Making Peppermint Playdough & Chocolate Letters

We decided to make peppermint playdough and chocolate letters for Sunday night's advent activities. We had a great time making the playdough, and it turned out perfectly.

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We added glitter to make it festive :)

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To make the chocolate letters, O and I put chocolate chips in the silicone alphabet ice trays. We chose letters of our family members' names, and we planned to share the letters with them.

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This project did not work as planned, and it was actually a disaster! I put the trays in the oven to melt the chocolate chips, but they never melted. Then they started burning! Our whole house was filled with smoke, and we had to turn on the fans and open the doors (and it was cold!). Oh, well. I should have followed Amy's instructions and melted the chocolate before pouring it in the trays :)

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Gingerbread Playdough

For O's day 5 advent activity, she and my mom made gingerbread playdough (I was at work again). It smells delicious, and they added food coloring and glitter, so it's very pretty. We LOVE homemade playdough!


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After making the playdough, Guh-guh had to go home,so O and Elliott took the kayak out for a spin on the lake :) I was not happy when I called to check on them, and Elliott told me that they had gotten close to a mama alligator and her babies!!! When he realized how upset I was, he quickly changed his story and said they weren't really close at all. I believed him after he showed me the pictures (from his phone). You couldn't even tell they were alligators. But I'd still rather my child not be ANYWHERE near alligators!


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Homemade Playdough

Homemade Playdough, originally uploaded by omamom16.

O and I have been at my mom's house for the past week, so we haven't done any Montessori activities, but she has had a GREAT time playing with her cousin, M. Yesterday afternoon we decided to make homemade playdough using Laura's recipe. The girls had a fantastic time. They loved pouring in the ingredients and then mixing them with a spoon. My mom did the actual cooking of the playdough! While they played, M declared that this was "the BEST playdough ever!" I agree! The texture was perfect, and it smells so good. We added cinnamon and pumpkin pie spices to make it seasonal :) O really enjoyed making "duhkees" (cookies), and she and M both said they were making them for me to make me feel better. What sweet girls! Here is Laura's recipe (and you should check out her post because she has LOTS of good ideas for making "playdough of the month."

Homemade Playdough

1 c. flour

1/2 cup salt

1 T. cooking oil

1 T. cream of tartar

1 c. water

Food coloring of your choice

Add-ins of your choice (i.e. spices, extracts, glitter, etc.)

Stir ingredients together well. Just measure them into the saucepan you will be using to cook the dough, but mix them well before heating up the pan. Over medium heat cook the dough, stirring constantly until it forms a ball.
Let the playdough cool and then knead until it's smooth.

Thanks, Laura!