Homemade Kool-Aid Playdough Recipe

Are you looking for something to do with your kiddos today? Make homemade playdough! My oldest son has been asking to make playdough for days now. So as soon as my little guy went down for a nap, into the kitchen we went.

I found my recipe here on Musings From a Stay at Home Mom. I didn't have any cream of tartar so I just left it out. And when I opened my cupboard for food coloring, I spotted the Kool-Aid pack instead. I've been seeing all sorts of pins on Pinterest for dying Easter Eggs with Kool-Aid so I thought why not give it a try for playdough too! (Note: We do not drink Kool-Aid :o) it was leftover from a Birthday party, and I would much rather use it for dye than have my kids drink it).

What you need:
• 1 cup flour (I used white here, but have used wheat in the past as well)
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• pack of Kool-Aid

Directions:
In a saucepan add your flour, salt, water, vegetable oil and Kool-Aid. Mix together. Turn your burner on medium and continue stirring until your dough starts clumping and forms a ball. Usually this will only take a couple of minutes.

Place the ball on some wax paper to cool. Once the dough is cooled kneed it just a bit until smooth and doughy.

That's it! You just made a super fun, super easy project for your kids! Better yet you know exactly what you put in it! This will keep in an air-tight container in the fridge for quite some time too!

The best part is this vibrant blue color we got from the Kool-Aid, and it smells wonderful too! See how much fun this is!

Oatmeal Table = FUN

I have two little boys and live in Oregon. Which means A LOT of wet weather and A LOT of boy energy to burn inside my small house. Not always a good combination. I'm always looking for something fun, safe and entertaining to keep them busy.

One of my friends had created a bean box for her son. Just a regular cardboard box with dried beans in it to act as a indoor sandbox of sorts. A great idea I thought, but didn't love the fact that the beans would scatter and fly throughout the house on my hardwood floors or of the possibility my young kids could choke on the beans. I've heard of rice also, but again same results. 

So I came up with the idea of oatmeal! Brilliant I thought! The large whole oat oatmeal. Light, cheap, scoop-able and does not scatter! When my oldest son was little we just used the oatmeal in a cardboard box with some cups and spoons and he had a blast. However for my youngest I had another brainstorm! What about those sand/water outdoor play tables! YES!

So Santa brought a water table for my son's first Christmas and it was filled with oatmeal not water! The table is lightweight and portable and has a few small activities to use with the oatmeal. And the best part is that once Summer hits, the table will move outside and be used with water! I did my research and found a table I thought could be utilized best with the oatmeal and still fun with water too!

Here is the table:

And here it is in oatmeal action:

Now yes this can be messy. The kids are after all having a great time, and well mine are 1 and 3 so it is a lot of fun to dump the oatmeal outside the table as well. However it is nothing that a good vacuum won't clean up. And well sometimes the mess is worth the few moments of quiet Mom time.