Water beads

We've had the water beads (or Orbies as W keeps calling them) out this week. They don't really fit with my attempts to use less plastic but we had them already and W keeps asking to play with them so we gave them a go.

We waited until A had gone down for a nap and the first attempt lasted about 5 minutes, during which time W mostly berated T about not getting them on the grass (obviously hammered that point home a little much when we were setting up!). Later on, we found more things to add into the mix and it held their interest for much longer. They spent ages rolling them down a piece of guttering - W allocated the beads different countries (he's been really interested in countries since the World Cup) and gave a running commentary as they went, T found a tractor that would fit down and scooped some into the bucket on the front. I did spend a large chunk of the afternoon crawling round trying to pick them out the grass while keeping a close eye on A to check he didn't eat any.