RWOP: Play Dodo

Seeking supporting data for my Mother of the Year nomination form? Look no further! Presenting this week's Real Women of Pinterest offering ... homemade playdough!

I was totally kidding about MOTY as making your own playdough turns out to be no biggie. It's cheap, easy, and less messy than you might think. A Pinterest pin led me to this site devoted to playdough recipes, including a Kool-Aid one. I chose the Kool-Aid one because it looked easy and I thought it would smell good.
Excitement mounts as I stage the ingredients. First, combine a cup of flour, a half cup of salt, and a packet of Kool-Aid in a medium or large bowl.

Since the kids were "helping" me, I gave them each a bowl staged with the flour and salt. I tried to make them feel involved by letting each choose a Kool-aid packet/playdough color. I asked them to stir what was in their bowl without getting the ingredients on the table.
My daughter Sweet P was unable to follow my directions. Note: this project is not ideal for the stubborn and under two years-old set.

After the dry stuff is combined, add three tablespoons of corn oil (original recipe I saw called for corn oil, but others I found just said "oil." I used corn oil) and a cup of boiling water. I had the kids stand back while I did the pouring of boiling water (had two saucepans going, with one cup of water in each) and the initial stirring. Once it cooled a bit, I let the kids help stir and then kneaded it a bit myself (was still a little warmish, but I am tough).
Here is Sweet P, thinking she is stirring a batch of playdough that is already finished! Though it was not much fun to have her "helping," she was pretty darn happy to be involved!

Scrape together some plastic containers or baggies for storing the playdough and let cool.

We actually had two playdough making sessions over the long weekend because the first time around I only had enough salt for two batches.

Play playdough.
Little Bit and I had some bonus "alone time" the other day and sat down and played together. (Take a peek at the disorganized pantry in the background. That's a top priority Pinterest project -- stay tuned).
This robot was a team effort. NTB. If you closely examine the wax paper "play mat," you might note a little greasiness. One of my batches of playdough did seem a little oily. The recipe called for one cup of flour but noted in parentheses that you can do up to two cups. That's a lot more recipe flexibility than I am comfortable with so I stuck with the one cup. Likely a teeny bit more flour would have cut down the oil factor. I guess we could have floured our hands before playing to add to the festive spirit of it all.
Here's an up close look at the playdough made from one packet of fruit punch and one packet of grape Kool-Aid. I'm not up on all the latest Kool-Aid flavors these days, but I will warn you that the blue packet makes red fruit punch not blue. I didn't see any green packets. The lemonade was not vibrant at all but might have been if we had used two packets (hard to say, really, as that was the batch attempted from Sweet P's remains and not quite enough salt). The photo above makes the playdough look dry, but it's really pretty easy to mold.
Here are some more of our colors. I read that you can add food coloring to enhance the hues of your homemade playdough, but I didn't bother. I didn't want the kids' hands to get stained or anything (did not happen with the Kool-Aid).

I don't know about the shelf-life of Kool-Aid playdough, but rest assured Bub already has plans. He (semi-obsessively) collects marbles and thinks that when we are done playing with the playdough, we can combine colors, roll them into marble-sized balls, and let them harden. Why not?

If Pinterest has inspired you to try something new lately, I'd love to hear about it. Share in the comments. Bloggers, link up your posts below. Friendly readers, send me your pics -- mep AT nottobrag DOT net.

Just keep pinning. Just keep pinning. Just keep pinning.