Almost every time I take pictures of my children, it’s a whole planned event. I get them all gussied up and and take them outside during golden hour to get perfect portraits. But that’s not real life. And while of course I feel like we should all get professional portraits taken at least yearly, why the heck have I not also been preserving the moments in between?! The messy ones, the blurry ones. The ones that allow them to truly be themselves.

We made a particularly sticky batch of Playdough today that required a massive dose of extra flour for maximum fun. I watched them squish, squeeze, and laugh. And then suddenly realized this was a moment I wanted to keep. I grabbed my camera (which luckily had one small bar of battery life left) and took two minutes to photograph them in the messy goodness. That was all it took to cement that memory. Two minutes. I did not take time to clean up my kitchen before hand. I did not stop to have them get dressed or even brush their hair. I just photographed them they way they were.

Notice now that I did not grab my phone for their photos. I can get easily distracted by dings and buzzes. I can go from a photo to scrolling through instagram, or answering emails in a millisecond. So to try to stay present, I have been leaving my phone in another room when its play time. Which yes, has resulted in less moments captured. Because I, the photographer (face palm) didn’t think to utilize the one thing I have that would make all the difference in the world. So the importance of this post, is to remind other parents, and myself, to preserve the imperfect moments we have together. But please please please, remember to stay present.

Crazy Easy Playdough Recipe–

(Creates 1 ball of dough)

-1/2 cup of flour (and honestly, a whole lot more to reduce stickiness and to dust play area/little hands)

-2tbsp salt

-1/4 cup of warm water

-1tbsp of vegetable oil

-Food coloring

-Glitter for maximum fun (this does make in inedible, so if your little ones might eat the dough, try sprinkles or skip this altogether!)

1. Mix together flour and salt in one bowl

2. Combine water oil and food coloring in another bowl

3. Slowly stir water mixture into flour mixture with a rubber spatula.

4. Add additional food coloring if needed and and glitter the heck out of it. Kneed with hands covered in flour and add as much additional flour as you need for desired texture.

This recipe is super easy and your kiddos can totally help mix! I set them up with parchment paper and bowls of flour that they could roll the dough in and dust their hands with. This did make the dough dry out before the day was done (because they made sure to mix every ounce of flour they could in LOL) but it added a whole other level of fun for them!