Much Ado About Mudpies

I have a photographic memory. (Go figure seeing as how I am a visual artist and professional photographer.) The way I do things is I have see something that I like, take visual note of it, and then mentally file it away in my memory bank to recall later. I can't tell you how often I do this but I can tell you that it feels like it's constant for me. And at any given time I can/will recall ideas or inspiration I've previously discovered and employ them when they are most appropriate.

I don't know when I stumbled upon the idea of a mudpie kitchen but I've been carrying it around with me and wanting to make it happen for a LONG time! D and I have done a lot of thinking about what kind of parenting we want to do for Miss A and a couple of months ago we decided that we were going to offer her less "stuff" and more experiences. Think about it! What do you remember? Do you remember things or EXPERIENCES better? Experiences always endure longer than things. Experiences can rarely they  recreated exactly as they happened and so each is very unique and that much easier to be cherished. It's for all of these reasons that I have wanted Miss A to have a mudpie kitchen.

I've had grand plans for this mud pie kitchen for Miss A. I wanted to make it out of wood and make it look as realistic of a kitchen as possible. I wanted to paint it bright colors and hang signage on it with a really clever and fun name. I wanted to put it on wheels so it could be put into storage easily and relocated within the space of our yard wherever Miss A felt inclined to have it. But you know what they say about best laid plans.

The fact of the matter is sometimes the simplest solution truly is the best. This morning I was getting Miss A ready for preschool and she looked at me with her big brown eyes and said, "Mama? Can I stay home with you today?" I, of course, couldn't possibly say no to her. And thus the perfect day arrived for me to finally make the mudpie kitchen happen!

I present it to you...

And here I've broken down all of the elements that came together to make it...

Out of pocket cost to make this happen? About $15 at our favorite thrift store getting pans and bowls and kid-sized mixing utensils and some pitchers and cups and a small waste basket to hold a small amount of top soil that was bought in bulk for a mere $2 at Walmart. The major "furniture" parts were all upcycled! Two plastic cubes and my old Yaffa block drawer set serve as the cabinetry/counterspace and a Lowe's utility bucket holds more than enough water than what Miss A could possibly use.

To say Miss A was delighted with this set-up would be a gross understatement. Definitely I did this for me as much as her but I'm happy to report that she was super excited about it and it kept her busy her for over an hour.

"Much Ado About Mudpies"

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I set everything up so it was nice and close to the hose and also our butterfly/flower-picking garden - so Miss A could pick things to decorate her pies and cakes. I also made sure she wore her crocs and cleaning her up was a cinch because of them! I certainly didn't want to use plastic but I'll tell you, I'm glad things turned out like this. It makes hosing things off so much easier and I also know there won't be mold and mildew that cakes when I'm trying to dry everything out. Also, whenever Miss A attempted to pour water into her bowls and it would not all make it in, it would all fall through the holes of the crates! Something even better? The white tray snapped right off the top of the yaffa block portion and I sprayed it down in not even 30 seconds and we were good to go!

I love this Mudpie kitchen set up and I just know that we are going to spend hours playing with it this summer.