Homemade Play dough...Oh the possibilities

This week I had the pleasure of hosting a play date at our house for some amazing kiddos.  Originally we were supposed to go to the park, but since my windshield decided to spider crack through my driver's side, I had to stay home.  The awesome moms agreed to come over, and I got to work creating some various kinds of play dough.  I will also link up to the original posts where I got the idea, but I did tweak them a little bit.  

The first one I made was sand play dough.  The original idea came from here:  http://www.twobigtwolittle.com/2012/06/sandy-playdough.html, but I wanted to make it so that the kiddos could make impressions of the various shells and rocks we would use.  I added about 1/2 cup more of flour to it, and it still did not do the kind of impressions I was hoping for.  However, the kids loved it.  We eventually had to put it up when the little guys tried to eat it, but I sent some home with the older kiddos.  Later that night, Pierce was downstairs building forts with his rocks and shells and balancing them on top of each other.  It was certainly the right consistency to use as a base for some cool sculptures.

Knowing that there were going to be a couple of younger ones at our playdate, I decided to make some cold play dough.  The cool part?  It was completely edible.  It was not intended to be eaten, but if it was, there was no harm done.  The original recipe came from here:  http://www.blogmemom.com/playdough-recipes-for-play/  I wanted to make a double batch, and I did not have enough unflavored and clear gelatin.  So, I decided to use some raspberry sugar free Jello.  The smell was amazing, and the taste was not that bad either.  A few things I learned; the play dough does melt in the sun.  So, I did have to keep putting it back in the fridge so I wouldn't lose it all.  I also found out that it is very pretty covered in sanding sugar and the edible white beads.  All of the kids loved the cold play dough, and they loved the consistency as well.  Next time I will have to add more cornstarch so it is not so sticky (I ran out and it was 11:30 pm.  I was NOT going to go to the store).

The final thing I whipped up was fizzy mud.  I honestly forget where I found this idea from, but it is an awesome science lesson and cool experiment.  I also wanted to use up the rest of the play sand so I wouldn't have the bag laying around anymore.    I did not measure at all, but I mixed enough sand and water with a box of baking soda to make a paste.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take it out during the play date, but the boys were able to experiment with it today.  I gave them food coloring, a cup of vinegar, and some droppers with the directions of be creative.  They made some awesome mud, and they were shocked when the vinegar made the mud fizz.  I was not expecting that great of a reaction either.  The colors bubbled up and made very pretty volcanoes, ponds, and everything else they imagined.  I now need to power wash a deck since the colors stained, but that is not their fault.  I should have used a tray.  :)  Oops!

The boys have certainly had a busy week, and Pierce wants to make more play dough later on.  I think I will save that project for daddy for this weekend when I am taking some much needed R&R.  Do any of you have your favorite play dough recipes?