Kool-aid play dough and Mommy & Me interviews

Whoa! Jenny from Let the Children Play featured one of my posts on her It’s Playtime feature this week! Thank you, Jenny! I am beyond excited! I’m honored, too, to be able to post an “I proudly encourage play” button – because I do proudly encourage play!

This has been a week of transitions for us since the girls started part-time at a new school this week. Tuesday was their first day and Teeny had a great time and Tiny had a bit more trouble, but was okay overall. She’s two and being two is hard. I also started working more hours this week since summer is over (boo!). So, we’ve still been playing, but we haven’t delved into any significant crafts or projects this week, because our main project is learning our new schedule and establishing some new routines!

Two fun things we did do at the end of last week and this weekend, though, was make play dough using Kool Aid and do Mommy & Me Interviews.

First the play dough:

Not much to say since play dough is such a popular item to make and play with, but I just want to give a boatload of praise to the creator of the recipe we used because it was awesome! Seriously, we went from pouring the ingredients into the bowl to playing with our play dough within 5 minutes (the author said the play dough would be hot, but ours was just warm and it all still mixed and kneaded together just fine). The last time I made play dough with the girls, we used the recipe that came along with my Vita Mix blender and it was easily an hour spent waiting for the play dough to cool before we could play with it. The girls weren’t too keen on that wait. Also, it smelled weird. Kool Aid play dough smells fruity and fun!

Here are some pics of the girls and their cherry and tropical fruit scented play dough:

Play dough + household items like toilet paper tubes, caps, and plastic knives makes for a great time!

So I mentioned above that we also recently conducted “Mommy & Me” interviews. Perhaps you’ve seen this pinned and repinned a million times on Pinterest? Well, I brought out this activity one afternoon when we had an hour or so with nothing to do. The girls were up for it, so the interviews commenced. First, I interviewed Teeny, then I interviewed Tiny, then Teeny interviewed me. Teeny even took some pictures to document the process. But, first, the interviews:

Pardon the pink doodles. Tiny got ahold of this and just went to town drawing all over it.

Some observations about Teeny’s interview: I could have done a pretty good job predicting these answers.  I was surprised, though, that she said she likes to play Chutes & Ladders.  Every time we play it she says how boring it is.  Also, I had no idea she likes giraffes.  Sophie 2 is the plush gray kitty doll that our veterinarian sent us last year after our cat died.  She was gray and her name was Sophie, thus, Sophie 2 is befitting of this doll and, yes, Teeny does truly love  her (I was even told to kiss Sophie 2 goodbye when I dropped her and Teeny off at school this morning).  One last thing, Teeny always says the girl listed as her best friend is, in fact, her best friend.  However, it’s an interesting relationship because this is a girl that Teeny almost never sees outside of school during the year and has only seen once in 4 months.  There are kids she plays with daily and has an awesome time with and she never calls them her best friends.  This is really interesting to me.  Anybody else have this experience with their kid(s)?

Tiny's interview. She's two. If you couldn't guess.

Some observations about Tiny’s interview:  Yes, she really does like blue and pink and purple, so that’s an honest answer.  She also really likes pretending to be a baby, but she hasn’t yet grasped that being a baby can’t be a chosen occupation and she’s going to have to come up with something else to make ends meet.  She’s got time, though.  When I was her age, I wanted to be a bunny when I grew up and I’ve done just fine considering.    She answered the questions “What is your favorite book?, What makes you happy?, and What makes you sad?” all based on the fact that she had in her lap at the time the three books she referenced in her answers.  Apparently Little Miss Spider can really take a reader on an emotional roller coaster ride.  Lastly, she said her best friend is Emily, but she doesn’t know anyone named Emily.  When I questioned her about this, she changed her answer to “Teeny!”.

Teeny's interview of me.

Other than saying that my favorite number is 2, I have no idea what my answers were to the questions Teeny asked me (lots of things make me happy and sad and I don’t remember what I chose for answers that day.  Also, I don’t really have a favorite color, so maybe I just said blue?).  She doesn’t write much, so she drew my answers.  Anyone want to offer up an interpretation?  I love the pictures she drew of herself and Tiny.  Knowing them like I do, those pictures are totally accurate.  Teeny was born with her eyes all big like that, just wide open and raring to go.  Tiny is much calmer and content and I think that is portrayed quite well in her portrait.  They are apparently both very leggy girls.

Anyway, this is a fun activity to do with kids when you’re just sitting around one day.  I look forward to doing this every 6 months or so to see how they’re likes/dislikes are changing.

As promised, here are a few pics Teeny took of the interview session:

My interview face.

The questionnaire.

The (apparently very emotional) Little Miss Spider Book

Teeny took a darn good picture of Tiny.

 

I’m linking up today to It’s Playtime at Let the Children Play!

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