Last week we had Spaghetti Bolognaise for tea. As usual, I misjudged the portion sizes and ended up with a load of leftover spaghetti. In my quest to come up with new ways to stop toddler tantrums, I remembered Frog’s nursery mentioning something about a messy play session involving spaghetti. My inner sane voice lost the battle and we ended up doing this:
Our spaghetti messy play session didn’t cost a thing. I used cold spaghetti, mixed it with some blue finger paint and added some blue and white beads, a playmobil swimmer and dolphin, covering the lot liberally with plenty of blue glitter.
It barely took two minutes to set up and kept my two and half year old entertained for a good 45 minutes. I even managed to avoid getting cold, paint-covered spaghetti up the walls. Win.
Frog liked picking out the shiny beads, feeling the slippery, slimy spaghetti “worms” slide over her little fingers and then pretend to throw it all at me. If these photographs are a tad out of focus, it’s because my hands were shaking in fear at the thought of my house being trashed by a spaghetti-wielding toddler.
To my utter astonishment, I didn’t have a nervous breakdown as I cleared it all away afterwards. And there’s only a slight dusting of blue glitter on all my plates, seeing as I had to use the same washing-up bowl that I do the dishes in.
I’m now smugly polishing my Perfect Mother Halo and looking forward to at least two afternoons next week of paint-free toddler time. I’m preparing the mess-free jigsaws and storybooks in readiness…
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Linking up to The Sunday Showcase at Here Come The Girls
Love it! So creative.
And so easy!
What a fab idea! I have always refrained from it as I’m scared itl go all over the floors and walls!!
Try it! Seriously – it’s not that scary!