Gramma's Rainy Day Survival List

• Assortment of old buttons (the button box is a great favorite!)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Tape - masking and scotch
• Thin string
• Colored yarn
• Construction paper, many colors
• Regular white paper
• Crayons (I like to keep them sharpened)
• Colored marking pens
• Hole punch
• Assortment of cardboard things: boxes, toilet paper tubes, etc.
• Assortment plastic things: bottle lids, pen lids, plastic containers w/ lids, etc.
• Old magazines or catalogs with lots of pictures to cut out (they especially like the toy catalogs...)
• Popsickle sticks
• Toothpicks
• An old blanket (and a couple of chairs in a corner to drape it over)
• Recipe for modeling clay (see below)
• Snack stuff (see below for my grandkids' favorite tidbits..)

• Mix together
• 2 /12 cups flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup salt
• Food coloring, optional

My grandchildren are fussy eaters. But they love our little tidbits, served on a plate in small bits and piles, and eaten with their fingers for the most part. The key is the smallness of everything. These are just a few of their favorites:

• Raisins, dried apricots and other dried fruit
• Almonds
• Peanut butter on crackers
• Cheese, sliced VERY thin, or in little cubes
• Apple slices
• Banana slices (leave the peeling on, just make a slice on one side so it's easy to peel off)
• Fishy crackers (the ones shaped like little fishes)
• Peanuts (not in a shell)
• Pretzels
• Carrot sticks (very thinly sliced)
• Chocolate chips
• Applesauce
• Cinnamon toast, cut into small bitsized pieces
• Chex snack mix (we love to make this ourselves - combine rice, corn and wheat Chex cereal with peanuts and pretzel sticks and a little seasoning salt)