sensory bin - valentine theme

the moment you've all been waiting for...the valentine's day sensory bin! 

everything you see in this bin came from target's dollar spot, purchased last year just before valentine's day.  with the exception of two items: the red tweezers, which came from amazon.com (learning resources brand) and the pink cookie cutters.  i cannot for the life of me remember from whence they came.  i believe i spent $10 or less on all this red and pink craziness. 

the base of the bin is filled with red plastic X's and O's and both red and pink plastic hearts.  they came in packs of 100 for $1.  i bought four packs.  you can never have too many plastic trinkets, i always say.  

the equipment for scooping, dumping, sorting, pretending to make and give valentines, consists of stackable heart-shaped measuring cups, two heart containers that open and close, and a simple red cup.

i provided tiny heart-shaped erasers and a heart-shaped ice cube tray for tweezer work.

the boys spent saturday night at meme and papa's house.  they came home sunday afternoon to find a revamped sensory bin.  it was a hit and they played with it for an hour or so. 

i had to explain to them what X's and O's mean.  :-)  and then i smothered them with hugs and kisses until they begged me to stop.

hopefully this sensory bin will give me many more opportunities to love on my two little valentines!

although i may have to trick them...

the person who can stack the most O's wins a kiss!

the person who can fill their container the fastest wins a hug!

the person who can sort out the pink hearts...fill their cup the fastest...and balance it on their head...and walk around the dining room table...wins a kiss AND and hug!

yup.  this mama's gonna get all kinds of lovin in the weeks to come.  happy valentine's day to me!

and to you, too!