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Playdough Mats

We LOVE playdough in our house and it’s another great activity to keep the kiddos busy during the blustery months!

Of course, I was spending my time on Pinterest and came across some great links for playdough mats! I could not believe I never thought of this! With how much we play with playdough, this is another thing they can use besides all of the cookie cutters and other toys we use.

There are so many different ones available for FREE to print off. All you have to do is print and then laminate! They have some where you decorate, like the gingerbread man below. I also printed off a snowman, Christmas tree, and Santa hat that could be decorated too.

They also have playdough mats that help with counting. Such as a tree and it asks to place three apples on the branches. This is great for the kids to work on counting and what color an apple is!

Here are some of the sites I used to print off playdough mats …

  1. Fall Playdough Mats
  2. Christmas Playdough Mats
  3. Christmas & Winter Playdough Mats 
  4. Alphabet Playdough Mats
  5. 100 Free Playdough Mats
  6. Turkey Playdough Mats
  7. ABC Tracing & Playdough Mat  
  8. Princess Playdough Mat 

There are so much more too! Make sure to check out Pinterest.

Also, do not forget my Easy Peasy Playdough to play with all these fun mats!

What fun things do you do with your playdough?

Tot Lot Waukee

We checked out another fun indoor activity last week!

Of course, Des Moines Beyond 4 Walls was behind this great find 🙂

Tot Lot Waukee

This place is perfect to let your little ones run around and burn off some energy and it’s FREE! We spent almost 2 hours running, playing, meeting new friends and did not want to leave when it was over.

There are several things available at Tot Lot.

The inflatable pool with plastic balls was a HUGE hit. It’s hard to believe something so simple, is so entertaining!

There were a bunch of tumbling mats, toy bikes, huge bin of legos, tunnels, and much more to play with!

They also had a bouncy house available to play in. I am not sure if this is always available, but the kids had an awesome time bouncing around!

Monte also loved the basketball hoop, shown above. There were also ball hoppers that the kids could bounce around on.

The Tot Lot is located in Waukee at the Public Works Building and is available Mondays 8:30-10:30 am & Wednesdays 8-10 am. The times are kind of early, so make sure you plan for it!

I highly recommend Tot Lot for these upcoming winter months. A perfect place to for the kids to burn off some energy, bring a snack and make a morning of it!

Urbandale Public Library

It SNOWED this week! The first snow has really put me into the holiday spirit now. That’s probably a good thing, since a bunch of holiday events are already starting THIS WEEKEND!!

Since it was snowy and cold, we decided to check out the Urbandale Public Library. I am so happy we did, I have REALLY been missing out. We had a blast!

Urbandale Public Library

The main reason we went is for the Toddler Story Time! Every Monday, Tuesday and Friday they offer a special Toddler Story Time. Each week is a different theme. This week was Eric Carle where we read, sang and played different activities incorporating all of Eric Carle’s famous books including The Very Hungry Caterpillar. There is also story time offered Wednesday and Thursday’s, they are not toddler specific. They also offer story time for babies too! Check out the schedule here!

The Story Room is such a cute and fun area. There are windows with cute little loft areas where the kids can climb up into. There are large doors that are closed when story time begins, which I like because Monte sure does like to run sometimes! My favorite part was the cute, wooden chair that the story teller sits in 🙂

We showed up a bit early, which is okay, because there is so much more then story time that is offered! We played on the computers for awhile, which were awesome! The computers are programmed for a certain age range. They have one computer specifically programed for ages 0-36 months! You can wear headphones, listen, and play along. Some of the screens are even touch-screen.

There are also building blocks, magna tiles, puppets, a coloring station and tons of books of course!

The Urbandale Library not only offers the fun story room, toys, books, DVD’s, CD’s, Chapter’s cafe, free wi-fi … they also offer some fun classes.

  • Lego Club
  • Reading Pals
  • Mothers & Others (great opportunity to meet some other mothers!)
  • Brown Bag
  • Minecraft
  • Tuesday Night Movie
  • Teen Yoga
  • Music Together
  • Science Sleuths
  • Teen Book Club

All of these things are FREE and most do not require registration, but make sure to check the calendar for details!

What is your favorite thing to do at the Urbandale Public Library?