A Simple Indian Summer Playdate

Everybody is talking fall already, but we live in the desert so we can count on another month or two (maybe three) of summer before the temps start to really fall (all the way to the 70s!).  So I thought I would share a little summer end play date idea.

I wanted to give the kids a fun activity to do without getting messy so we set up a clean finger painting station on a plastic yellow table-cloth taped to the floor.  I have seen this idea just about everywhere on Pinterest and it actually took a long time for me to understand just how it worked.

In case you are like me and can’t understand how finger painting can be clean, sit down I will tell you how this works and your mind just may be blown! You simply pour some paint (almost any kind will do, I assume) and a little bit of water to thin it out into a plastic zipper bag (I am going to go out on a limb here and say, you might not want the cheap dollar store kind).  Then you zip the bag and tape the corners and sides of the bag to a flat surface.  Your child can “finger paint” to her heart’s content, and will never make a mess.  And it acts like a sort of Magna Doodle in that you can “erase” and start over again and again.  Pretty neat, huh?

I taped down enough bags for all the kids to have one.  And my idea for the display was for it to look like the sun, but they were out of sun colored paints at the store the night I went, so we had blue, yellow, green. They needed a little encouragement to stay at it, but they found it fun to put their fingers, hands, and feet on the plastic bags and see the amazing results.  After the kids left, G had LOTS of fun using her rolling-pin and plastic cookie cutters to make shapes and designs in the paint.

And what play date is complete without some seriously yummy snacks.  I popped some “sun-popped” corn and set up a popcorn bag decorating station with markers and stickers.  Once the kids decorated their bags the way they liked them, we scooped the popcorn into the bags and let them toddler around the house, spilling popcorn just about everywhere!

I also set out the mini sunshine cookies (vanilla wafers) and GoGo Snacks applesauce – both very big hits with the under 5 set.  I made iced coffee and iced tea for the moms, too.  As with most of our gatherings, the kids spent lots of time in the kitchen eating.

I loved throwing this playdate together because it was pretty simple.  It took almost no time to set up the painting station and it was the easiest clean-up I can think of.  And I think the kids had a pretty good time, too!