring them squishing them, and sticking his arm into a container he filled with them:

Riley even had a little bit of fun, for like 10 second. He really would have had a blast for a lot longer if I was ok with water beads ALL over the house. He was so excited he was just splashing in the bucket (like in the bath tub) and beads started flying. They are kind of like mini-bouncy balls and like to go all over the place if you drop them.

They have a great, slippery but not slimy texture. If you squish them they will break and turn a little like thick jello, but because they are so slippery it’s hard to break them.

The beauty of them is that when you’re done playing with them, you just need to leave them out in an open container and after some time they will dehydrate back to the same size as when you bought them. You can save them like this for another day and add more water when you want to play with them again.