Red, White, & Blue Playdough

One thing I'm striving for this summer is to try and not sweat the small stuff and to keep things simple when possible. So when I realized that somehow the 4th of July Weekend has already snuck up on us I decided to keep our festive play simple and go with some playdough play.

We have a great basic cooked playdough recipe which can be tweaked in lots of different ways to create slightly different versions or play invitations.

Dinosaur Playdough Play

As we were getting ready for Little Brother's Dinosaur birthday party this month we were excited to set up a new playdough play invitation. This invitation uses one of our all time favorite playdough recipes - we call it "Chocolate Cake Playdough" because it has the amazing scent of real chocolate.

For this playdough play invitation we added in a few key pieces: miniature dinosaurs, floral rocks, and fake plants so that the boys could create a dinosaur world.

Simple St. Patrick's Day Playdough Play

The boys are already looking forward to St. Patrick's Day, which means we've been doing some fun, little things already to get ready to celebrate. Which is how we came up with this Simple St. Patrick's Day Playdough Play invitation.

As with most of our playdough recipes we started with our Basic Cooked Playdough recipe and then tweaked it a little to make it match the St. Patrick's Day theme. 

Apple Spiced Playdough

It was definitely time to make up a new batch of playdough, and with the new season arriving I was inspired to create a play experience that reminded us of fall.

One of my favorite parts of autumn is all the great scents that come along with the season. In the past we've used some of those same great scents to create Pumpkin Spice Playdough and Fall Spice Playdough. But this time I wanted to create something that reminded us of apples - we're in the mood for apple picking and all sorts of yummy apple treats - but we just haven't had a free weekend lately. The trick was how could I make the playdough smell fruity and spicy at the time?

Lilac Scented Playdough

I love the sweet smell of lilacs in the spring time, but it always seems like the flowers last for such a short time.  We wait through early spring and by the time they open it's usually hot enough that they don't last for long.

So to savor the smell a little longer, I made up a batch of Lilac Scented Playdough! We still love a cooked playdough and used our basic cooked playdough recipe as a base for this batch. 

Playdough Invitation to Build a Rainbow

The other day we had a friend over and I decided to set up an easy and colorful playdough invitation. Although the boys all created their own versions of a rainbow, because of the high energy they had that day, it wasn't quite as peaceful as imagined when I set it out. (There was a lot of monster and smashing talk while they built the rainbows . . .) But, there creations were colorful! And we were a little bit calmer afterwards.

Earlier this winter we adapted our basic cooked playdough recipe to make a white sparkly snow playdough for our snowmen at work playdough invitation. This white playdough has been a great base for other playdough invitations, including this one. 

Snowmen at Work Playdough Play

Many people know the books Snowmen at Night and Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn and Mark Buehner, we were pleased to buy the books in a set a few years ago. Along with the set came Snowmen at Work, which is part of the same series but not as well known. This winter the boys have discovered the book and they love reading it. In the book a little boy ponders if the snowmen (and snowwomen) have jobs they do when humans are not looking.

We used the book as a launching point to inspire our newest playdough play invitation. 

To begin with I made up a batch of our basic cooked playdough and kept it white. 

Basic Cooked Playdough

We do a lot of playdough play here, in fact we usually try to vary up our playdough play every month or so. Although there are a lot of different non-cook playdough recipes out there, we're still a big fan of a basic cooked playdough.

All of our playdough recipes stem from this basic recipe, which we've finally decided to share!

Gingerbread Playdough Kit

As the holidays come up, it's nice to have something on hand for the other kiddos in our life. Even though we don't always give gifts to the adults around us, I do like having something little for the kiddos we play and visit with. It's even better if the gift can be something homemade and doesn't cost a lot.

Last year I had thought about putting together some kind of playdough kit, but couldn't find the right cookie cutters I had in mind. This year I was excited to find plastic gingerbread cookie cutters for 99¢ at our local grocery store. This lead to creating our Gingerbread Playdough Kits. 

Fall Spice Playdough

There's something about these cooler days that instantly make me want the tastes and smells of fall food: cinnamon, nutmeg, all sorts of delicious spices . . . sometimes I don't even have to eat them to fulfill the craving, just smelling them is enough. 

Little Brother and I put together this delicious smelling playdough the other day and both of us couldn't stop smelling it! 

Build-A-Road Playdough Play

Toy cars abound at our house, so it's always fun to find new ways to play with them. One thing the boys really enjoyed this past week was this new playdough invitation, with a slightly new twist on our playdough recipe.

This invitation was one that was definitely high interest for all the boys, even though they are at slightly different ages. 

Frog Pond Playdough

Truly one of my favorite sounds in the world is the sound of the spring frogs in the woods around our home, especially that first night I hear them as it means spring is here. I was pretty excited to notice it for the first time last week. So now that the frogs are here, it means it's time for the boys and I to start exploring the world of frogs.

We started that exploration by reading a few books and playing with some frog pond playdough this week.

Spring Flower & Coffee Playdough Invitation

As we're still in the throes of winter we are definitely getting ready for some color in our white landscape. A recent trip to the dollar store inspired us to try some playdough play with a spring theme. 

At the dollar store we stocked up on colorful fake flowers, florist rocks, floral butterflies, and small plastic pots. Already the colors started to make us smile!

And in an effort to create a playdough that looks a little more like real dirt, we got creative with Daddy's left over coffee.

Gingerbread Baby Playdough

There is something so magical and fun about gingerbread houses, and the boys are looking forward to decorating a real one with their Pamma later this week. But until then we've started playing with gingerbread houses in other ways and reading several gingerbread books.

Gingerbread Baby Playdough

This post may contain affiliate links, thank you for your support. 

One of our favorite books which includes a gingerbread house is Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.

 

This spin on the classic tale tells the story of a little gingerbread baby who runs away from everyone. But instead of being eaten by the fox at the end, the little boy who made him also makes him a beautiful gingerbread house to live in. We've been rereading the book over the last few weeks and it inspired our Gingerbread Baby Playdough.

To begin with, we tweaked our basic playdough recipe to make it smell like gingerbread by adding some yummy smelling spices. We like to make a cooked playdough. so the directions below should be done by an adult as they involve using the stove. 

Witchy Playdough Play

We had so much fun with our Room on the Broom post that we decided to continue our witchy themed fun. We found a pack of "witch fingers" while doing some shopping. Big Brother and I instantly got excited about the idea of some witch themed playdough play.

Witchy Playdough Play

To begin with I made a batch of basic cooked playdough. I dyed the playdough a bright green color by mixing in green and yellow food coloring. After cooking I kneaded in about 1/4 cup of green glitter for a little extra fun. 

3 Ways to Play with Shells

Last week we had the chance to get away to the seacoast for an overnight. We all loved being on the beach, both for an evening picnic and a morning playing in the waves.

But our two small trips definitely didn't feel like enough time there. Everyone was rather bummed to return home.

So we decided to try and recreate some of the ocean fun here at home. Last weekend we started exploring some ocean fun and we've decided to extend it into this week too.

Our first three activities have all been sensory play based around shells!

Vanilla Surprise Cake Playdough (Celebrating Our First Year)

Today is our one year blogiversary. One year of writing, posting, picture taking, and more. One year of sharing things we love to do often, are just trying for the first time, and things that become new favorites. One year of learning, for both me and the kiddos as we all explore new things (including how to make this whole page work.) What started out as something fun has blossomed into something I hope we stick with. There is still so much more to learn but still a lot more we want to share too.

Looking back over this year to date we have had 10,442 views, 127 posts, and found 134 fans on facebook. A few popular posts over the year have included our Love Bugs, "Swimmy" Sponge Painting, and our Seed Exploration. A few of our personal favorites include our Alphabet Adventures, Raspberry White Chocolate Muffins, Rockin' Robin Footprints, and our New Year's Bags for the Whole Family.

I can't wait to see where we go in this next year . . .

In honor of the one year blogiversary today we created Vanilla Surprise Cake Playdough. And although I didn't tell the boys why we were pretending to make cakes, they loved the theme of the play for the afternoon.

Mud Season Monster Truck Bin

Everywhere I look there are reminders that spring is coming: Facebook, all the stores, Pinterest . . . that is everywhere I look that is not outside our windows. Last week's storm dumped another 18 inches on us, which has settled on top of what we already had to place us back in a Winter Wonderland. And these weeks cold temps are not helping.

Of course, in our part of New England before we get to spring we need to get through Mud Season. It's the fourth season here in Vermont. At this point I'd love to see that bare, brown time of year with just a hint of green; but you can remind me of that in a few weeks when I'm groaning at how the mud keeps getting tracked into the house.

To have a little fun with that idea I set up a Monster Truck Mud Season Bin for Big Brother. It's already gotten him excited about the idea that spring may actually be coming.

Chocolate Playdough Valentine's Day Play

We couldn't resist making a new batch of our Chocolate Cake Playdough as we approach the Valentine's Day holiday. We love the super chocolate smell of this great playdough.

This time, we decided to pretend to make Valentine's Day chocolates and cookies. We used cookie cutters, heart sequins, beads, mini muffin liners, and sparkly pipe cleaners to decorate the creations.

"Cold" Sparkle Snow Dough

A few weeks ago we made Sparkle Snow Dough which proved to be a lot of fun. Big Brother's only complaint was that it didn't seem "cold" like real snow. This lead to some searching on the internet and Pinterest which helped us to this recipe for Erupting Snow. Although there seemed to be similar recipes out there, this was a great fit. We're simply calling it "Cold Sparkle Snow Dough" here.

The ingredients are simple: shaving cream, glitter, and baking soda.