This day I love.......: play dough

Sometimes when the girls get home from school they are really tired. They end up a little grumpy. I myself am suffering with exhaustion, this pregnancy seems to be really taking it out of me. I have been looking for ways to keep the girls entertained without tiring me out too much. I came across a microwave play dough recipe which seemed perfect, play dough in 5 minutes,

I had some blue sand which I set up in one container and made some yellow play dough. I added our Schleich sea animals and then let the girls play.

Our Schleich sea animals made for the perfect addition with our play dough and sand. Many toys struggle in play dough but Schleich toys are easy to wipe clean and remove play dough from, the bright colours always stay looking like new.

The girls wasted no time in getting stuck in. Blue sand soon got mixed with the play dough giving it a sparkly look. The animals got buried in the sand or hidden in play dough.

Imagination and conversation flowed as different stories unfolded and different characters added. From the shark protecting the boat to the cheeky dolphin.

The Schleich animals soon migrated across the beach to another sea and the girls had them swimming in the sink. Just goes to show how versatile Schleich toys are, to be able to be played with in sand, play dough and water.

With hindsight sand might not have been the best choice to have for low energy play as the clean up took a while, the girls thoroughly enjoyed their after school activity and the microwave play dough was a huge hit.

This day I love after school sea adventure

Our Schleich toys were provided in exchange for a review.

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Yesterday we were lucky enough to be hosts for #doctober. Doc mcstuffins is a favourite of my girls, so to be having a doc mcstuffins party was a great opportunity for them. I spent the day getting the house ready and putting up the party games. I had set up a play dough activity with cutters using our home made play dough. Our new puppy gave me some help with setting things up.

My eldest came home from school and got changed into her doc mcstuffins outfit ready for the party to begin. Just before the party started we received some bad news that 3 of our guests were unable to attend and through very unfortunate circumstances. Our other guests all arrived at the same time and the party started.

The play dough area was a huge hit, with everyone making shapes and having fun. Even commenting on how nice the play dough smells. Our guests loved the doc mcstuffins toys, clinic carry case, walk doc mcstuffins and dressing up sets. I had brought down some of our doc mcstuffins toys too, which everyone enjoyed playing with.

It was soon time for food, they were all hungry and with the promise of cake if they ate their dinner the food disappeared fast.

The cake had got slightly squished in the post but it tasted amazing. The icing even had a strawberry flavour to it, very yummy.

There was more playing after dinner followed by a stick the plaster game. There was a slight bit of cheating mainly from my eldest, but the game was a lot of fun to play.

It was time for our final game. We all sat round in a circle and took it in turns to make our toys better, just like doc mcstuffins. Everyone used the tools from the carry case clinic to be just like doc mcstuffins. the time soon flew by and it was time for our guests to go home. Everyone took home a goody bag and a sticker and went home with a smile on their faces. A really lovely evening and a great doc mcstuffins twitter party.

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My daughter wanted a Princess themed birthday and in particular she really wanted Frozen. I searched everywhere for snowflake cutters but as it was August no where seemed to stock them. I did discover an amazing cookie press from OXO. The OXO good grips cookie press allows you to make consistent cookies.

We decided to give this ago with peanut butter cookies, I have since figured out that the cookie press works better with a smooth cookie dough. The girls helped to mix everything together.

As I was loading the cookie press with dough, the girls had other ideas. They used the silver disks to press onto the cookie dough to make their own shapes, a clever idea.

I used the cookie press to make snowflake cookies. Using the large handle simple press down until you hear an audible click. When you lift up the cookie press the cookie is in the shape of the cutter. I think this is a great idea.

The cookie press was really easy to use and easy to clean afterwards. In fact it is so easy to clean that my girls love using the cookie press with their play dough. It is great for crafty activities and the metal disks are great for stencil pictures too. Many uses for a cookie press!

The cookie press comes with 12 disks and a carry case. There is also the option to purchase more disks. I love the variety of disks, there is one for every occasion. The OXO good grips cookie press would make a welcome addition to anyone who bakes or for anyone who like to play with playdough.

We were sent an OXO good grips cookie press for review, all words are my own opinion.

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I picked my eldest up from school and she was in rather a giddy mood. Having not had any play-dough for a while we set about making some using our recipe in this post. We used our play-dough to help my daughter with her homework. I had downloaded some play-dough mats from Twinkl and used these to practise her letters.

After we had practised our letters my little monster wanted to get creative. So we had some fun creating our own monsters.

We moulded the play-dough into various shapes until we had one we liked to make a face. I brought out the box of Mr Potato head shapes and some of our art supplies. I then let my daughters imagination take over. She used everything she could before coming up with Pirate Pom Pom Feathers.

Pirate Pom Pom feathers is a cheeky monster. He likes to tickle with his tickling feathers and make you giggle with his Pom Pom cheeks. He has a cheeky grin and big lips for lots of kissing. Pirate Pom Pom feathers is lots of fun and loves to play.

I would love to see what monsters you can create. There is a competition with mattress on line for children under 10 to create their own monster and you can check out the gallery here.

This day I love Monsters!

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Before I begin I want to say a huge thank you to the boy and me for recommending The Imagination tree to me. I wanted a make your own play dough recipe that was quick and simple to do and this was perfect.

We used the no cook play dough receipe which is:

1/2 cup of salt
2 cups of plain flour
2 tbsp oil

2 tbsp cream of tartar
1.5 to 2 cups boiling water

1 packet sugar free jelly crystals [optional]

I had run out of some of the ingredients so we began with a visit to the local supermarket,

My eldest was on look out duty for pirate treasure as I pushed the trolley [sorry pirate boat] round the shop.

Upon our return home we set to work making our play dough, very simply put everything into a bowl and mix. Then knead the dough until it is a smooth consistency.

We used strawberry Jelly Crystals which turned our play dough a lovely pink colour and give it a beautiful smell. I am thinking of using lime next time to make green play dough.

Both girls really enjoyed the texture of the dough, squeezing it through their fingers. My eldest made cakes and cut out lots of different shapes. We did some pretend play making different animals. I had some letter cutters so we cut out some letter shapes and did some letter recognition with play dough. I think my eldest favourite part though was making rings to put on our fingers.

I really love that both girls were involved at every stage from buying ingredients, to the mixing and finally to playing. We had so much fun with the play dough and it kept both girls entertained for some time.

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