Grandpa's Birthday - Homemade Play Dough - Naughtiness

It has been a challenging couple of days. On Sunday, I took the boys up to visit my parents as a surprise for my dad's birthday.  It was fun, and my dad was really surprised and really happy we came.  But it is hard traveling 9 hours in two days with two toddlers.  They missed naps, got off their schedule and were generally naughty. Since we've been home, I have had little patience and the boys have been testing the limits. The morning seem to be worse than the afternoons.

We are trying to keep busy and find some new activities they can do on their own.  We made homemade play dough on Wednesday.  Here is the recipe for anyone who wants to try it.
Homemade Play Dough
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons cream of tartar

Mix dry ingredients and oil in a sauce pan.  Stir in the water and heat on med/low heat until the dough gets stiff.  Turn out onto wax paper or what I did was spray some nonstick spray on the counter.  Knead until smooth. I made a double batch and divided it into four pieces and kneaded in a few drops of food coloring and some peppermint extract (as a preservative)  It has a really nice consistency and seems to stay pretty moist.  I am storing each color separately in a zip-loc bag.   

The other new thing we have discovered is on line games at www.nickelodeon.com.  They have several games for young kids. Caleb is learning how to use the mouse and play the games on his own.  I am hoping this will be a way for me to be able to spend a little more one on one time with Quinn.  I really think he is acting out because he needs more attention.  It is hard to give them equal attention when they are at such different developmental stages. It seems somehow, Caleb always gets more attention because he asks more questions and is able to do more than Quinn.  Maybe the computer games will help with this.  If anyone has ideas for other solo activities for Caleb, I would appreciate them.  I did get a couple of audio books at the library - so far they are not too interested but we will keep trying.