Make Playdough

Silly me...when the girls added "make playdough" to the list I decided to save it for a rainy day. What fun, I imagined, to spend a whole dreary summer day inside with the girls whipping up new playdough recipes and creating masterpieces until our hands cramped, our fingers ached, and we could create no more. Yeah, that didn't happen. Instead, I waited one 100 degree day after another while the summer days ticked by and we slowly started to run out of time. Like I said, silly me, playdough making would have been the perfect air conditioned INDOOR activity for anyone of those sizzlin' summer days. Ah well, you live and learn! Finally, after days of Bug's pleading to get started, I let go of my little fantasy, and we picked a Saturday afternoon to get working. We decided to spice things up a bit by trying out five different types of playdough recipes and experimenting to see which one we liked the best. Who knew there are so many different recipes for playdough out there?? The ones we picked were Alum, Traditional, Kool Aid, Cooked, and Rubbery playdough. We also decided to add food coloring and glitter. Making playdough with four kids and a dog in our small kitchen was quite the project, but we managed to get it done and somehow everyone got an equal turn at adding ingredients and stirring the dough. My counters, floor, and stove did end up covered in flour, baking powder, and salt, but that was to be expected. Besides, things couldn't have worked out more perfectly because the teeny one decided to take a nap after we were done cooking and the big girls and I zipped off to an afternoon movie which left Mac to clean up the mess:) We got back home stuffed with popcorn to a clean kitchen and the girls got right to work creating and scultping. They have played for hours and hours with that playdough! Next time, I won't wait so long to make it and they will have even more time to play. Oh, and there is a debate over which type was the best. I guess we will just have to try out even more recipes until we can come up with a clear winner.

Flower Picking

Thank goodness for Butler's Orchard AND for this past Friday! I am so grateful for Butler's because we have spent so many of our summer days there this past year, and if it weren't for them I am not sure what I would have done when Peanut decided to add flower picking to our summer list. I held my breath in anticipation waiting to see if Mrs. Butler's flower garden would be open again this year, otherwise, I was going to have to sneak the girls out in the middle of the night and let them loose on a neighbor's yard. That, or beg a Grandmother to let them have a go at one of their well tended gardens. Luckily, it WAS open and my sister in law, Megan, and her three girls were once again able to join us in checking an item off of the list.

After all of these hot, hot, HOT summer days we somehow managed to pick the perfect day to complete this activity. This was pure chance, because I didn't even check the weather before we walked out the door. We had a head start getting to the fields so we headed to the slides while we waited for Megan's crew. Oh, what a beautiful summer day! The sky was blue with fluffy, white clouds, and there was an actual BREEZE. It felt wonderful sitting in the grass with the teeny one and Peanut while the big girls went down the slides. Of course, I should have known what would happen when I took them to the slides. I should have known Peanut would beg me to take her down the slide. But, somehow I didn't, and so I ended up going down the big belly bumper slide. In a skirt. Without the Peanut. She chickened out when it was too late for me to turn back. Little booger!

When Megan's gang joined us we spent a little more time on the slides and then headed off to the flower fields. How it works is, you give your child a knife to hack away at the flowers and for $8.00 they can stuff as many flowers as they can fit into a cup. No joke, we handed each little girl a knife and set them off to run around the field. Welllllllll, pumpkin cutters, so they are not sharp. On the way to Butler's and again walking to the field I had a long talk with the girls about how we were only going to get ONE cup of flowers and share that ONE cup. They were surprisingly agreeable. After about five minutes of picking flowers I heard a voice ring out, "Mom, Peanut filled another cup!!" Sigh. Okay, TWO cups, no more! It really is a lot of fun to pick the flowers. They have a large variety and if I knew anything about flowers I could list the different types here, but since I don't I will just say they have a lot of different types in a lot of different colors. I can say they have sunflowers. An added bonus is all the butterflies that are swirling around you as you pick flowers. I had a sniffly mommy moment watching Girly running around the field with the butterflies. Eight years ago we picked flowers at Butler's for the first time when she was just two years old, she had chubby little cheeks and wispy blond hair, and would grab at the butterflies and almost crush them in her hands. This year when I asked her to catch one so I could recreate a photo from that long ago day she looked at me in horror because she didn't want to hurt it's wings. Ahh, she is growing up so fast! It took her a long time, but she finally was able to gently catch one by cupping her hands around it. When she opened her hands to get a picture with the butterfly all I got was one with her standing with her hands open and empty. The butterfly was too fast, just like all of the days that have flown by since that picture was taken of her proud little two year old self holding up the butterfly for her Mommy to see what she caught. Sniff. Oh, thank goodness for Butler's, so very many happy memories created there!