Play Dough Day 2 And Mixing Colors with Ice

This morning when we got up, Hazel asked to play with her play dough again (click here to see yesterday or day one of our play dough pledge play). I had put most of it in the refrigerator since I knew the Jello play dough had to be kept in it. I had left the cloud dough out. The oatmeal play dough was hard to work with after being in the refrigerator. It may be because I made it a bit dry since I didn't want it to be so sticky. First we played with the cloud dough. (I think I could have used more oil in this recipe.)

Play Date with Play Dough

So today (Wednesday) I had scheduled a play date for Hazel with a very shy boy that will be in her nursery class next fall. His mother and I wanted to get the kids together so they would have a friendly face the first day they go to school since it will be the first time we are leaving them at school without us. (We both were in different parent/child classes at the school this year.)  I also took the Play Dough Pledge this week.

I figured I would combine the two so the kids would have an activity to do while getting comfortable with one another. (Note: All of  the recipes I used this time came from Playdoughrecipe.org.) I made two different types of Jello play dough (peach and lemon) and put them in the refrigerator. I added lavender and sprinkles to the lemon for more scent and texture. Then I made a rubbery play dough and cloud dough. This morning Hazel and I made an oatmeal play dough. Then once our play date got here, we made two types of classic play dough with a little experiment of adding juice concentrate to color and scent it. I had some grape juice and raspberry cranberry juice that I used to dye fabrics yesterday and saved some for the play dough. We ended up adding quite a bit more flour to make it a good consistency with the extra liquid from the juice.

Making the Oatmeal Play Dough:

The recipe seems very easy and it really is, but we adjusted it to get a dough we liked. The recipe calls for 1 cup of flour, 2 cups of oatmeal, and 1 cup of water. Then there are suggestions of using corn meal or coffee grounds to make it less sticky. We chose corn meal since I don't really like the smell of coffee and didn't want it on my hands. I also added more oatmeal to give it more texture.

Next we brought her small table and chairs from the craft room up to the kitchen where it is more comfortable and a bit cleaner. We also brought up all of her play dough tools and got some cars, plastic animals, sand castle tools and baking dishes and some glitter so everything would be ready to play with. Then I measured out the flour, salt and cream of tartar for the classic recipes and left them in measuring cups and bowls waiting for the kids to pour and mix. I also measured the water and put it in my electric kettle so I could get it boiling.

By this time, Hazel could not wait for them to get here. She is actually drumming on the tupperware containers that hold the Jello play doughs. She was dancing/skipping all over the place.

When her new friend and his mom arrived, we made the classic recipes. (I thought this freshly made and still warm would also add a nice contrast to the ones that had been in the refrigerator.) Then they started to create and play. They seemed to have fun. Hazel wanted to make cookies and fill the cookie sheet as well as two muffin containers.

Hazel's cupcake

Her friend started with the rolling pins (the textured ones), cookie cutters and dough cutters.  Then he liked the glitter.

Pink Cow

Both using cookie cutters

Star cookie cutter and rolled play dough

While Hazel worked on her cupcakes and cookies her friend made a pan of muffins. He put glitter on the bottom so they fell out when he tipped then over.

His Muffins (The front one on the left is the oatmeal play dough)

The Cookie Sheet (mostly Hazel's but a bit from all of us)

The kids did not seem to get into the cloud dough too much. Hazel's friend used it to decorate his cupcake/muffins like it was cheese (or at least that is what it looked like), but otherwise they didn't really touch it. I think I'll see if Hazel will play with it later with me or tomorrow. They had the most fun just adding glitter to everything!

So will you join us by taking the play dough pledge?

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Crafty Moms Shares Turns One Today!!!

Today is my blogiversary!! It is hard to believe it has been one year since I dove into the blog world. Before I started Crafty Moms Share I had only really been reading blogs for about a week or two.  When I started I certainly did not know where blogging would take me or the information I would discover or the wonderful people I would "meet". I certainly did not expect over 200 people to become my followers and many of them are people I have never met in person. Looking back at my first few months of post is actually kind of fun. This blog has become a bit of a scrapbook for me with the activities Hazel and I do each day. In the beginning the only person who I knew was reading my blog was my cousin's wife, Carrie or The Poet Herself. You will see my first few comments are from her. In hindsight I think it was her blogging that actually got me to start Crafty Moms Share, so thank you, Carrie!! Carrie's blog is Poet in the Pantry. She has slow downed her number of blog entries, but it is a great blog.

Blueberry Oatmeal Bars

On Saturday Hazel decided instead of playing outside in the gorgeous weather she wanted to bake cookies. She was persistent so I gave in. We looked through a few recipe books and decided on Bert's Best Blueberry Oatmeal Bars from C is for Cooking by Susan McQuillan, RD. The nice thing about this book is it gives the instructions that the kids should be able to do. Of course, Hazel wants to do all of it, but that is besides the point. Hazel insisted I wear her chef hat. She had it on with her matching apron, but I was too slow with the camera. Sorry!

Blueberry Oatmeal Bars (adapted from C is for Cooking by Susan McQuillan, RD)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (ok the recipe calls for all purpose, but I used whole wheat)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (now you know Hazel will be happy with this!)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter

1/2 cup vegetable oil (we used canola)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups uncooked old-fashioned oats

2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13 x 9 inch baking pan with aluminum foil. Lightly spray  the foil with a cooking spray.

Hazel measured the flour herself!

2) KIDS: In a small bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

And she measured the cinnamon herself!

3) In mixer bowl, beat together brown sugar, granulated sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat in oil, eggs and vanilla. With wooden spoon, mix in the flour mixture until blended. Stir in oats and blueberries.

Apparently in our house, step 3 is for kids as well!

4) KIDS: Use a rubber spatula to spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.

5) Bake until golden brown 30 to 35 minutes. Put pan on cooling rack. Once cool lift foil to remove from pan and then cut into 24 bars.

I found this neat site My Fitness Plan that gives you the nutritional breakdown from famous recipes including this one. (It may ask you to sign up but I just hit close and it gave me the information.) Then I used that information to calculate the Weight Watcher Points Plus and each bar is 4 points plus.

I would add walnuts next time to this recipe!! All of us enjoyed these and are still enjoying!!

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Happy Family Times # -A Visit to Gloucester

Have you done something fun with your family this week? Come share it with us! Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting ideas to inspire us all to have more fun times with our families. Here is something we did this week and you can share below!

This week Steve had a day off and we headed to Gloucester, Massachusetts. I had been told about a wonderful health food store, The Common Crow, in Gloucester by the parent/child teacher at Hazel's school. I have been wanting to check it out for awhile, but haven't had the time or energy to find it. Since Gloucester is in the area that Steve is  in charge of for his company he knows it better than I do. We finally found a time to go before the summer season truly hit and made traveling hard to get to Cape Ann.

Source: Wikipedia

In my rush to get out the door since I needed to be home to go tutoring in the afternoon, I forgot my camera. However, this picture is one of the things that says Gloucester to anyone around here. We stopped at this statue as we drove by the water. This statue is surrounded by plaques with names of all the fishermen from Gloucester lost at sea. (Some of you may remember hearing about Gloucester, MA in the book/movie The Perfect Storm. Book written by Sebastian Junger.) A nice family told us about a playground by the beach, but we did not make it there this time.  We did manage to find a post card of the light house that we had bought awhile ago locally and found this nice photo card of the harbor.

After visiting the Man at the Wheel statue, we went to find the Common Crow. While dealing with one way streets, we discovered that one way Main Street was definitely a street we wanted to walk down and do a bit of shopping or checking out. So we parked near The Common Crow and checked it out. Then we were hungry for lunch, so we went looking for a good place. We found Sugar Magnolia's which was wonderful. Then we stopped in a few stores--the toy store, the children's clothing store and then headed for some coffee and tea. We stopped in the Pleasant Street Tea Co. where I got the best chai latte ever!!

Then we headed home. However some things about Gloucester and Cape Ann. Gloucester is the oldest seaport in America. It went through several different names, but Captain John Smith presented a map of the eastern coast to Prince Charles who named the land Cape Anne, after his mother, in 1614. The name has been shortened to Cape Ann, but still remains. (Source: Discover Gloucester) I definitely want to go back and explore Gloucester some more when I have more time.

To share a picture of our family I will show you a few from our family walk this weekend.

Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.

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