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.