If you have children in school, there is always the pressure (from your kids) to get each of their classmates a Christmas gift.  I’m all for making gifts, although I don’t know if these turned out any cheaper than buying what we made.  We had fun anyways, and that’s what counts.  Plus, I think our homemade playdough kicks butt in terms of softness!  Thank you Pinterest for the recipe!  Here’s what we did, in case you need a quick gift idea too.

First we started with the containers.  The Pinterest post on this recipe used re-purposed baby food containers with lids.  Since I don’t have a baby, I needed to buy containers.  We found these plastic cups with lids (and a bonus spoon) in the baby section of the Dollar Tree.  They were 2 for $1.00.

Then the ingredients:  flour, vegetable oil, salt, water, food coloring, and cream of tartar.  You’ll probably have all of these lying around except the cream of tartar.  And now my assistant will show you the steps…

One cup of flour…

One cup of water….

1/4 cup of salt….

Two teaspoons of Cream of Tartar…

One tablespoon of oil….

And the food coloring!  It’s probably easiest if you add this to the cup of water before putting all the ingredients in the saucepan.  It won’t hurt adding it on it’s own though.  Brooke & I realized that these food coloring bottles reminded us of the cast from Gnomeo & Juliet…haha!  She chose to make purple for her first batch.

Stir all of those ingredients in a sauce pan.

Then add the sauce pan to medium heat on the stove top.  {Adults only, please}

Keep stirring this gloppy mixture until it starts to stick to itself.  It will pull away from your saucepan & form a clump around the spoon.  Just grab the last bits off the sauce pan so you get the most dough for your ingredients.

See…it stuck!  Put the whole blob on wax paper – careful, it’s hot!

Then knead & knead…knead all those frustrations out.  This might be a tad hot for little hands.  You can put a dishtowel over the wax paper so they can knead too.  It’ll cool off in about 5 minutes.  And you’re all set!  Keep it for yourself, or give it to a friend!

Super Soft Homemade Playdough

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1/4 cup salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

food coloring

I’m pretty sure the store bought Play-Doh brand packets are cheaper, but this stuff is softer by far – especially good for little hands.  Plus it’s a fun winter break activity.  Slap a sticker on it, tie a ribbon on, and attach a cookie cutter.  You’re done!

Brooke is the first of our girls to start soccer.  I played soccer for about 10 years growing up, and always wanted my girls to have the experience of teamwork, camaraderie, and exercise like I did.  So we were thrilled when Amaw “gifted” us a soccer season this fall.  Since Brooke was the first to have practice, her pictures are first.

And yes, she was pretty much the smallest on the team.

*for those of you who don’t recognize Brooke readily, she’s in the pigtails, purple shirt, & yellow shorts.*

Go on out & get your free Slurpee, cuz it’s 7-Eleven, baby!  And while you’re drinking it, wish a happy birthday to my big four-year-old, Brooke!  Four years ago today, at 12:34 pm she rushed in to our lives & hearts & changed us forever.

When you get married you wonder how you’ll ever be able to love that person enough.  Then when you have a child, you have the same fears again.  And as you add more children, you’re given the grace & love you need to pour in to each person God blesses your family with.   We couldn’t have loved Emma more, and then we were blessed with Brooke as well.

She’s our miracle, our fighter, our feisty princess.  She has the most unique voice, imagination, expressions, wardrobe.  She’s been a blessing we never expected & would never change.

Thanks for being you Brookie!  Love Daddy, Mommy, Emma, and Ruby-doobie-do

Whoa!  Yesterday was one of the coolest birthday parties my girls have attended recently.  Brooke’s classmate was turning four and invited her to his pirate party.  Pirate party?  Yes, you read correctly!  Pirate Adventures on the Chesapeake gives an awesome pirate experience:  face-painting, dress up, sailing aboard the Sea Gypsy VI, water canon fights, and treasure hunting!  After all of these adventures, we came back for some Rocco’s pizza & birthday cake.  My kids, and me, slept very, very well.  Thanks for a wonderful party Blake & Pirate Adventure crew!

I ran across these photos recently & remembered I had forgot to share about this sweet little bouquet Brooke received.  After Brooke got out of the hospital with strep, we got a box at the door from her Aunt Teri.  We opened it up and…surprise!…a sweet, yummy bouquet was inside.  A bouquet of cookies!  I had never seen an edible bouquet & wanted to share.  This bouquet came from Corso’s cookies, and let’s just say, it didn’t last as long as a bouquet of flowers would have.  Yum!