Today we had a messy play date with Lucy and Baby Samuel.

Last night I prepared Jelly Mega Bloks with surprise snakes inside and a bowl of Snakes in Slime!

I bought some really small, soft and brightly coloured snakes from Amazon. They were very light and so floated in the jelly. I also added some heavier, duller, rubber snakes that sank to the bottom of the jelly slime.

To make the slime I used lime and orange jelly. I did not add any glitter or inedible ingredients as I knew that at least a little of the jelly would end up in Baby Samuel’s tummy.

And I was right! He really liked eating it. Which made me smile with a heavy heart, as I know that Baby Tilda would have been exactly the same. They would have had such fun together today.

Esther and William were very excited about playing with jelly. And they literally squealed with excitement when they saw the snakes suspended inside. They could not wait to set the snakes free.

They plunged their hands straight into the cold jelly and pulled the wriggly, sticky snakes out.

It was wonderful to watch and also to see the shapes left in the jelly by the snakes. The hollows or imprints made it look like there might be another snake still lurking inside. i think this fascinated me more than it did the twins. They just loved smashing the jellies and finding the snakes.

Esther and William adore sensory play, the messier the better. Today they loved getting the jelly inbetween their fingers and their toes. They like it when their play material is scented and all the better if it is edible too! Today the jelly was sticky but also slippery. Seeing Samuel try to stand on the jelly covered Tuff Spot was wonderful and so so funny. I was laughing at Samuel and also fondly thinking of Matilda’s laugh as I know her infectious giggle would have been sounding out loud as she sat and covered herself in jelly and enjoyed trying to stand on the slippery stuff. She would have had a wonderful time, just as Samuel did today. As we all did.

The snakes in the jelly were a great addition to this play. Esther and William had as much fun with the snakes as they did with the jelly. They were stretching them and pinging them around. Wrapping them around different body parts. Pushing them into the jelly and pulling them out again. The bright colourful snakes were definitely a hit and will definitely feature in our play again soon.

Pulling snakes out of jelly is not only great fun it develops fine motor skills but putting jelly in a Tuff Spot also provides opportunities to use gross motor skills as you have to try very hard to balance and stay standing and not fall over. It is also possible to almost skate and slide around the Tuff Spot. All three children found this experience and sensation very funny. It was genuinely hilarious to watch.

Esther and William really seemed to like having Baby Samuel in the Tuff Spot with them which is lovely as his mummy is a dear friend but also makes me miss Tilda so much as it really should be her in there with her siblings. What a fabulous friendship they would have. What magical memories they would be making. We would be making. Together.

I am so glad that Samuel was with us today and that he had such a wonderful, messy time. His little friend in the sky would have been looking down I am sure.

Messy Matilda Mae x

Esther and William needed their play extending and so I gave them each a dumper truck and some trains.

William took to the engines straight away but Esther really enjoyed playing with the dumper truck. Filling it first with jelly and then with snakes. She liked filling it, driving it around for a bit and then dumping the contents. She liked this activity a lot.

Once the three were totally covered from head to toe in jelly, it was time to get them and their play things clean. I filled up one of our big bowls with warm water and all three children took turns to strip off and get in it before being wrapped in a warm towel.

Jelly is a great, safe, edible material for messy play. It is a lovely texture comes in bright colours with strong scents and flavours. It can be moulded and set into different shapes and you can set things into it. Snakes, treasure, trains! There are so many possibilities. You can also use jelly to create swamps, bogs and seasonal sensory bowls. More on all of that coming very soon as part of our new messy play linky and Tales from the Tuff Spot which will be starting tomorrow.

We hope that you will join us in some messy play in memory of a little messy Matilda Mae x