Valentine's Playdough

Well, all the snow has melted (except for the giant snow ball in our back yard) and the Oregon rain has returned making me a little stir crazy. Yesterday I was looking for an activity (besides tv) for our kids and I decided to make some playdough. I like homemade playdough so much better than the kind you buy in the stores...and if you've ever tried to get the store bought kind out of your carpet, I'm sure you'll agree with me.

You will need:

1 cup flour

1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons oil
a few drops of food coloring

Mix the dry ingredients first, then add the liquids and stir on medium heat.

eventually it will start clumping together, so you need to stir it constantly...cause no one wantes to play with burnt playdough, right?

After it all clumps together in a ball, remove from heat and kneed on a table until it cools down. I like to add things to the playdough. This time I added red glitter (for Valentine's Day of course!) Once for my daughter's teddy bear party (3 years old) I made brown playdough and added ground cloves and cinnamon...mmm, it smelled good.

Store playdough in an airtight container in the fridge.

Playdough in unexpected places
Our kids love to go to Chevy's mexican restaurant because the servers give them dough to play with while they are waiting for their food to arrive. I think it's the same dough they use to make their fresh tortillas with...the kids think it's great and it saves me from having to entertain hungry kids!

Also if you live in the Portland area, Peanutbutter and Ellie's (restaurant for kids) makes an eatible peanutbutter playdough to entertain your kids while they wait.