A Play Doh Day

I haven’t brought play-doh out for the kids to play with in, it has to be, at least two years. So, I was very surprised when Allie, my 6 year old, came upstairs the other day with a whole package of rainbow colors in her hands. I don’t even know where she found it. Play-doh used to be one of those activities that made me cringe. In fact, I had probably hidden the package soon after we received it. Inevitably, when my kiddos used to play with play-doh, all the pretty colors ended up all wadded together in one brown ball. I don’t know why I hate it when the all the containers of the colors get mixed up with each other, but I do. I really do. And, don’t get me started on the fighting over who gets what color. Meanwhile, when the kids were three or four, little crumbs of play-doh ended up ground into the grooves of the table, in between the cushion and frame of the chair, on the floor, on the bottom of my shoe and somehow, no matter how hard I tried, ground into the living room rug as well – argh! Okay, part of me loathes the stuff.

But, part of me loves it as well. I love the smell, I know, I’m weird that way. I love the feel of it in my hands. I love rolling it into snakes, back and forth between my hands. I love making little sculptures and bowls and thumb prints. I love balling it and squashing it and everything in between. And now, with Allie, at 6, we loved every little part of the experience. She carefully spooned out amounts of the color and mixed it in such a fun way with the other colors.

We were making an sweets for an upscale candy shop. Very fancy.

This experience with the play doh included everything I loved about it, and nothing I didn’t. Mixing colors in this limited way, the way Allie did, was fabulous fun! We didn’t even end up with much mess. A couple of crumbs, but nothing major.

I loved this little bon bon glazed with hot pink icing.