Gloop

For one of our date nights, the Sweet Bee and I made Gloop.
Gloop is a wonderful hands-on sensory activity that most children will enjoy. Most kids I know love getting their hands dirty, so just relax and enjoy the texture, and don't worry about the mess in your kitchen. Better yet, do this activity outside!

This was the recipe for Gloop that I started from:

1 cup cornstarch
1 cup water
food coloring (optional)

We started mixing it together with our hands, but at this point it was pretty runny. We just kept adding cornstarch until we got the consistency right (probably another cup), so you might want to start with less water. We chose to make ours light green.
The Sweet Bee had a great time squeezing, pulling and letting the gloop drip through her fingers.

If you store it in an airtight container you can use it again. We just added a little more water, and the Ant Bug spent an hour playing with it the next afternoon.
After two days of use it had kind of a funny smell, so I wouldn't recommend keeping it for too long. But it was cheap, creative entertainment while it lasted!