Homemade Sensory Dough

The last few days we have been playing with Play dough. It started with store bought play dough, then we decided to make some of our own sensory dough. I searched Pinetrest which lead me to this blog with some pretty fun ideas. That blog led me to another blog that had several recipes. The only one that was non-cook (so the kids could help with all parts of making it) that I also had all of the ingredients for was the salt dough. So that was the base for what we made. One batch I added cinnamon and nutmeg to and then I needed a little extra water over what the recipe called for. The other batch we added oats, and just a little cinnamon. Both the kids loved playing with this. They kept smelling it and Connor loved rolling it out. Annie even had a taste, which she was not so fond of! At least I knew all parts of it were food and safe (maybe not tasty) to eat. 

Store Bought Play-dough and toothpicks

Homemade Sensory Salt Dough

 

On the second day I added some beans into one of the jars and Connor loved trying to pick them out. If you do add dry beans, they will pull the water from the dough. This is best to do on the last day you will be using the play dough :)

Eating Clean With GreenBean

I have always loved fresh produce. Trouble was if I ate too much it would make me sick. I figured it was just too much fiber for my body to handle so I was limited in the quantity I could eat.

A few months back my son was taken off of dairy, soy and casein due to some tummy trouble. This lead us to Whole Foods as this was really the only place that we could buy dairy, casein and soy free cheese, milk, pudding, yogurt, ice cream. I felt so bad that we had to take away most of his favorite  foods. This was the one place that had everything we needed. It was a 45 min drive from our house each way. We made the trip once a week. Since I already had the kids out and at a grocery store we just started making that our weekly grocery trip. We started buying organic and let me tell you it has made a difference. I could eat unlimited amounts of produce and not feel sick! Since I could eat the foods I loved and also not get sick I was able to eat much more healthy. As an added bonus I started losing weight, gaining energy and it has been something!

After a few weeks of making the trip, we had a few weeks we, for one reason or another could not make it out there and landed in our local grocery store buying conventional foods. And you guessed it, I started getting sick again. After talking with a friend who knows all about food and eating clean we figured out that I am just very sensitive to some of the chemical used in raising or processing conventional foods. I was on a mission to find a reliable way to eat clean without the time commitment of an hour and a half round trip. My friend posted on her Facebook page  what we had spoke about and then someone responded with a company name, GreenBean Delivery. I checked them out and then felt like I had been living under a rock.

GreenBeanDelivery is an amazing company serving 4 different states. There are no membership fees. You go to their website, pick a bin size and then every Thursday-Monday you can login and add or change whatever produce you want. You have to spend $35 a delivery and then its free shipping. They have a great amount of fresh organic produce, dairy fresh milk, cheese, butter, hormone free meat, eggs, bulk items, bakery fresh bread. The list goes on and on....

We got our first shipment last week and I was super impressed. When my card was charged it was for $20 less than my invoice said it should be and turns out that I got 50% off my first order of produce on top of the free shipping! If there is anything that you are unhappy with you can just give them a call and they will refund your money or give you a credit for the next week. You can sign up to get shipments every week or every other week and then you get a schedule where you can select what weeks you want orders. You can add as much or little (at least $35) as you need every week. This is seriously life changing for us!

Here are a few pictures of our first order. The kids were super excited to see what was inside our big green bins!

This is their store front with the states and cities listed

 These are the insulated tubs that the food come in. There also have freezer pack in them. Every week you put the bins out and they trade them with the new ones. They also recycle the egg cartons and glass milk bottles! 

 Here is what we got. Almost everything came in paper bags... That would make for a very boring picture so I took everything out. 

These were so delicious! Look how red they are. I'll take it for February in Ohio! 

Sensory Play

My little guy is very sensitive to different textures, smells and temperatures. About a year ago I really started focusing on sensory activities. Here are some of our favorite.

These are sensory boxes filled with different textures and objects 

 Split peas

 Easter Grass

 Pom Poms

Oatmeal-We added lavender essential oil to this. 

Recently we switched the oats out with rice and kept everything else the same. He love the new texture. We put the rice in the cold garage before playing and this made for a cold, smooth texture

 Water Beads are another really fun sensory tool. My little guy tried eating them when he was two, so this had to be a very supervised activity. I do believe that you can make these out of food-Tapiocia maybe (I really did not look into that much) 

Boys will be boys! We set up several tubs-One with water and one with bubbles, and we had ourselves a car wash. He asks to do this every week. You could change out the cars for play food, dishes ect. 

Here is another activity with the smaller bins. Its just baking soda, colored vinegar and a dropper. This was smelly for him but he still loved it!

He hates getting messy so painting was not his first idea of fun. He did really get into it and now plays with the painting every day. He races his cars on it :) 

This one is really awesome but has a very strong smell. All you need is a bar of Ivory soap and a microwave. You place the soap in the microwave and watch. The soap turns into a big cloud. Its really fun to watch! Then we placed it in a bin and let him go to town. It turns into a powder more or less and once it gets into the air its a strong sent of ivory. When we do this again we will do it outside. 

Here is one of our most favorite things to do in the summer. We did this almost everyday. I take a big tub fill it with water and food coloring. Then I drop in some cheap toys I bought at the dollar store (Great place to buy sensory items) Then I put it in my deep freezer overnight. We take it out on the deck with buckets of hot water, salt, spoons, forks and he goes to two trying to get the toys out. 

Here is a cold activity to do indoors in the winter. We took two tubs outside and filled them with snow. I just let Annie play with it and I gave Connor salt and warm water so he got to experiment as well as "play" 

Another thing we have tried is Cloud dough. It's just flour and baby oil. This one smells really great and it is moldable. You could totally play with sand toys with this. I also really love letting them play with just flour! (This one gets messy-Its all worth it to see them so happy!)

A favorite sensory reward is either using Chapstick or essential oils as rewards. When he was potty training we would put a dab of Chapstick on his hand. He loved the scents and it was a reminder to him of what he did and also that he should go again! Much better than filling him with candy every time!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day All! I have to be honest and say that this is one of those holidays we don't really celebrate too much. It's a nice reminder to show the people around you that you care about them and thats what we do. We woke up this morning and made several more handmade cards :)

Then I got to snuggle with this adorable snuggle bear. 

Then a quick trip to the store to make Daddy something special for after dinner. My husband really likes Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cakes, but dislikes spending nearly $30 on one. I had a homemade ice cream cake once and it was really good. I started looking for recipes and here is what I came up with. It cost just under $15.00 to make and we have left over candy, cool-whip, carmel and a few ice cream sandwiches. 

What you will need

9x11 or 9x13 baking dish

Ice Cream Sandwiches - I used 18

A large tub of Cool-whip (This needs to thaw several hours in the fridge before you can begin)

Some kind of syrup (chocolate, carmel, butterscotch...)

Favorite type of candy that can be crushed

First line the pan with the sandwiches

Then add a layer of Cool-whip, syrup and crushed candy

Then another layer of sandwiches

(This time I had to cut some)

Then add another layer of Cool-Whip, syrup and candy

Place in the freezer and take out a few minutes before serving. 

For anyone interested there are around 400 calories per slice about half the size of one ice cream sandwich. I'm sure there are a lot of ways to make this healthier, but this was for my hubby so I made it his way :)