Clean Mud

This project is not for the faint of heart. Maybe I should post a big WARNING message at the top:

WARNING This project is a big mess, but totally worth the sheer bliss on your child's face!

I love making messes with kids. So much of life is about order, and following directions for kids, that it only makes sense that more mess = more fun in a child's world. When I pick Larkin up from school and she is covered in goo it makes my heart happy because I know she had a blast that day.

Clean Mud is cheap and easy to make:

1 roll of toilet paper {tear into tiny pieces}

1 bar of white dove soap {use a cheese grater to get it into tiny bits}

warm water {add a little at a time until you get a thick mixture, anywhere from 2-3 cups}

The water needs to be warm enough to melt the soap, so in the beginning I do a lot of the mixing so that Larkin wont hurt her hands {she is pretty sensitive to things that are on the warm side, so know what your child is up for}. You want to add enough water so that the mixture is the consistency of thick whipped cream or thick waffle batter. Be careful not to add too much water. A little at a time will help you get the ratio just right.

The cool thing about this stuff is that the more you play with it, the fluffier it gets! The soap bubbles expand and work together to make this goop crazy cool to play with, and like I said before, messy! This goop gets everywhere and when it dries it leaves little toilet paper bits on everything it touched {Larkin's hair had little bits of toilet paper in it when I washed it later that night}. I recommend donning an apron or paint smock, but this stuff washes out of clothes easily and wipes off counters and floors quickly, so no permanent damage done!

This picture was taken after adding most of the water, but not all of it. Larkin wanted to play with it at each stage, and as it changed she got excited and made little observations like, "where the soap go? I smell it but it's all gone." and, "It's getting mushy and mushy and mushy." and, "It's squishy on my hand momma." ... my budding scientist! :)

I love good clean fun ... clean MUD fun!