I adore fall. The colours, the crisp air, the scarves, the boots, the crunch of leaves underneath your feet… It all just makes me warm and fuzzy inside. My social media feeds have been full of it recently, and for that I’m thankful (because hey – I’ll take it however I can get it). While we may be in the desert and it may still be 40 to 45 degrees on an average day, there’s no reason why we can’t make fall happen right here in our own apartment. And so we began today.
Is it crazy that I’m totally stoked on this awesome, non-crumbly, and fully edible peanut butter play dough we came up with today?! The truth is, it’s taken us a few attempts to come up with the perfect recipe. I really should have known which ingredient would be the key to our success – it’s a long time favourite of mine – but it took us a while to get there. We started with the classic recipe I grew up with – peanut butter, dried milk, and honey – and while it’s yummy and fun to play with, it crumbles absolutely everywhere and is super tricky to roll out and cut using cookie cutters. This one, on the other hand, is like pure luxury. It’s super soft, silky, and rolls and cuts with ease.
One of the things I’ve always loved doing with students who’ve found using scissors challenging is pairing them with play dough instead of paper. Let’s face it – learning to use scissors properly is tricky! First there’s figuring out which fingers go where, plus there’s finding the hand strength and coordination to open and close them, and then there’s also guiding them in the direction you want them to go… Certainly no easy task! The reason I love play dough is that although many kids come to Kindergarten not all that familiar with using ‘school tools’ like scissors, almost all kids come to school having played with play dough. And not only are they familiar with it, but they love it. And because it’s fun and non-intimidating, plus soft and easy to cut, it’s a perfect starting point, even for reluctant munchkins.
I’ve done this activity with Gracen many times, and although she’s already very comfortable using scissors with paper and cutting on pre-determined lines, she still loves cutting play dough. It’s an easy activity to put together and I’d rather smush together bits of play dough than pick up tiny shards of paper any day of the week. When I set it up, I usually create both play dough ‘pancakes’ and ‘worms’ and then let her go to town, but anything goes. Today after quickly preparing the play dough shapes, she used them to create a daisy and a stem. ☺
Then it was time to cut!
Two things I like to reinforce during the cutting process are one, being mindful of where your ‘holding fingers’ are and two, positioning your scissors so they’re pointing away from your body.
During the process Grae almost always asks for a bowl to put her ‘food’ in, which makes the activity that much more fun and adds in an element of pretend play.
Today’s food was for kitties only. ☺
♥
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A couple of days ago, Miss G and I experimented with making a couple of changes to our scented Kool-Aid play dough. I don’t know if Kool-Aid is just on the way out (surely it should be ☺), but our grocery store only stocks a few colours. So as an alternative, we decided to give Jell-O crystals a shot.
We followed our original scented play dough recipe *almost* exactly, but added a packet of Jell-O mix instead of Kool-Aid mix.
We also added some fine glitter because…. Well, because Grae said so. That’s why.
We mixed everything up and added our wet ingredients, going a little bit easier on the water this time. While we absolutely loved our Kool-Aid play dough and it kept great when somewhere cool, we did notice that it got a bit mucky when stored in a cupboard near one of our heat vents, so hopefully the reduced amount of water will help fix this problem.
The result was a soft, smooth, yummy-smelling play dough that Miss G was just dying to get her hands on.
We made two batches, one raspberry, one strawberry, and added some cookie cutters, a mini rolling pin, and a mini baking pan for a fun creative table set-up.
{No-Cook} Berry Jell-O Play Dough
Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add wet ingredients, saving the boiling water for last. Add the water and give the mixture a few quick mixes, banging off your whisk every once and a while. Leave the semi-mixed dough on the counter to cool. Once cooled for about 10 minutes, dump the mixture onto the counter and knead really well. Knead for about 3 minutes, or until the dough smooth and well-blended.
Enjoy!
♥
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With a Valentine’s party earlier this week, and our annual Valentine’s tea happening tomorrow, when Miss G asked to have a special day at home today instead of attending our Valentine’s celebration at Strong Start, I was more than happy to oblige. It was a day of cooking together and doing special activities, topped off with a few hand-picked gifts for each of us at the end of the day.
Here is our day in photos…
Little breakfast helper.
A breakfast full of hearts.
A special drink.
Jello play dough experiment.
Play time.
A special project for Papa.
“Love soup”.
Proud.
Papa’s pizza topping.
Heart-shaped bacon warrants a regular rectangular pizza.
Regular roasted veggies means the pizza needs to be heart-shaped.
Finishing off the day with a few little gifts. A beautiful picture frame and some David’s Tea goodies for Papa, Fauberg macarons for Mama, and a handmade purse, a new book, and some scented stickers for Miss G.
Check out last year’s Valentine’s Day with my little lady here.
♥
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Gracen is absolutely loving hanging out with her cousins. We woke up this morning, had some breakfast, and pulled out our play dough gingerbread people supplies for the kids to play with. In addition to the original supplies, this time we added some miniature baking pans, tiny rolling pins, and more cookie cutters to the mix.
All of the kids really enjoyed creating their play dough masterpieces and the activity provided a great start to our day.
♥
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After decorating gingerbread houses this morning, this afternoon I whipped up a batch of delicious-smelling and amazingly soft gingerbread play dough for Miss G to play with.
In addition to the play dough, I set out several things create gingerbread people with, including a rolling pin, cookie cutters, buttons, straw pieces, jingle bells, ribbon bits, and toothpicks.
Gracen dove in as she usually does and the play dough gingerbread people began rolling out of the kitchen.
She came up with so many fun ways to decorate them, some more traditional, and some a little more abstract…
The best part is that this dough smells so amazing that you sometimes forget that it’s just play dough and not actual gingerbread baking in the oven. ☺
♥
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This afternoon, Gracen and I had the absolute pleasure of attending a launch event at the Robson Street location of Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics.
When we first got the invite, I was really excited for two reasons. First off, because I’ve been a longtime Lush fan and seeing, touching, and trying a brand new product before the general public is always fun, and second, because the event was munchkin-friendly and Gracen was more than welcome to come along!
When we arrived, the Lush team was extremely helpful, sweet, and friendly. They helped us find a spot to park our stroller, offered us all kinds of delicious treats and beverages, and invited Gracen to play with the newest Lush innovation, ‘Fun’. Of course she had already spotted the play table on the way in and was more than ready to sink her little hands into the mouldable material.
As she played, I learned all about Fun. What it is basically, is a mouldable {delicious smelling} soap that can be used in four different ways. First off (and most importantly ☺), it can be played with. It has a texture between play dough and plastercine and can easily be cut, shaped, and rolled. The best part is that since it’s a soap, clean up is a breeze – both when it comes to cleaning your table and cleaning your kid. When used in the bathroom, it can be rubbed and used as a soap (we’ve already used it at the sink for washing hands and in the bathtub as a body bar), lathered and used as a shampoo, or placed under some running water as a bubble bath. So cool, right? I’m pretty sure some pre-bath time “play dough” sessions are in our very near future…
After playing with Fun for a good, long time, Miss G decided it would be a good time to have her face painted. Having seen {and immediately fallen in love with} a stack of pumpkin-shaped soap on the way by, a little jack-o-lantern on her cheek it was.
With a freshly-painted cheek, it was off to explore the rest of the store. There were all kinds of goodies out and Gracen very happily chose a bag of popcorn to munch on while I helped myself to a little bag of goodies at the candy bar. We explored the products, learning about them and trying them out along the way, which was a lot of fun. These were two of our favourites. I really loved the slightly shimmery Bubblebeard bubble wand because it made incredible bubbles with just small swishes in a bowlful of water, and Grae really loved the Calacas shower jelly, mostly because it was really fun to poke and squish.
We stopped to see a few other things, mingle with some other mamas and kiddos, and snack on our goodies, but more than anything, Grae wanted to get back to the Fun table to play.
Before heading home for dinner, bath, and bed time, we got to watch a fresh batch of Fun being made, and then play with it immediately afterwards. When fresh made like this, Fun is still pretty soft and sticky compared to the finished product, but Gracen didn’t mind one bit. It made for a great mess and lots of fun swishing it all of in a bowl of warm water afterwards.
To top off a fun-filled afternoon, Lush very generously sent us home with a bag full of goodies that Grae immediately called her ‘present’ and insisted on carrying on her own despite the fact that it was heavy and bulky.
When we got home and opened it, she was thrilled to find several rolls of Fun inside, but even more thrilled to see a Jacko bath fizzer. We chopped him up to spread the excitement up over a few nights, and before long, our pumpkin pie scented little lady was tucked into bed.
♥
I’ve had this little idea in mind ever since Gracen received her ice cream sand toys back at the beginning of summer, and today was a perfect day to make it happen… With it being cool and dreary here in Vancouver, spending the afternoon on a wet beach making sand cones didn’t sound overly appealing… Making yummy-smelling play dough ones in the warmth of our house, however, certainly did. Not to mention the fact that Grae fell in love with playing ‘the ice cream game’ at our community centre’s playground recently, so opening an ice cream shop (which Grae quickly decided should be a frozen yogurt shop instead) it was.
With our best ever no cook scented play dough made and a few things collected from around the house, our shop was ready for business.
Our play dough went into some empty yogurt containers we had on hand…
We made candy sprinkles by chopping up some colourful plastic straws we had leftover from Miss G’s birthday party…
Colourful buttons became Smarties…
And some silicone baking cups and the plastic cones from Grae’s Melissa & Doug set became our cups and cones.
We also collected some scoops and spoons for eating and serving our frozen treats, some coins and a money jar, and fabric bunting {also from the birthday party} to spruce up the shop. ☺
Together, we wrote made a quick sign for our shop. I asked Grae how much one of her frozen yogurt treats cost, and without skipping a beat, she said “Two!” So two dollars it was…
With her shop set up and ready to go, it was down to business welcoming her customers (me!), making delicious-looking play dough treats, and collecting money in exchange.
Not a fan of cones? Not a problem – a bowl for you!
Cheers to rainy days and frozen treats!
The frozen yogurt fun went on all afternoon…
And after what felt my 53rd order, Papa eventually came home and relieved me of my customer duties (thank goodness – I don’t know if my belly could have handled another candy-covered cone).
Gracen and I may have just stumbled upon the best. play dough. recipe. ever. today while combining my old go-to with a few other ideas we found around the net…. Now I know I said similar things about this recipe, but this new one involves no cooking (win!) and smells delish (double win!)
We did have to make a trip to the grocery store beforehand, as a couple of the ingredients are not things we regularly keep on hand, but it was well worth the trip. This is by far the softest, squishiest, smoothest, nicest feeling {and smelling} play dough I’ve ever come across.
Now before I share the recipe, I want to say that there are LOTS of factors at play when making play dough at home. It seems like it should be a simple enough task {and I promise that it is}, but there a few things to consider and I want to be sure that your play dough turns out well. Believe it or not, things like the elevation at which you live, the weather / humidity where you are, and how you measure your flour can all affect whether your dough turns out too sticky, too dry, or just right.
For the purpose of this recipe, know that I measure flour by scooping a heaping amount of flour into my stainless steel measuring up and pressing it down into the cup on the inside of the bag. Thus, my flour is fairly packed down in the measuring cup.
Also know that if your finished play dough turns out too wet, you can save it by adding a little bit of extra flour, bit by bit (just go slow here – you can overdo it quickly!) and kneading it in. At the opposite side of the spectrum, if your dough seems too dry or tough, you can add moisture and soften it up by adding tiny bits of one of the wet ingredients (boiling water, oil, or glycerine) at a time, again being careful not to overdo it.
The BEST Scented No-Cook Play Dough
*If using Kool-Aid or Frosting Creations, additional food colouring is not needed. You can also skip Kool-Aid / Frosting Creations all together and use the gel colouring for a coloured but unscented dough. Or leave out all three for a unscented, natural coloured dough.
Place all of the ingredients, save the boiling water, in a bowl and whisk well. Measure the water using your dry measuring set and add it to the bowl. Give the mixture a quick mix with a wooden spoon, banging off it off every once and a while. At this point, the mixture may seem too wet and sticky to make good play dough… Do not fret! Leave the semi-mixed dough on the counter to cool for 5 or so minutes. Afterwards, dump the mixture out onto the countertop and knead really well. You’ll know you’re done when the dough is fully cooled, soft and squishy, and the super smooth.
Enjoy!
FIY: Kool-Aid is a powdered drink mix that you add sugar and water to make ‘juice’ and Frosting Creation Flavour Mix is a powder used to flavour store-bought icing. Both can be used in this recipe to scent AND colour the play dough, but they can easily be left out for a natural, unscented dough or replaced with food colouring for a coloured, but unscented dough.
FIY #2: Non-edible glycerine is readily available in the first aid section of most grocery stores and edible glycerine is available where cake making supplies are sold.
FIY#3: This play dough will last for months if stored at room temperature in an air-tight container or bag. Do not refrigerate or store near a heat source or on top of the fridge.
FIY #4: When making this play dough, we use dry measuring cups only – even when measuring the boiling water.
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This morning I was tidying the house while Gracen happily played with her chocolate play dough. My cleaning frenzy was interrupted by a very pleased voice announcing, “Mama, shoe! Shoe!” I turned to see this. Oh, my little monkey. How I love her and her crazy little ideas.
♥
Today was a work day for this mama… And although I really do like the the teaching part, I sure do miss my little lady while I’m away. Luckily, a classroom of 25 to 30 students keeps me more than busy for most of the day, but some days I just wish I could snap my fingers, avoid the {sometimes slow / stressful} commute, and arrive at home to soak up more moments like these…
mini cleanaholic // rolling machine
making cookies // chocolate play dough chocolates
bath time mohawk // bedtime stories with baby
♥
Everybody loves play dough, but chocolate play dough?! Now that’s what I’m talking about. I actually meant to make this with Miss G over Easter weekend, but we were so busy hunting for eggs and spending our days outdoors, that we didn’t get around to it. So this morning we whipped out our ingredients and got busy in the kitchen. And I’m so glad we did. This play dough is so much fun. Not to mention that it smells delicious and is easy to make. Here’s what we did…
First, Grae helped me gather our ingredients – all-purpose flour, salt, cocoa, cream of tartar, oil, and boiling water (which is safely stored on a counter on the opposite side of the kitchen).
We decided to use our mixer this time around, but you could just as easily use a bowl, wooden spoon, and some elbow grease instead. Start off by adding your flour to the bowl.
Then dump in the salt. Close your eyes while doing so for an added challenge.
Next up -the magic ingredient… Cocoa!
Then add a little bit of cream of tartar….
And mix it all together.
When your dry ingredients are fully blended, add some oil.
Then mix again.
Now for the ‘mommy only’ job… Slowly pour your boiling water into the mixture.
Then mix until everything is well blended and the dough begins to come together.
At this point, the dough might appear to be a little goopy, but resist the urge to add flour just yet. Stop your machine and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, making sure to incorporate any loose flour.
Now give it one more quick mix.
Dump the dough out onto the counter and pat everything together into a nice ball.
Voila! You’re ready to have some fun!
Mmmmmm… Smells so good too!
For some added fun, we took out a box of chocolates we’ve had around since Christmas, dumped the contents, and made some yummy play dough chocolates of our own.
Here’s the recipe (which I originally found here):
Messy-haired and rosy-cheeked after a long nap.
Mobile phone family portrait.
Play dough queen.
♥ Gracen & Mama ♥