Fun with Play Dough

A gift from Stew last Christmas

Trixie just loves playing with dough. I find it therapeutic too, making all sorts of stuff with the dough.

Recipe for Cooked Play Dough

This home-made play dough is just fantastic.  It's very easy to make, safe and non-toxic (it's edible but I wouldn't risk tasting it) so soft and fun to use, it lasts quite a long time (as long you keep it in a sealed container), it's so much cheaper than the commercial brand and most of all, the fun starts in the actual making of the dough.  I got the recipe from the book "Wonderplay" from the 92nd St. Y Parenting Center that I bought years ago from Books for Less.  I'm sharing this with you so you could share this with your kids.   There's another recipe for play dough in the book which is an uncooked version recommended for older kids.  I'll try that when Trix gets older.  Remember, a fun activity + an active child = a happy mom :)

Cooked Play Dough














Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup water


Procedure:

Combine the dry ingredients and put in a sauce pan.
Mix together the wet ingredients then add to the dry ingredients.
Cook over medium flame while stirring vigorously until the entire thing comes together like a sticky ball.  Turn off heat.
Knead the dough until smooth- you may opt to use your hands but the dough will be hot!  So I just used a spatula to knead the dough while still in the pan.
Transfer to a plate then cover with plastic.  Let cool.  (You can put the dough in the freezer to speed up the cooling, but don't forget about it!)
As soon as the dough is cool enough to handle, divide it into portions and start coloring them with food color. 
Have fun with the dough and place in a sealed container after using to keep the dough soft and nice.

Tip:  You may add drops of water to the dough and knead it if it becomes a little hard when exposed to the air for a time.

Blueberry Muffins

I finally made blueberry muffins that I'm happy about, thanks to the ever reliable "The New Best Recipe." These are moist, but still light and fluffy, and I especially love the cinnamon-sugar topping. I found it very hard to give these away :)

Home Sweet Carton :)

What to do on a rainy day? Well, for me, I just lounged on the bed while my ever reliable hubby transformed a big carton into a house for Trix. Of course, Trixie helped excitedly and she's busy playing with it now. We will beautify it this week by painting the walls and adding some miniature furniture :)

Finger Painting Again

I made another batch of finger paint, using the Cornstarch-and-water only recipe, and I wasn't so pleased with the results :( It was too solid and not smooth and gooey at all. It was also quite a challenge to mix in the food color. I would recommend the previous recipe I posted over this one. Well, my little girl still loved it, and everything was still put to fun use.

Brushing her teeth

Brandon took photos of Trix while she was brushing her teeth... and cheeks too! She brushes her teeth on her own, and twice everytime.

Newest Chocolate Baby

Meet my newest cake- ChocoIate Cake with Fudge Icing and White Chocolate Curls (hmm... my cake name is so obvious naman... better think of a better name- I'm open to suggestions!). Anyway, I'm posting this photo for Stew's sake :) Hope your mom would love this cake.