Playdate Fun

Yesterday Blockette had her friend "K" over for a playdate.  This is a pretty rare thing.  K's mom is my best friend, and she doesn't drive, so it's just easier for us to come to their house.

This year both Blockette and K's Spring Breaks fell on the same week, so it was a great chance for her to come over to play.

I was worried the girls would get bored so I planned out some activities for us to do.  First, we made some brownies:

I found the Brownie recipe over at Rainy Day Gal.  I wanted to give this recipe a test drive as it contained chocolate chips, instead of the usual cocoa powder.  The recipe calls for two bags of chips, but I only had a little over half a bag!  This was right after I announced to the girls that we were going to make some brownies, so they were already geared up and into brownie mode.

What did I do?  Panic?  Nope.  I decided to half the recipe.  I added the last of the peanut butter chips lurking in the pantry and it wound up to be exactly the right amount.  Awesome!!!!

The brownies were nice and fudgy, and the peanut butter chips turned out to be a tasty substitution.  You can't ever go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate!

While the brownies were cooking and cooling, we made some marbleized paper.  I found this tutorial over at Unplug Your Kids.  This was a bit messy, but easy and lots of fun.  This was one of those messy projects that are actually easier if you have more than one kid to do the project with.  If you're going to make a mess, might as well make a lot of it right?  Next time I do this I will have to remember to put some newspaper down, or do it outside.  Until I broke out the rubbing alcohol, I was worried that I had stained the kitchen counter top forever.

Here are a few of the many papers we dyed together:

The last project we did was color some paper dolls.  Practical Pages has a ton of historically clothed paper dolls that I think are super cool. The girls did too.

Both girls decided on the Egyptian styled clothing.  I don't think either of them had ever played with paper dolls before and were frustrated with how the clothing didn't want to stay on.  They were in problem solving mode so they whipped out the glue stick, and glued the clothes on.  They also decided to add wings to their dolls, which I thought was incredibly cute.

I think they had a fun time.  I know I did.

Chippy Brownies - a half recipe from Rainy Day Gal
3/4 c flour
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/3 c butter
3/4 c sugar
2 T water
1 1/4 c chocolate chips (divided)
1/2 c peanut butter chips
1 t vanilla
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325F. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.  In a medium size sauce pan melt butter, water and sugar, allowing it to get just to a boil.  Remove from heat and add in 1 c chocolate chips.  Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add vanilla, and eggs, one at a time.  Then slowly add flour mixture.  Stir in remaining chips.  Pour into greased 8x8 or 9x9 pan.  Bake fore 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow brownies to cool at least 1 1/2 hours before cutting.  If you cut them before they are cooled, they will fall apart.