I am many things, but crafty isn’t really one of them. Karen
and Ally pretty much put me to shame with their clever playdates. With them we’ve played with birdseed, made our
own musical instruments and more. Playdates at my house usually consist of
pulling out whatever toys I think might be interesting and letting the kids do
their thing while the moms and I sip wine coffee and chat. Hey, it
works! As my son’s second birthday was approaching I started to harness my playdate-planning
energy into thinking about what kind of a party I could throw. I knew I wanted
to do something at home. I knew that it would have to be indoors. And I knew
the crowd would be a tiny bit bigger than my home could probably stand but we’d
make it work.
Of course, after I had already invited people over Ally and
I were chatting. “So, what are you going to do for the party?” “Uh. What?” “You
know, what’s the plan?” I hadn’t really figured that out yet. Ally gave me some
great suggestions but honestly most of them were beyond my crafting abilities, like
her amazing idea to make a train out of old cardboard boxes that the kids could
then play in and even decorate. Incredible idea for my Thomas-obsessed kid, but
never going to happen. But when Ally suggested playdough- always a favorite in
my house- I knew we had a winner.
In the few days before the party I made about 12 batches of
playdough. I made it all into different, vibrant colors and added tons of
glitter, because you can never have too much glitter. I was about to scent it
all with some scented oils when I decided to hold off- with kids ranging in age
from one to four I was concerned that some/all of them would be tempted to eat
it. I stashed it away in plastic storage bags and we were ready.
On the day of the party we cleared away our small coffee
table and lay craft paper down on the floor.
There was enough surface area that every child could sit and play on the
paper (in an attempt to keep the playdough from getting on the floor). We taped
it down with painter’s tape, tossed balls of the colorful playdough around and
scattered the paper with different “tools” like mini cookie cutters and molds
the kids could use to play. It worked like a charm! The kids came in and
gravitated toward the big, open space and of course the playdough. They
actually remained interested in the playdough for about 40 minutes, which was
even longer than I had hoped for. They cut, scraped and molded (and maybe threw…)-
all part of developing thos motor skills. There was lots of talk of colors too.
And minimal playdough-eating. It worked out perfectly.
When the kids had moved on, we collected whatever dough we
could salvage, gathered up the tools and then pulled up the craft paper and
tossed it. After pizza and cake, the kids were ready to crash. The party lasted
about an hour and a half- the perfect amount of time for a bunch of toddlers.
This un-crafty mom was pretty pleased with the results and with my moment of
craft success!
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