Making Play Dough

I have a real love/hate relationship with play dough.

The things I love are:

1. It is a great fine motor activity, starting with the toddlers- the squeezing, squishing, pulling, pounding; up to the preschoolers who like to cut (with plastic knives or safety scissors) and roll and start forming shapes. It all gets the muscles in their hands working to prepare them for writing.
2. It is good sensory activity. It feels different then the toys they are used to playing with, especially for the young toddlers. Plus when you make it, it can be scented, you can put glitter in it, or rice, or anything else to make it feel different. 
3. The children get to be creative. Play dough can become anything! 
4. It's not too hard to clean up. Play dough picks up play dough.
5. It's just plain fun.

The things I hate:

1. The smell of the stuff you buy in the store.
2. No matter how hard I try, it always gets in the kids shoes (and mine too).
3. Little tiny pieces of play dough on the floor (see above)

So the good definitely outweighs the bad. And I decided to make my own play dough. I worked in childcare for 10 years (11 maybe? I don't remember anymore) and I have never made it before. That is just not acceptable. I got my recipe from this site. http://www.makeplaydough.com/ I did the kool-aid play dough.

Step one: Gather all the ingredients. I started with grape kool-aid simply because I like purple and grape.

Step two: Mix the dry together in the pot- burner off.

Step three: Mix in the wet.

Step four: Turn on the burner to medium heat and stir constantly. Sorry, no pictures, I was busy stirring.

Step five: When the dough makes a ball on your spoon, transfer it to another pot or bowl for it to cool a little.

Step six: When the dough is cool enough to handle, kneed it for awhile- this is the most fun step. After kneeding I formed it into a ball to cool. Then I realized the center would never cool so I flattened it.

Then all you have to do is store it in an air tight container so it doesn't dry out. I made three different colors/scents. The yellow/lemon didn't turn out too vibrant, but it still smells good.

Some tips:

1. The dough will actually form a ball while you are stirring it. I didn't believe it would, so the first batch I took off the heat a few seconds too early. It is just a little stickier then the other two batches, no big deal though.
2. After it cools completely kneed it one last time before you put it away, I felt like it helped bring everything together a little better
3. If you are using this with your kids at home, make sure your pets don't get it. The play dough smells like people food, so dogs will try and eat it, and it will cause a bad salt imbalance in their system. I only found this tip on one site, and I think it's important to know.
4. It tastes terrible. Yes, I did out some in my mouth, I needed to know what it was like, because the toddlers will taste test. It is like pouring salt in your mouth. Now I know to have some water nearby.

I go back to work tomorrow after being off for seven months! I am excited. And a little apprehensive. And excited again. Wish me luck!

Package Swap and a Giveaway!

I've just participated in my first package swap through Carissa at Kissed a Frog! I found it through my sister Kelly's blog, and it sounded like so much fun. Basically all I had to do is send Carissa my address, and she matched me up with a partner and we sent each other a package of items that reminded us of Fall. I just got mine in the mail yesterday, and was I ever excited (still am)! So here is what I got:

A nice handwritten note, a leaf garland, a knitted cup cozy, and some tea!

Almost everything I got was handmade, which made it that much nicer. The leaf garland is already hanging on the front door, I can't wait till it is cooler so I can enjoy the tea. I am especially excited about the black currant that is at the end, I have never tried that kind. And I am seriously considering keeping the cozy in my purse so that I can use it asap!

The leaves on the door.

I can't wait till Ann gets my package, I hope she likes it as much as I like mine.

And on to the next order of business, Kelly (remember her?) is having a giveaway on her blog! She is giving away store credit for Carissa's Etsy shop. Check out her blog for all the details and links: Distracting from Halloween Giveaway

Maybe I will do my own giveaway someday. When I get 10 followers perhaps.....

A Massive Update

I know I haven't written anything in a long time, but I go through some times where I go through terrible writer's block and everything I write sounds wrong. I just have to get write through it and how it ends up is just what you get. So I am going to write massive update and catch everything up.

Summer Photo Challenge- I have an IOU that I have to fulfill: Trees! We recently came back from visiting Mikey's mom and step-dad (and other family and friends) in California which extended our summer. And I knew there would be tons of palm trees.

 

I also have to finish the last challenge which is simply Summer. I couldn't just summarize it with just one picture, so you get a collage, pictures from the Summer Photo Challenge, and other ones that just say 'Summer' to me.

 Therapy- This past week, almost everything I do at therapy just got harder. Not because I got hurt or anything, but because I am doing so well that my physical therapist said I needed more of a challenge. Most notably I have to do my 'favorite' rolling stool exercise for 4 minutes instead of 3. I also had more weight added to a few exercises, and for my balancing exercise I am standing on something different, a kind of inflated disk, and it is harder to balance. I also have a new exercise where I do sidesteps and squats with an elastic band around my feet. It isn't too bad. My PT said that I am doing well for a patient with an ACL replacement, but considering the both surgeries, I am doing extremely well. I have been having a small issue where my knee feels like it is hyper-extending, but I asked, and that is normal while the ligament stretches and the muscles get back to normal.

I also went back to the doctor the day after we came back from vacation, and I for the most exciting news of the week.....

I AM GOING BACK TO WORK!!!

Am I excited? I sure am. Am I a little nervous? Yep, I'm that too. By the time I go back it will have been 7 months that I've been out. Even though my knee is getting better, and is not unstable anymore, I am still afraid of falling, or getting run into. Falling shouldn't be an issue (knock on wood), but there is no way of avoiding getting run into. That's just the way kids are. So a week from Monday, we'll see how the knee is really holding up. :)

Rolling stool

Look at this, 2 days of blogging in a row! This one is a therapy update.

Who would ever think that an innocent thing like this simple rolling stool...

 

Source

 ... could become an instrument of torture! Ok, I might be exaggerating a little, but honestly my newest therapy exercise is the hardest one so far. I have to put my good leg on one of the wheel legs and wheel myself around the carpeted therapy room with my bad leg... for 3 minutes. It doesn't sound that hard, but seeing as it's been just 2 1/2 months since my ACL reconstruction, and I have to use my hamstring muscle (which they took the graft for the ACL from) it is not fun. I knew it was coming, because it was one of the exercises I had to do before therapy.

I also graduated from the exercise bike to the elliptical machine last Friday. I go backwards on it. The first day it was a little hard, but today was not bad at all. It is the nicest elliptical I've ever seen; it even has a fan underneath the display to keep the exerciser cool!

Summer Photo Challenge (Second last one)

Well, this is the second last challenge and this one was particularly difficult for me It is a bokeh- something I knew absolutely nothing about. So I looked it up and it is basically where part of the image is artistically blurry. I am still not sure I did it right, but the resulting image is pretty so, here goes.

The flower is a Rose of Sharon, or a Hibiscus syriacus. We have several of these in our back yard, and they are quickly becoming one of my favorite flowers. All the ones we have are purpley- pink. My mom transplanted this one for me from the side of our shed to its current location, next to the deck stairs. This pretty flower greets me every time I open the back door to let Finn out.

The last photo for the challenge will go up later this week, close to the official end of summer. I think I am going to find a challenge for Fall. Or maybe I will make up my own.

Post-post (hehe) edit... My flowers color coordinates well with my summer blog background.

Summer

Well, seeing as this Monday is Labor Day (already!?), and the unofficial end of summer, this is the perfect time for this post. My summertime guilty pleasures. This was my post from the blog swap, so you may have already seen it here, but for everyone else, here it is!

This summer has been very different then normal. At the end of June I had knee surgery, and I thought this summer was going to be boring. I was wrong. Instead of; working at the daycare (playing with the kids in the water, trying to hide from the sun in that little bit of shade that we have in the play area, enjoying the fresh air but not the heat) going to fairs and festivals with my family, and swimming when I can, I've been; sitting on the couch, icing my knee, watching TV or playing on the computer, learning how to loom knit, going to therapy, and best of all, bonding with Finn (our 18 month old goofy puppy), and hanging out with my mom!

So even though I haven't been able to do the same things as usual, there are some things I can't get through a summer without. These are a few of my summertime guilty pleasures:

Campfires with my family and friends: For me, there is nothing more fun and relaxing then hanging out, sharing laughs, and making s'mores over the fire. They are usually pretty impromptu events, someone suggesting "Let's have a fire tonight (or this weekend)!" and then we just run with it. We haven't had many fires this year, due to the heat, but the ones we've had were definitely bright spots of the summer, especially the early days of my recovery. My dad even borrowed an outdoor chaise lounge chair from their next door neighbors so that I could sit somewhere and have my leg straight.



Summertime reality TV: Mainly Big Brother, and America's Got Talent. I am usually not a big reality TV person. I don't watch Survivor, Jersey Shore, the Bachelor, etc., but as soon as the weather starts to get hot, I start looking for information on Big Brother. My sister got me hooked on Big Brother a few seasons ago because she never missed an episode, and I wanted to know what was so interesting. My parents watch it too, as does my husband (sometimes), so it gives us something else to discuss. I like America's Got Talent, because some of the talents the contestants display are just astonishing. I still find it amusing that the judges are from the UK and Canada though.



Kettle Corn: Summer is fair and festival season, and that means one thing, kettle corn! I love the sweet/salty combination, and most of the time it comes warm, straight from the kettle. I can't get enough of the stuff, so unless I am sharing, I try not to get the biggest bag. I'm not always successful though, especially since I learned that to keep it from going stale, all I have to do is stick it in the freezer. If it makes it that far.



So even though this summer has been different, it's been great!