Playdough Sweet Shoppe

I was recently invited to a local church (shout out to Kaliedescope!) to do something special for the little ones in the18 months - 4 year age bracket. As anyone with kids knows, there's a broad range of abilities in that age group, so my challenge was to come up with something that the older kids would still enjoy that the little ones could do as well. 

In the end, I made a few batches of scented and coloured playdough (strawberry, vanilla and choccy) and raided my craft box and kitchen pantry for supplies to make....(brrrrrrrrr - that's a drumroll. There's no good way to spell it, trust me)... a Playdough Sweet Shoppe!
I wish I'd thought to take some snaps of the 'shoppe' we put together: nothing fancy, just a few cardboard boxes stuck together with a sign advertising the wares. It turned out to be fun all around though, and that's the most important part!

I grabbed a few patty pans, some squares of tissue paper and cellophane, some plastic party platters, mini pom poms, coloured matchsticks and straws (for lollipops), and some empty chocolate boxes (don't worry, the chocolates themselves went to a happy place), and our little crew set to work.

The kiddies smushed the  sweet shoppe Playdough into the choc box trays to make their own fine chocolate selections...

They rolled it into little logs and wrapped it in cellophane to create sweets... 

They decorated chunks of it with pom poms and matchsticks to make cupcakes...

I think they did a terrific job, the sweets looked great but that couldn't compare to the pride the kids had in their work. When all was complete, they got to go around the church 'selling' their confections and the generous donations from supportive parents and friends was donated to Victor, a little boy that the church sponsors. A very worthy cause.

If you're interested in making something similar for your kids, start with this basic playdough recipe. For strawberry playdough, simply add 2 tbs (or more) of strawberry essence and some pink food colouring. For vanilla playdough, a few drops of vanilla essence will do the trick. For chocolate playdough, use 3/4 cups of plain flour instead of 1 cup, and add 1/4 cup of cocoa to the mix. Delicious! And on that note, watch your kiddies around this stuff, 'cause some of this irresistible playdough is bound to somehow end up in little mouths...

Thanks for reading! ~ L.