Urban Sandbox

We live in the city, my two sons, husband and I.  Behind our row house is Rockcreek park, loaded with foxes (yes!  I've seen them!), deer, and...da-da-daaaaa RACCOONS!!!  Those suckers are adorable as all get-out, but seriously reek a hell of a lot of havoc!

Their brazen too!  Christmas 2006 was a great example of just how brazen those little buggers are!  We had our entire family here, everyone from Montreal came down, my parents stayed in town instead of the usual trek to Memphis to visit our family...so our back deck was constantly in use.  One evening everyone is out back and this little guy decides to mosey on up on the deck and check things out brushing past people's legs as he did:

Therefor anything we do or leave on the back deck we have to consider what the raccoons might do to it.  We bought an inflatable swimming pool for my son last summer, we have to empty it and place it in the basement each evening during the summer.

Likewise, any consideration for a sandbox for Peter would have to take into consideration what the raccoons would do to it...toilet? playground? who knows...

Now, I could go for something like this, offered by Pottery Barn Kids:

But at $450 (on sale), I'll pass.  If you're interested in this awesome sale, go here: http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/of55/index.cfm?pkey=coutdoor-furniture|k to make your purchase.

But since this sand thing is likely a passing phase and definitely something he can get his fill of at the local playground, we didn't really need to go crazy.  So, I got creative.  I bought a sealable large plastic bin with wheels.  This way I can close it up so the raccoons won't destroy it and I can wheel it out of the way when it's not in use.  Space is a definite issue on our back deck.

Here are some pictures of Peter playing in (scratch that) next to his sandbox today.  Mr. Clean (his new nickname) does not like getting dirty and kept complaining the sand was all over him.  By the way, frequent beach-goers probably already know this, but to get sand off your legs, arms and out of crevices use a little baby powder and it all wipes away so easily!