Spring Break Antics

I stood back and admired my invention.

"Chloe Ann Parker, what in the world are you doing?" Momma stood at my bedroom door with her hands on her hips and a serious crinkle in her forehead.

"Momma, you're just in time to see me test my zipline with Mr. Moose." I stood on my bed and reached my stuffed moose high. I hung his arm over the cord and gave him a shove. He whooshed down about halfway before stopping. "Aw shucks. I can't seem to get him to zip the rest of the way. But I'm thinking if I try, I can keep myself going."

"Oh no you don't." Momma rushed to the bed and grabbed my arm. "Now get down from there."

"But why? I made sure to tie a good strong knot up around the ceiling fan."

Momma closed her eyes and shook her head. She let out a big breath of air and opened her eyes. "Honey, those strings from the window blinds are not strong enough to hold you. And besides, they aren't made for you to create a zipline."

"It's just that I got a little bored. The more I studied that rope on the window, the more it looked like the ziplines Daddy showed me when we went to the mountains."

Momma smoothed my hair away from my eyes. "Please promise me you won't do that again. You could get hurt."

"Okay. I promise. I'm sorry." I poked my bottom lip out.

"I'm tired of unpacking boxes. How about we make some play dough?"

"The eatable kind?"

"I think I have everything for the edible kind."

"We can have play dough and a snack all at the same time."

"You're right. And Chloe, I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for, Momma?"

"I need to spend some time with you and not fret about those boxes. And don't forget, Katie is coming Thursday."

I squeezed Momma in a big hug. "I love you."

"I love you too. Let's wash our hands."

"Right." I scrubbed my hands real clean.

Momma opened the cookbook and pointed to the first ingredient. "What do we need first?"

"Peanut butter." I ran to the cabinet and grabbed the jar of peanut butter. I looked at the next thing on the list. "Corn sss..."

"That's a hard word - syrup. Corn syrup. I keep it right here."

I stared at the other two words. "Powdered sugar and powdered milk."

"Very good."

I helped measure and mix. I announced everything to our pretend audience like the lady on the cooking show Momma liked to watch on TV. We put half onto two placemats to play with and left the other half in the bowl to eat later.

Momma made animals out of her dough. I tried real hard to make a giraffe, but his neck just kept flopping down. That made us catch a case of the giggles.

When we could finally calm down, Momma poured two glasses of milk and we pulled off pieces of dough from the bowl and ate them. We left some for Daddy, since he really likes peanut butter.  

Mrs. Potts wasn't the only one like Mary Poppins. I had the bestest mommy in the world.


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If you would like to try Chloe's eatable play dough, here's the recipe:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup corn syrup
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/4 cup powdered milk
Mix to a good consistency. May need to add extra sugar. Divide into two parts - some for eating and some for playing.