• My four year old Ladybug informed me the other day that she wanted to grow up to be a Veterinarian.

    And a people doctor.

    And a firefighter.

    If that’s not ambitious I don’t know what is.  So, in order to encourage her interests, our playgroup decided to make a few play dates out of it.  First, we called our Vet and asked if we could bring in a group of about 4-5 kids to have a tour of the office and see what it meant to be a veterinarian.  It was such an amazing adventure!  The kids took turns wearing the stethoscope and helping give treats to sick dogs.  They were all great helpers and learned a ton!

    Everyone dressed up, girls as princesses boys as super heroes.

    The tour of the fire department was also just as exciting, kids got to try on the gear and sit in the fire engine.  Plus the station dog was a great surprise, and precious now that we were all little mini-veterinarians.  Getting the kids to visit an actual doctors office didn’t seem prudent.  No one wants to get sick after all.  But we decided to have a doctor themed play date.  All the kids came over with their doctor kids and took turns (with help from the moms) making the other “sick” kids feel better.

    My point is that a play date can be so much more than the kids just getting together to play.  We’ve had tea parties, cookie making, pizza making, and color named play dates just to name a few.  My favorite was the time we had “fancy play.”  Everyone dressed up, girls as princesses boys as super heroes.  We had all of our dress up goodies spread around to share.  The kids got a huge kick out of wearing their costumes out.  So go get creative!