Magic Gem Magic

It was one of those days, the ones where I really look forward to having my break time during their nap time... and it just wasn't happening. One went to sleep, then the other one, now the first is up, the second won't stay in bed, arg. I'll admit that I got a bit crabby when I didn't get what I was expecting.

Luckily I had pulled out these Magic Gems I bought at Michael's a while back.

You use 2 Liters of water and 1/4 of the bag of gems. Then you have to let it sit in the water 4-6 hours, so we started this in the morning and were able to play with these after nap time.(assuming their was a nap-which there wasn't)
The gems are very tiny and hard, but when you soak them in the water they expand and get soft and gel-like, I even think they are cool to feel.
So let them sit and watch them grow, they start to look fuzzy and not like a solid at all, but don't worry, they are  :)

Okay, now right there, notice how the gems are pINk? Well...I did not know this until after they grew, and then I NOW notice the package does warn me and say Rose. So...Me thinking this would be "Christmas-y" because it would be RED, fell through. But kids don't care!

I had saved two formula scoops which I set out for Raef to use along with a few bowls. He liked scooping the gems from bowl to bowl using them. 
We discovered these gems are VERY bouncy and they ended up on the floor a bunch.
SO-when I gave him this activity, it gave me a good 30 minutes - I could tell he was interested in this because not only did he stay occupied for a half hour, but he was quite silent too, which is not too common :)

So these magic gems, on this day, was magic, in that it gave me a half hour break! Woo Hoo! Go try it.