Sometimes...

I have a good idea, and sometimes I steal good ideas from my kid. 

I have been plagued with gnawing problem of getting L a toy kitchen. I actually bought her one of the wooden Target kitchens for half off right after Christmas, but then returned it. Why? Cause I am crazy and I really, really like the downstairs of our house to not resemble a daycare when L is not in it. My dream is a house with a both a formal living room and a family room. But till then I am keeping my sanity with having toys that easily are hidden when put away. I briefly toyed with the idea of moving the toy kitchen in and out of the garage, and may end up doing that but wooden toy kitchens are heavy!

So on Saturday I watched my poor child trying desperately to turn anything into a pretend kitchen so she could cook with her dishes. After a few different failed attempts she brought over her stepping stool and used the top as stove top. "BRILLIANT!", I exclaimed, and quickly went to crafting it into a stove/oven.


The knobs actually turn-I used pieces of L's tool set and then covered with paper and wrote H-M-L 

The brown  stuff is playdough. L uses playdough for pretend food.
The bottom compartment of the stepping stool is her "oven". I thought adding a black rectangular window made it appear more so.

She immediately went to playing with it, and super liked the turning knobs. 
















However, the brilliance of L's "stove" wasn't revealed until I was trying to make dinner. L is a big helper and always wants to help me make dinner. Which fine except when we are dealing with knifes and boiling things.
So I moved her stove into the kitchen and set her up with some nuts and dried fruit and asked her to make Trail Mix Stew. When she was done we put it all in a ziplock baggy to eat as a snack later.

L using one of her mixing spoons to scoop out the stuff for Trail Mix Stew (yes it was a mess but a good one)

Mixing it all up.

She was so proud for making real food.

She then invited "Trail Mix Cake"

In the "oven" the cake goes.

 

I thought she deserved to lick the brownie beater.

 

Have I mentioned that she is big time Chocoholic? Hmm, I wonder what side of the family she got that from....

And this is what you get with a happy, chocolate coated L: 

Animal like behavior :-)