Coffee Play Dough

We took NurtureStore, The Imagination Tree and Sun Hats and Wellies' Play Dough Pledge and got crazy with some play dough this week!

At the start of the week we played with some chocolate play dough we've had since Valentine's Day (and it's still awesome!). We added some animals and they played in the "mud".

On Wednesday, after swimming lessons, we added coffee grounds to our chocolate play dough to make Mocha Play Dough! It smelled DIVINE and the texture was pretty cool, too! I originally thought we'd add about a 1/4 c, but we ended up using about an 1/8 c. of coffee grounds.

I've had a Starbucks sample cup for months now (it's our granola scoop) and this was the perfect way to use it! We grabbed her coffee mugs and coffee pot from her play kitchen, some straws, a tea ball and plastic scissors (cutting play dough is such a great activity for kiddos!).

She made herself some coffee and told me I wasn't old enough to have any (which is a common response to her question of whether she can have some of mine). She used the Starbuck's cup and a straw, and pretended to drink her coffee.

We used the tea ball to make "hair" and she thought that was hilarious.

We've had an awesome time this week with the Play Dough Pledge. Look for a post about our Kool-Aid Play Dough experience coming soon!

Did you take part in the pledge? I'd love to visit your posts! Please leave a link in the comments!

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Outdoor Messy Playdate

After seeing several messy playdates at Growing A Jeweled Rose, Twins at Play and Learn with Play, I was inspired to have my own!

It didn't take long to set up (I had the Farmer's help) and clean up was a breeze since it was outside! Just hose everything down afterward!

The kids loved it and when the Farmer asked me which activity was the favorite, I had a hard time deciding until I remembered that the soapy water bucket used to clean hands was probably it!

You can find most of the items we used in your pantry, although you may need a bit more than what you usually have on hand.

Here are the activities we had:

Cloud dough bin: 24 cups of white flour and 3 cups of clear oil (baby oil or mineral oil). This is actually cheaper than buying play sand and I love the texture! It also leaves your hands soft from the baby oil!

Water beads: There are 2 sets of water beads in this bin. Simply place them in a bowl of water overnight and then add them to a large bin for play. These were a big hit!

Shaving cream table: I squirted shaving cream all over our outdoor table. Also a hit! Shaving cream from Dollar Tree.

Goop/Oobleck: I LOVED this stuff! It is so cool. I first saw it on Housing a Forest (almost a year ago!) and have wanted to try it ever since. Sweet P played in this long after everyone left.

Spaghetti bin: 2 large bags of spaghetti from Dollar Tree, I cooked it the night before and stored it in the fridge. It was a bit sticky so I added water and it was perfect. Sweet P loved bathing in it!

Dried pasta: The kids had fun putting this in the dump truck and then dumping it out.

Painting station: I rolled out a piece of paper and taped it to the sidewalk (ignoring the fact that packing tape does NOT stick to cement). There were markers, paint with forks or hands/feet, and paint filled ice cubes to use. The ice cubes didn't work so well so we ended up tossing them into the pool.

Pool: Just water! The kids had fun rinsing off and watching the ice cubes melt in the water.

Mini water pillow: After seeing this genius idea on The Mommies Made Me Do It, the Farmer set to creating a mini one for the kids. We used what we had on hand (which was plastic for windows) and it wasn't very durable, but duck tape works wonders! We tested our prototype the day before with Sweet P and Baby Blue and I was shocked at how refreshing it was! We are definitely doing this again with a bigger version.

Sand table with play sand: The sand in the table is play sand from Toys R Us. You can't get it at Home Depot or Ace Hardware. I tried. And all they have is regular sand. Play sand is much, much finer and easily moves through funnels. This was actually the least played with activity!

Dirt digging: A few kids played in Sweet P's garden, using a rake and shovel.

Sidewalk chalk road: We had a ride-on tractor and several other push toys for the chalk road.

Squirt bottles: I had 2 squirt bottles with water out and 2 of the girls LOVED squirting the house! Such a simple activity and they loved it.

If I had to guess I'd say it was a hit! I love that the kids experienced so much sensory and science without even knowing it!

Want more ideas for playdates? Check out B.Inpsired Mama!'s 20 Tips for Successful Play Dates!

Note: Although most of these items are non-toxic, children should be supervised at ALL times. Please remember that water beads are a choking hazard.

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Make A Monster Playdough Party Favors

Although these crayon rolls were my first choice in party favors for Sweet P's birthday party, the Make A Monster Playdough Favors were a big hit. If you read that post you'll remember that I asked Sweet P which she'd rather have and she said playdough so I figured she knew her guests better than me!

We had one friend send us a photo via phone of their monsters and another text about the fun her kids had with the playdough, so I'm glad we went that route! 

I set out to find a playdough recipe and found an awesome stove top version at The Mommies Made Me Do It. I made 4 batches/colors in less than an hour and it was super simple! Please visit The Mommies Made Me Do It for the recipe.

After searching high and low for Neon food coloring (it was like a week after Easter!), I finally found the LAST box at a Wal-Mart in Plano, TX. (All of our birthday preparations were done while visiting Gammie in Texas!)

I also searched EVERYWHERE for monster stickers! Apparently monsters are not hot right now. Again, Wal-Mart came to the rescue (2 nights before the party!). 

Auntie Rosita created and printed our favor tags "Eye hope you had fun!" to go with the monster theme. 

Here's what went in the favor bags:

• 3 colors of playdough (hot pink, turquoise, lime green)
• googly eyes (small and large)
• pipe cleaners in 3 colors
• monster stickers 

Some of Sweet P's creations from leftover favors

Read about the rest of Sweet P's Monster Party Here!

For more playdough party favor ideas visit Growing a Jeweled Rose for a Make Your Own Elmo favor and Come Together Kids for Magical Playdoh mix!

Shaving Cream Cross Garland

We shaving cream painted (sounds crazy huh?) a few weeks ago and I am FINALLY getting around to posting about it. It was so much fun and we have done so much with our paintings. It's like the craft that keeps on giving.

I found the idea at Little Wonders Days and knew Sweet P would LOVE this! The kid loves shaving cream and paint so this was the perfect craft for her!

We turned our finished product into a cross garland for our window and sent the extras as Easter ornaments to RoRo, TK, Nana and Gammie. Then, we used the scraps from cutting the paper into crosses to make an egg collage AND we still have some scraps leftover! We loved this project and it'll be so fun to do for other holidays in the future!

Here's a quick overview of how it went:

Spray shaving cream into a baking sheet or other container and mix around until the container is covered.

Drizzle paint over the top of the shaving cream and swirl with a paintbrush, toothpick, straw, etc.

Press your paper onto the shaving cream/paint mixture OR grab handfuls and spread it all over the paper.

Allow to sit for a few minutes (ours sat for several minutes while Sweet P took a quick bath).
Use a squeegee (or towel) to wipe off the shaving cream (the paint will remain!) and set out to dry.

Cut into the shape of your choice or hang to admire!

For the cross garland, I cut each piece of paper into 5 crosses.

I laminated the crosses so we could use the garland next year.

Sweet P lined them all up and helped me punch holes in them.

Punch a hole in each cross, then thread through a piece of yarn or string. Hang and admire!

Cut scraps into small squares or other shapes, cut a large egg shape out of cardstock or construction paper and glue scraps to egg to form a decorative Easter egg!

Whew! What else can we do with our scraps?!

The Aftermath of Art

Who says art has to end after the project is complete?

We made a guitar Valentine for the Farmer (silly me forgot to take a picture of the final project and it is now at his office) and painted the pieces. Sweet P loved to paint so I knew she'd enjoy making this. What I didn't know is that she'd have more fun cleaning up the aftermath of the art than she did actually making the art.

I laid down a drop cloth (it's a plastic sheet from a Potty Party we had last year) and when we were finished, I asked her to help me clean it up. I handed her a wet washcloth and she happily scrubbed off the paint that had dripped onto the sheet during our project.

Sweet P LOVES playing in the kitchen sink and would happily wash dishes all day long (think I can bottle that for the teenage years?) so I asked her to pull a chair over so we could wash the paint brushes. This turned out to be the highlight of Sweet P's day! She poured out the water we had used to rinse the paintbrush while we painted and after we'd cleaned up our breakfast dishes, I plugged the drain.

I handed her the foam brush and watched as she marveled over the water changing color while she rinsed the foam brush.

Once the brush was clean she moved on to the smaller brush and said, "He is taking a  shower!" as she rinsed it with the sprayer.

Sweet P also loves to pour so I handed her our painting cup, her pitcher, a measuring spoon and medicine cup for some water transfer fun.

I'm slowly learning to encourage Sweet P to be part of the entire process because each step of creating art has something to teach her.

Outdoor Play: Digging in the Winter Garden

My great aunt Betty was trying to get rid of some leftovers from a garage sale while we were in Texas so we went over one afternoon to see what she had. My favorite find was these tiny garden tools. They are for an indoor garden, but PERFECT for Sweet P's little hands. She also had 2 sets of child gardening gloves!

The weather last week was unseasonably warm for Iowa so me and my girl set out for the raised garden beds and did some digging. Just because digging is fun. I think I may go out and hide some things in one of the garden beds and we'll do this again!

We found pecan shells, sticks, leaves and rocks, but no worms. We also dug far enough down to find frost on the dirt! Again, one of those times I was more impressed than Sweet P! We also did some raking and talked about the grass on top of the garden beds. So glad she inherited the Farmer's love for gardening.