Play Makeup

If you were to ask Abby what her favorite Christmas gift was, she would say "my makeup.". This makeup was from Aunt Jessie and she paid a whopping $1.00 for it. Abby's new treasure was a plastic, yellow, Princess Belle cell phone filled with sparkly lip gloss.  That child has used a lot of lip gloss. Aunt Holly savd the day when she told Abby that SHE only puts on makeup once a day. Genius.

The Princess Belle makeup quickly ran out, but the cry still rang out through our house, "Where my makeup?"  This girl needed some makeup.  I went through my own makeup and collected some that I don't use...a good excuse to clean out old stuff. 

I discovered that if I used a butter knife, I could pop the little interior trays of makeup right out, in this case eye shadow and blush. 

I then filled the trays with nail polish and let them dry.  I did have to open some windows to air out the toxic fumes.

Here's my favorite part of Abby's play makeup:  lipstick.  I dug the lipstick out of a tube I got during one of my favorite times of the year...Clinique Bonus Days.  I then glued a marble onto the tube, using a hot glue gun.  Lastly, I painted the marble with two coats of nail polish.

Add some cheap-o brushes, purchased at Meijer, and we were ready to get beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is one happy girl...who is wearing camouflage to offset the very extreme girliness of playing with makeup.

I LOVE watching her with the lipstick.  It's just too cute and a lovely color on her, I might add.

You dazzle me, darling.

Once Abby finished with her own makeup, she moved on to her babies.

All lined up for makeup.

It would be an extreme understatement to say that the makeup has been a hit.  Abby puts on makeup at least a dozen times a day and her little makeup bag is never far from her line of sight.  In fact, as I type this right now, she is sitting inside her princess tent putting on makeup.  Abby has even been teaching her Daddy about makeup and he is a wonderful sport about it.  If there was ever a man to to have a daughter, it is this one...what a great Daddy he is for our little girl. 

There are two downsides to Abby's play makeup:

1. At least once or twice a day my husband and I have to scurry around the house trying to find the makeup, while Abby tries to remember where she left it last.  She can even tell if anything is missing. "Where my eye shadow?"
2. Every time Abby opens her makeup she likes to sniff it, as some of the toxic fumes still linger from the nail polish.  Hmmmmmm.

Even with the scurring and the sniffing, however, play makeup has been a HUGE success at our house...and MY makeup is cleaned out and organized.  A bonus.  Oh Clinique Bonus Days, please come again soon...

Pet Clinic

I know that kids like to pretend while they play.  A recent trip to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum, however, has shown me that kids REALLY like to pretend while they play. 

Abby's favorite part of the Grand Rapids Children's Museum...the Pet Clinic.  That child took care of the same sick puppy for at least two hours.  We had to pretty much drag her out of there.

Much to my surprise, my boy, my through-and-through-Lego-obsessed boy, was caring for the animals in the Pet Clinic.  He dived right into the pretend play in ways that I had not seen him do at home.

Inspired by the Museum and how much my kids loved the pretend play of the Pet Clinic, we decided to make one of our own...

We set up our reception station and found all of our pets, which Eli checked in.

Checked-in pets were put in various recovery stations. 

A new receptionist was soon hired and she was thrilled to land a job in this tough economy.

Eli gave shots to Abby's pets using a Lightsaber from a Happy Meal...she cuddled them afterward.

Finally, recovered pets were allowed a playtime in the tunnel...an idea conceived by Eli.

We have played Pet Clinic several times since our Museum trip, sometimes with all the props and sometimes a more bare-bones version.  In fact, when Abby starts to drag the little table to the living room, I know that the next words out of her mouth will be, "My pet sick."  So, a big lesson learned for me:  I have completely underestimated the value of pretend play!  My kids LOVE it, which has encouraged me to look for more ways to incorporate pretend play into our days.

Kind of ironically, as a child, I had wanted to be a veterinarian.  Then, one day,  I saw my dad give one of our dogs a shot and I almost passed out.  I didn't want to be a veterinarian after that.  Lightsaber pet shots for stuffed animals, on the other hand, are a little easier for me to handle.