Shit I have To Text Parents

  

A text I had to send to parents once upon a time. There's so many interesting things to happen in our days!

In the latest, Shit I Have To Text Parents edition, we had a state wide tornado drill Wednesday morning. Since we were already doing a tornado drill, we took the time to discuss our fire drill procedures and our lockdown procedures. There were A LOT of questions and concerns, such as: which sidewalk is our meeting place? The sidewalk in front of the neighbor's house or the "across the street sidewalk?" All legitament questions, but I also assumed the kids would think to go the sidewalk DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE. I was clearly mistaken.

Then there was the issue of what happens if all of the exits are blocked? We move to the windows, I replied cheerily. They were horrified I would possibly break the screen of the window. I guess we're overlooking by that point the house is pretty much destroyed by a fire, so the screen seems pretty trivial. But whatever. 

We wrapped the discussion up, the kids went back to playing, and I began lunch. That's when I overheard a child say (as they played), "let's pretend that the daycare house is on fire and we have to leave the house." Great. After all of that, what they took away from our drills and discussions: "Ashlen's daycare house will be on fire." 

My text and pick up conversations went like this: My house was at no point on fire today. I told the kids we should not look out the windows if we hear the tornado sirens. We need to stop, listen for directions, and go to the basement. The kids were curious about what they should do if I die in any of the above scenarious. I danced around this question, but pretty much, the dog is in charge I guess. Also, the kids were a bit miffed that the sirens were going off and they couldn't see a storm out the windows. They've been talking all day about fires, storms, and lockdowns. Have a good night!

Luckily, I've been at this long enough that I KNEW I must text/speak to parents about the day's activities because I can only imagine the calls I would have gotten if I didn't! At the end of the day (and still today), the only thing to do is laugh at the absurdity of it all! I have no idea what my life would look like without daycare, but there's no way it would be this entertaining.

Peeps Play Dough

As I was putting together or yearly, yummy snack of Peeps s'mores (use a Peep instead of a marshmallow) for a rather small group of kiddos, I realized we'd have a lot of Peeps leftover. I'm not a fan of Peeps and my children don't need the s'mores AND all of the extra sugar of eating Peeps. I quickly thought about what I could do with them and remembered a couple of years ago I made Peeps play dough. I quickly looked at a recipe and remembered how simple it is to make!

Then, as the Peeps came out of the microwave and the ingredients added, I remembered why I didn't like it the first time: it was sticky and then hard in no time. However, I played around with it a bit more this time around. I added in more oil, less corn starch, and warmed it up when I began to harden. All of it worked wonderfully!

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Peeps Play Dough:

5 Peeps (any color)

3 tbsp cornstarch

4 tsp vegetable oil (Canola or coconut oil works as well)

Microwave Peeps until warm and fluffy (around 45 seconds for us); before stirring, add in cornstarch and 3 tsp of vegetable oil. Stir until well mixed. Add in 1 tsp of vegetable oil and mix in with hands. The dough should not be sticky or messy. Add in more oil 1/2 tsp at a time if it's still sticky; do not add more cornstarch. This will only make the dough harden quickly.

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In this round, I failed to pay attention to how much oil I was putting in, so the dough was EXTRA oily, which is evident in the pictures. The kiddos kept commenting, "why is this play dough so slippery?" 

If the kids aren't constantly playing with the Peeps play dough, it WILL harden FAST. However, 5 - 10 seconds in the microwave makes it soft again. I stored it in Ziploc baggies over night, added 1/2 tsp of vegetable oil after re-warming the next morning and the play dough was good as new! We'll easily be playing with this all week long.