Cloud Dough Tracks

Ever heard of Cloud Dough?  I stumbled across the recipe at the end of the summer when I was looking for some preschool ideas.  I've been literally saving it for a rainy day.  Today I had actually planned to do some baking with the twins (Not only was it the perfect cold, rainy day, but we needed bread...), but when I told them, they immediately responded, "But I don't want to bake!"  I could have tried to persuade them (we needed bread!), but felt like it would take more energy than it was worth.  So I whipped up some cloud dough, put it in the water table, and let them play in the kitchen while I did some baking!

They loved it!  The dough was completely engaging!  About 45 minutes later, Allie was by my side saying something about "traps" she had made.  "Oh, that's nice honey," I responded absent-minded.  She asked me to come and see them and I responded, "In a little while."  She insisted again that I needed to come and see her traps...and, suddenly, a little alarm went off in my head that said, "You should stop and listen to her."  I stopped what I was doing, turned to give her my full attention, and asked, "Traps?  What are you trying to catch?"  "Mommy, not traps!  Tracks!"  Uh-oh.  I followed her around the corner, and found these:

I was just about to say, "Allie, what have you done?!" but, thankfully, I kept my mouth closed long enough to wonder what I expected?  Of course some of the dough was going to fall our of the table.  Of course some was going to get on their feet.  Of course it would be tracked through the house on their way to the bathroom.  It wasn't intentional.  And then I realized that it would take about 30 seconds to vacuum it up, which really wasn't a big deal.  So I laughed.  And Allie laughed.  And Ryan laughed.  And we went back to what we were doing.  I'm so thankful I kept my mouth shut long enough to realize how cute these little Allie tracks actually are!