Outside Play Link-Up: Chalk Dress-Up Dolls
I'm excited to be hosting June's Outside Play link-up created by JDaniel4sMom with several other fabulous bloggers. We love sidewalk chalk at our house. In fact, it's a staple in the outdoor toys and makes an appearance most days. Sweet P's favorite activity at the moment is her Sidewalk Chalk Road and Town, but two nights ago it washed away by a thunderstorm. Since I knew this post was coming up, I decided we'd try something else instead of drawing another road.
Sweet P love, love, loves dressing things. Stuffed animals, babies, sticker dolls, tiny dolls. If it's dressable, she's all over it. She loves picking out Baby Blue's clothes (she doesn't dress him...yet!) and has recently begun picking out her own clothes (interestingly enough she didn't much care about what she wore until lately). Laying clothes out on the floor in the shape of a person is another favorite pastime of hers (especially when we are doing laundry!). So I took these ideas, paired them with chalk and came up with Chalk Dress-Up Dolls! 
Sweet P laid on the sidewalk (with the sun in her eyes, poor thing) while I traced her body. She thought this was pretty cool and wanted me to trace myself, but settled for another body that I free-handed closer to her size (so she could dress two). I also traced Baby Jim (her beloved boy baby doll) so that he could participate. She gave herself a face and hair, while I decorated myself. Her commentary was too cute.
Sweet P: Did you give yourself yellow hair? Me: Yep. We don't have brown chalk. It looks like yours! 
I brought out a bag of clothes for her to use that included: 2 dresses, a leotard, 3 pairs of shorts, several tops and 2 pairs of shoes. Sweet P was WAY excited when she saw that she could dress the girls.
Sweet P: Did you bring out your clothes too? Me: No, but I think my girl can share your clothes.
She was skeptical and got pretty excited when one of the dresses fit "my" body. Do you think she'll start thinking we can share clothes?! Uh-oh. 
She's drawing my shoes in the bottom right picture and drawing her face in the top right.
She changed herself several times (I only got to wear the dress) and put Baby Jim in his bathing suit (it's a bathing suit for a Build-A-Bear and it's missing the bikini top, so yes, it looks like a Speedo).
The Farmer got in on the action and asked me to trace him. His outline ended up looking a lot like a boxer and it was pretty hilarious. 
For clean-up, I simply tossed the chalky clothes in with a load of laundry I was already doing. Simple and cheap! If you have sidewalk chalk, you're ready to play!
It's your turn to link-up your Outside Play: Chalk ideas! Please try to visit, comment on, pin, tweet and share a few other posts. Please place the button in your post or somewhere on your blog and be sure to visit each of the co-hosts to see their chalk ideas! Check back in July for more Outside Play ideas!
