A couple of weeks back, Miss G and I put together a fall-themed play dough kit, and it’s been getting a ton of use ever since. {Some of Grae’s dolls even got deliciously scented dresses early one weekend morning – hah!} It goes without saying that we loveplay dough kits, so we usually keep a few on hand, switching out the doughs and themes each season. Well, since we’ve only switched out the one so far, it was time for the Canadian Wilderness set and the ice cream set to go. And in in their place? This fun dinosaur play dough kit and a super awesome Halloween kit {which I’ll share later this week}.
Admittedly, neither Brad nor I are huge Star Wars fans… But Miss G? Well she’s recently become one thanks to this Cosmic Kids Yoga video. {Hah!} So when she heard that the birthday party we’d been invited to this weekend was Star Wars-themed, she was absolutely thrilled. Of course, when I asked what she’d like to get the birthday boy as a gift, she threw out ‘A STAR WARS PLAY DOUGH KIT!!!’ almost immediately {sorry friends, I promise to get her onto a non-play dough gift giving kick very soon} and then I realized how over my head I was…
As usual in our house, a new season means new play dough kits, and what better way to start off fall than with a fall-themed play dough kit?! Grae and I have been collecting little odd and ends for this one for the last couple of weeks, so we were really excited to finally put it all together and play with it this morning… {Fyi, It smells amaaaazing!}
Today was Miss G’s first birthday party back in Canada and she was thrilled that a) it meant she got to finally see one of the friends she’s missed terribly while away, b) that it was princess-themed and involved art, and c) that it gave us the perfect excuse to create a ‘princessy’ gift.
Play dough kits. We can’t stop making them. Not for ourselves, and not for our friends. Tomorrow morning we’re headed to a preschool co-op play date combined with a little birthday celebration, and since the birthday girl requested a mermaid themed celebration, we thought we’d make her a mermaid play dough kit to match. ☺
After his dad’s Facebook post about the number of times the word ‘and’ shows up in the book Where the Wild Things Are, I knew that we had to get today’s birthday boy a new book {something with more than 8 sentences, preferably – that nifty fact also learned through a FB post about the dreaded/beloved Where the Wild Things Are ☺}.
Another birthday party, another play dough kit. ☺ I don’t think we can help it. I mention an upcoming birthday party, and Miss G automatically thinks, ‘play dough kit!!!’ This one, a cupcake play dough kit, was actually inspired by the little cupcake play dough favours that we gave out at Miss G’s very low-key birthday celebration we had here in Kuwait.
It’s very likely that our friends may soon disown us for constantly gifting them with play dough… And until then, we’ll probably just continue coming up with clever ways to present it and give it anyways {sorry, friends}. ☺
Okay, so I admit it – we’re a bit play dough kit obsessed over here. We can’t help it. Play dough is something that we play with on a daily basis and having pre-made kits filled with dough and interesting loose parts makes it really easy to delve into the fun – everything that’s needed is right there in a container waiting to be taken out! It also means that Grae can easily help herself to a kit and have a fun activity pre-prepared for independent play times, which I love.
I’m pretty sure Gracen’s obsession with Frozen has reached an all-time high recently. She’s always really enjoyed the movie, but since removing the YouTube app from her iPad a while back, I’m fairly certain she’s spent at least a portion of her allotted screen time watching it every single day. Of course, when your start your day with a dose of Frozen, it translates into into a whole lot of Elsa dress-up, many Anna hairdo requests, non-stop ‘Let It Go’, and daily reenactments of the ‘do you want to build a snowman?’ scene {accompanied by plenty of door knocking}. Welcome to our world.
Grae and I absolutely love putting together fun play kits as gifts, especially when they involve sensory play materials. While we’ve made a very simple homemade play dough kit previously, time around we decided to make the birthday boy a colourful kit filled with a rainbow of play dough and a bunch of fun tools and loose parts to up its play possibilities.
It’s no secret that Miss G and I like to create and give little homemade gifts. I’ve always loved giving gifts and it’s important to me that Gracen sees that there’s just as much joy {if not more} in giving as there is in receiving, even if the gifts are tiny and made by hand. I think ‘happy summer’ gifts like these also help her prepare for significant transitions – in this case, saying goodbye to her friends and home here in Kuwait and heading back to Canada for the summer.
There’s no doubt that we love play dough. In fact, we’ve given it out as gifts and favours several times before. But that being said, I can’t take any credit for these sweet, simple little Valentine’s Day treats…
With our last crafting class of the year coming up in just a few short days, Miss G and I wanted to prepare some simple gifts to share with the little friends she’s made at Bright Minds over the last few months. We adore play dough and had so much fun with our larger scale play dough snowman building activity that we decided to make miniature versions in easy to pack cases – everything needed to build play dough snowmen in small locking lid containers for some holiday fun on the go {or at home, really}.
First, we gathered up our materials… A double batch of our yummy-smelling vanilla mint play dough, awesome divided locking lid containers, beads, buttons, googly eyes, orange matchsticks, small twigs, and miniature scarves cut from inexpensive felt.
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We found our locking divided containers at City Star here in Kuwait, but these Sistema Klip It Split Food Containers on Amazon look similar. I love them because they’re small, easy for little ones to seal and unseal, and perfect for packing in a purse, diaper bag, or carry-on. Plus, they keep the play dough and the ‘building accessories’ {as Miss G calls them} separate, which I like too.
To get started, I added a big ball of vanilla mint play dough to one compartment of each container.
Then Gracen added the accessories to the other. To keep things uniform, we came up with a ‘recipe’ of what should be added to each container (2 googly eyes, 2 matchstick carrot noses, 2 twig arms, 5 beads, 5 buttons, and 1 felt scarf), which turned out to be great counting practice for Miss G.
This is how our kits looked when we were done with them.
Afterwards, Gracen matched up the lids, locked them on, and I used a regular glue stick to adhere some very basic labels I made and printed to fit our containers. And that was it – simple but cute gifts for our friends to enjoy over the holidays, be it at home, on an airplane, and while waiting in restaurants and doctors’ offices. I am so keeping one of these to bring along on our upcoming trip to Germany. In fact, I’m thinking I may create a couple of other little ‘play on-the-go’ kits too! ☺
Of course the one I tucked away for our trip didn’t remain a secret for long…
In fact, Grae’s already had several play dough snowman building sessions with her little kit.
Now let’s just hope the excitement continues until Christmas break rolls around and we board that plane!
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