Pirate Party Gift

When it comes to giving kids' gifts I try to give something that is both fun and educational or beneficial to development in some way...I guess it's just the teacher in me. Friends of ours were having a Jake and the Neverland Pirates birthday party for their soon-to-be 4 year old son and I wanted to find something that would fit in that criteria and be pirate themed in some way. So, what I decided on was to make red (that's a pirate color, right?) Pirate Play-Doh using the kool-aid recipe from Come Together Kids, a set of plastic cookie cutters that can be used with the play-doh, and something piraty (now I'm making up my own words!) to wrap it in. The Sponge always wants to make cards for people now so I save myself the $3.99 and let her have at it!

While I was at Wal-Mart picking up the cookie cutters I found a beach towel with a pirate ship and sharks wearing pirate hats. Perfect!

So, with all of my goodies purchased I got set to make the kool-aid (pirate) play-doh. Instead of making up the goody bag with the directions to make-your-own play-doh like on Come Together Kids, I just followed the recipe to make the recipe in completion (get straight to the "play" part). Here's what I did.

Bring 1 cup of water and 1 1/2 Tbsp oil to a boil



Meanwhile put the following ingredients into a bowl:
*1 1/3 cups flour
*2 packets of unsweetened Koolaid powder for a bright color, but 1 packet works too
*1/4 cup salt
*1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Once the water/oil comes to a boil, add to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until well blended (I must of had lumps in my flour-it looks like raw hamburger meat!)

When the dough is cool enough to handle, knead it until it's fully combined. Keep in a sealed plastic bag.

Once the play-doh was cool I labeled the ziploc bag as Pirate Play-Doh and wrapped it and the cookie cutters in the beach towel. The beach towel was a little small so I taped the smaller ends to the cookie cutter box and then was able to easily tie up the long ends with braided yarn, tuck in the home-made birthday card, and voila! A gift fit for a pirate.

Everything's ready to wrap!

Completed pirate birthday gift :)