Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Some Things Never Change

Today was one of those veg out days. Days I crave all too often. You know the kind, where you don't get out of your PJ's, go braless, and don't brush your teeth 'til noon? I figure I better soak up days like these while I can, because before I know it my girls will be in school, and then it's go go go time...Anyway, today we got to have one of those precious days.This doesn't mean we just sit in front of the television all day long. I try to do some sort of project or activity that requires a little imagination. And today I found myself reminiscing about our amazing childhood. Wasn't growing up on Delta Avenue just the best? I find the older I get the more nostalga I long for, or perhaps it is just having kids?

So, today for the first time I made homemade playdough. Mom used to make it at least once a week. I can still smell the salt cooking like yesterday. I can see her slightly bent over, squinting over the measuring cups like she still does. I remember it taking hours, and we had to wait in agony while it cooled. She always let us pick out the food coloring color, if she had it on hand, but lots of times we just played with it uncolored.

Here's the recipe: Homemade Playdough
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
1 TBS cream of tartar
1 TBS oil
food coloring

Directions:
Heat all ingredients in a saucepan, slow to medium heat. Stir continuously. Once dough is at the consistency you want, remove from heat. Cool before using.

And then the princess and I got cooking:




She picked out blue and then we added some glitter. Princess style, you know.



Scarlet was pretty happy, for seriously a couple of hours, as long as I was creating with her. I made this Dori inspired fish:



Man, I always wanted to be a sculptor. And a painter. And a fashion designer. And a teacher. And a school nurse. And a writer. And a photographer. Hey, at least I get to be those things to my children. :)


Ivy, happy to be in the center of it all, and Scarlet after a quick costume change, showing off her 'birthday cake for Care Bear':




And it was almost better than I remembered.


And P.S. Please remind me to never buy playdough again.

4 comments:

Eliza said...

Looks like you guys had a lot of fun! I never think to make it for my kids so we've only done it a handful of times, thanks for the reminder. It does seem like they enjoy and treasure it more and play with it longer and take care of it better if we've made it from scratch. Looks like this will be one more fun thing we can do this summer. And I love the glitter touch!

Michelle said...

I can't wait to make this! I think I will do it on her birthday or something. What a special moment for you to do this with your girls. I am impressed by your sculpting skills, but then I guess not really. I remember Mom making this for me and Britny too and I loved it as well. What a great mom we have.

Hardwick Family said...

Oh Tar!! I miss the girls!! That pic is so adorable!! I think I will try this!

Grannie Wright said...

I had almost forgotten that I used to do that. Thanks for the memory jog Tara. I wanna play with some too. Silly huh. I think I did used to bend over and squint at the measuring cups. Still do that one!