Playdough, play now

Kait found our missing cookie cutters! I took a few minutes to make some playdough over the weekend.

It became one of the fun things to do when a neighbor's kids were over to play.

The girls were still feeding a toy Cookie Monster their "baked cookies" when it came time to eat!

Finally they decided to chomp on the real food like he would:
*UM, UM, NOM, NOM, NOM*!!!

Cute!

Playdough recipe:
(Adapted from an online recipe, a good thing I jotted down the proportions before I lost the link). 

• Mix the dry ingredients: 1C flour, 1/4C salt, and 1tsp cream of tartar. 
• Mix the wet ingredients: 1C water and 1TB oil. 
• Blend both and stir over medium heat till it's kneadable, quite fast, less than 5min. 
• Add food colouring and 1 tsp vanilla essence also, if you like!

Do you have a favorite playdough recipe?

While making the playdough, I paused to think, how blessed I am that my youngest has not outgrown it. Gotta seize the now, play with our children, they grow up fast!

Playdough is great for fine motor skills and imaginative play. I'm using it also to encourage my preschooler to recognize letters of the alphabet. E.g. she rolls out three pieces to make 'A'. The letter molds that come with that Cookie Monster set are really neat, too!  

Teriyaki Thursday, savor winter

This is my go-to roast chicken -- something delicious the kids agree on, even if they and I can't finish the tray by ourselves in one meal while hubby's away.

Yummy chicken thighs with bottled Teriyaki sauce... 

I left them in the oven a tad bit longer to crisp the skin.


Eldest was hungry. Younger boy sat down to draw. And I liked how youngest squeezed herself next to him -- somewhere between the bread and apples -- and came up with that quick, cute doodle of Minnie and Mickey Mouse! (There's usually a lot more noise, so this is nice for a change) ;).

Earlier, pausing during the week's busyness to savor the season's beauty...

And nice to see some sun, too! Daytime temperatures have remained BRRR!!! (below freezing, in the 20's) since after last week's heavy snowstorm. I know, I am going to make macaroni SOUP with the deliberate chicken leftovers!

New year, old tricks (don't stop there)

A quick New Year's Day joke...

It's the one day in the whole entire year when your mom asks you, "Is that your cup of juice from yesterday?!?" -- and you can tell her this:

"From LAST YEAR!!!"

Then watch her roll her eyes MORE than usual! 

(Substitute *you* with my big boy, and mom is me, of course, haha)!

Let's move on...

New year, old tricks:

For busy schoolnights again, I sometimes buy frozen crinkle fries or taters that I can just toss into the oven when roasting chicken because they bake at the same 425F!

New year, new finds, too:
Our new fav bread is this storebought tandoor-baked naan that I just melt some cheese on it, and add ham to more of it also, with or without pizza sauce -- oh so good!

That last pic is yummy instant Koka curry noodles I stumbled on at a new (to us) Oriental grocery store -- and how I rewarded myself after being productive at housework! :p

Have a fruitful new year, everyone!