Play Dough Fun

This very rainy morning we came in from feeding the fish, jumping on the trampolines and riding Wonder, the horsie and the children got right to work making playdough. Usually it takes a while to come in because it is so much fun on the porch but today all I had to say was "Let's go make the playdough" and they were all lined up at the door. The excited giggles started when I handed out the wisks, spoons and scrapers. I let them put their hands in the flour (so soft) and scoop the cupfulls. Such enthusiastic stirrers! In this picture Nayelli is taking her turn putting one spoonful of Cream of Tartar in the bowl. We decided together on green, although Wyatt was dissapointed - he wanted blue and said several times "Next time blue." Yes, we made quite the mess and what was even messier was everyone "cleaning up" with brooms and the mop and spray bottles and sponges . . . finally when the dough was ready and everything reasonably cleaned up they all played happily for a long time.

Nora enjoyed cutting the dough with her "knife" (popsicle stick) into smaller and smaller pieces and giving some to everyone else. Later she collected some back from the others and made a "big tree."
Wyatt smashed, pounded, squished and squeezed and had such a good time. When Nora asked for some of his dough, he right away generously gave her a big piece. He also created characters with pieces of dough and "walked" them around the table to visit the other children's dough.

Nayelli created a little landscape and animated the cookie cutters to hop around. She also often paused her own play in order to watch intently what the other children were doing. Lots of smiles and laughter. She is so fascinated with the other kids, content at this point to watch and a bit shy when the others engage with her. (but not shy at all if she sees something she wants!) She was the first to be finished playing and joined me at the sink on a stool to wash the dishes.

Persimmon right away began creating little characters. She looked at her dough with the eyes and chuckled and laughed! She later added feet and ears.

I loved that everyone was so happy today! Some days there can be squabbling over toys or turns, but today there wasn't a cross word. We played choo choo train with boxes first thing this morning, then the finger puppets rode the train, too. The kettle whistled and it was tea time before going out on the porch. The rain continued all day but we were cozy and happy inside.

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