Preparing for a Party!!

Baby Bean will be one on Monday - I think this means he's no longer a "baby" but Toddler Bean just doesn't have quite the same ring to it does it?

Yesterday being Canada Day, and therefore a "no work for me" day, made for a great day to start getting prepared for his birthday party on Sunday afternoon. I decided that since there will be a total of seven little ones coming to help celebrate I would make some little kid friendly type goodie bags for them to take home with them. Trying to steer clear of sweets - because I'm kind of a stickler that way - I decided to make crayon rolls, and play dough and then I'll also include a cookie cutter for using with the play dough, a pad of paper to go along with the crayons and some bubble solution.

The crayon rolls are done! I'm so pleased with how they've turned out! I used a tutorial from V and Co.'s blog and they were pretty quick and easy to do!

I also got a couple batches of play dough made. Took me a bit to remember the recipe from way back when I used to make it all the time for G, N and J, but it did come back and I am now excited to think that Bean is going to be old enough for play dough fun soon - maybe not just yet thought... he's still in the "let's try to eat everything in sight" phase (with one exception - the kid who will happily try to chow down on a fluff ball of dust and fur will NOT eat a hamburger for love or money. He apparently thinks they are not in the worthy of being eaten category.)

Here's my tried and true recipe for play dough:

1 cup white flour

1/4 cup salt

2 TBSP Cream of tartar

1 cup water

1 TBSP oil

Mix the flour, salt and cream of tartar in a medium sized saucepan. Combine water and oil in a measuring cup and pour into the saucepan - stir until smooth. Cook on medium heat stirring the whole time until you begin to get a globby looking mess in your pot. Keep stirring, but keep a close watch on your globby mess, because right away it's going to miraculously go from being a glob of goo to play dough! As soon as it forms a nice play doughy ball in the middle of your pot turn off the heat and turn ball of dough onto lightly floured board. Knead for a few minutes and then cool. Store in a tightly sealed container in the fridge when not being played with. There are a few options for making it fancy!

To colour it you can use a package of unsweetened kool aid mix (I used Cherry for the red!) and mix it in with the dry ingredients, or you can use regular food colouring (like I did for the yellow) - as many drops as you feel makes the colour the one you want - I am messy, so I tend to put the food colouring in my measuring cup along with the water and oil or I seem to have a talent for getting it on the countertop, myself and anything in between! For the red one I also added a bit of glitter in the mix just to make things sparkly!

Play dough was a absolute staple in my house when the kids were little. I've never been a fan of store bought play dough - the smell of it alone used to make me feel a wee bit nauseaus. And why go to the store when you can make your own great big ball of it in no time for next to no money!?!

Continuing on with my birthday party celebrations I decided to make Bean a crown to wear on his special day. He seemed pretty pleased with it when I tried it on him this morning when he woke up!