Moon Dough is not my friend

In a moment of weakness on my part, I told my mama that she should get Cora moon dough for Christmas. Cora plays with moon dough at her other grandma's house and loves it! She would see the commercial for it on T.V. and would ALWAYS say she wanted it for Christmas. So, when my mama and I were out looking for Christmas presents for the kids and I saw the coveted moon dough, I said "You should really get that for Cora for Christmas. She would love it!" My mama looked at me like I had sprouted two heads because she knows that my cardinal rule is "Thou shalt not buy sand, moon dough, or play dough for my kids, unless you want it at your house." It's not that I don't want my kids to be creative and have fun, but I prefer clean fun especially in the house. I know, I know. I'm a stick in the mud. But, obviously, I am trying to get better at that. After all, it was my idea for the Easter Bunny to bring a sand and water table last Easter. And, now I am actually encouraging the buying of moon dough.



After convincing her that I had not lost my mind, that Cora could keep it at my house, and that yes, I was sure about my decision, she bought the moon dough kit. She bought it at BJ's so it was a package containing the barn (that makes a variety of animals), four colors of moon dough, and other accessories (like molds shaped like hay, fences, etc.) Cora was really excited to get it and probably fairly surprised because like I said, we don't have play dough or moon dough at our house (though Grandma Margie has both at hers).



Our first experience with the moon dough went fairly well. I micro-managed the situation, making sure all the colors stayed separated, designated one of my plastic serving dishes as the moon dough tray, gathered up containers for the moon dough, etc. It was a bit nerve racking because I could see the potential for a huge mess but tried to loosen up and let her have fun. It seriously took us what seemed like forever to get everything opened, separated out, set up for business, etc. She played with it for what seemed like 5 seconds then said, "I'm done." What???



All that work and preparation for 5 seconds of play??? And, in those 5 seconds, look at that mess!!! Oh, my! I bit my tongue, cleaned off the table, swept the floor, and tucked all the moon dough supplies into a bin and slid them under her bed. Lucky for me, she forgot about the moon dough for a couple of weeks until this past weekend.

She and Ben found it while looking under her bed for a game (we have bins underneath their beds for puzzles, games, and other miscellaneous junk that they insist upon keeping in their rooms). So, we pulled it all out on the breakfast table and with many promises that they would be careful and keep it off the floor, Craig and I went on our merry way attending to Ada, reading, etc., trusting completely in our 2 sweet middle children to stay true to their word and keep the mess at a minimal. I know. I know. We are suckers. A short time passed and Ben came to us and said, I'm done with the moon dough. There is a mess, but I didn't make it. Cora did." Ok. Great. Cora came running in, proclaiming the same thing. Craig volunteered to go look and access the situation. He returned with a grim face. Needless to say, Cora had to change clothes, we had to sweep the floor, the table, the chairs, and everywhere that Cora has walked because she had left a trail. A tiny, speckled trail of moon dough. Worst of all, we no longer had a complete set of 4 pristine colors. They were now speckled messes. Instead of 4 containers, we had 3.

Evidently, I don't learn very quickly because the next day I allowed Cora to get it out again. We went over the essentials of how not to make a mess, how to keep the colors separate, yada, yada.
It must have went in one ear and out the other because when she declared "Finished!" I had little mounds and balls of moon dough on my floor, on my table, and in the chairs. Once again, a clothing change was in order. I swept up the mess (which is actually pretty easy to clean up compared to play dough but still not my favorite thing to do, if you know what I mean), put the remaining moon dough in containers (now down to 2 because separated colors are almost non-existent at this point), and put all of the moon dough on our back porch play room. Surely, she will forget about it now. (just kidding, sort of;) Surely, I have learned my lesson.


Lolly