In the late 2000s I kept a personal mom blog called Nest Bliss. I reviewed books, wrote about the house and the girls, and was even in the Wall Street Journal. These posts are from then: light, young, a mom in her late twenties. I have edited them to stand on their own.
I was talking with my close friend Michelle about how the girls were (sigh) starting to become bored with their play kitchens. I'll admit while Ava really has enjoyed her play kitchen she is really more of a puzzles and books kid.
Lilly loves to bang stuff around at it but otherwise she really isn't into it yet either. Which actually I hate admitting because I have a kind of amazing and possibly a tiny bit ridiculous DIY play kitchen setup with that cool market .
I think part of the problem is that I've had it all a while and I am noticing the appeal of putting toys away and rotating them now that Ava is older. Unfortunately, I can't just put the kitchen up for a while ;) Really it is a little annoying that my kids get tired of playing with their millions of toys and I have to rotate them out and find ways to represent them but ah well.
(Behind Ava is a giant $10 Walmart car oil pan we use for magnet play / learning = pinterest genius) Anyway, I made up some play recipes for my three year old because Ava loves to follow directions and I figured they would help her see that she could really do a lot more with that 'tired old' (sigh) kitchen.
Well it worked like a charm. I made five (the cupcake recipe is double sided) and I found three more on the internet here .
They are all a similar format so they are easy to use together. I laminated mine (with a scotch laminator) and put a little ring at the top.
I'd say in the least just print them up on card stock.
Mine are in Microsoft Word so if you need to edit out something you don't have that should be pretty easy. I used white yarn for my pasta. Oh! and if you don't have a kitchen you should think about making one of these mats because they are brilliant!
Oh Lilly (14 months) does have one toy she plays with. It's this random Joker house I now own.
I don't know if even Ava knows who the Joker is but Lilly genuinely loves this toy. I was totally against buying it (it's a little violent and has a jail and cannon and I have nothing that goes with it) but it all worked out after the mall Santa told Ava he would bring it for her and my little wooden doll house people have all had their turn in prison - it's kind of added a spicy new element to the story lines around here ;)