By Amy Heinz

As a mom of three kids, I’m no stranger to the word “playdate”. But, since my older two kids are sports-obsessed boys, who happen to invite kindred spirits over to play, I haven’t really had to give much thought to how I entertain the kids. That is until my daughter recently reached playdate age. It turns out 4-year-old girls—at my daughter and her kindred spirits—don’t want to spend hours chasing each other and kicking/hitting/throwing/bouncing balls.

So I was thrilled to learn about a start up, Avery & Austin, founded by two moms with young kids. They used their real-life experiences to create and offer a subscription-box service that ships you everything you need to host the “#perfectplaydate”.

In each shipment (starting at $39/month and as low as $29/month for 6 months prepaid), you get two sets of the craft-of-the month’s supplies, two healthy snacks, and an extra-special hostess gift for Mom. Knowing that I wouldn’t have to face two of my biggest fears—planning an activity and venturing into a craft store—made the idea of doing something structured at a playdate seem not only approachable, but exciting.

So, the moment my review box arrived, I eagerly invited my daughter’s friend from preschool over for a playdate. Before I picked up the girls from school, I figured I should go through the box to be sure there wasn’t a lot of prep, since 4-year-olds don’t tend to be all that patient. I was pleasantly surprised.

In the box (which was their May shipment), Avery & Austin included:

(2) plastic (phew!) vases

(4) sheets of decorative washi strips/dots to apply to vases

(4) pipe cleaners and a stack of tissue paper to make flowers

(5) acrylic paints

(4) small sponge pieces for painting

(4) stencils

(4) cards/envelopes to paint

(2) 2 Degrees mini snack bars

(1) gift bag to send the friend’s finished product home with him/her

(1) hand-painted ring bowl by Incredible Lil Things

(1) instruction sheet which outlined the theme: make someone you love a flower and card (it was a natural fit given May is Mother’s Day month)

When the girls arrived at our house, they were so excited to dive in to the fun. We started with the vases and they went to town peeling and applying the washi tape strips and dots. While it proved to be great fine-motor work, the best part was the happy chatter. By the end of this portion of the activity, I figured, even if they got nothing more out of this whole experience, at least I discovered a cool new craft supply that I know all my kids would love having on hand.

Once they’d cleared all four sheets (including the outline strips from the dots, no less), we moved on to the tissue paper flowers. This proved to be a bit more challenging for 4-year-old fingers. (Though my 30-something fingers didn’t do much better.) With one semi-floral-looking flower each, we moved on to the real fun—sponge painting.

I gave each girl her own paper plate of paints so if one of them mixed colors, it wouldn’t upset the other. They dabbed, rubbed, and combined to their hearts’ content, and the resulting cards were really spectacular. About half way through the painting portion of the fun—as if I needed a reminder that we don’t do things like this often enough—I panicked that the paints didn’t look washable. Once I found the kid-sized aprons, I was much more relaxed (on my own heavily tilted scale, that is).

And the girls? They enjoyed it so much that they asked me to get more paper so they could continue creating.

Before I knew it, it was time to clean up and take my daughter’s friend home. We’d been (happily!) crafting for a good hour and a half…unheard of in our house! Looking back, I really could have split the box into two playdates worth of fun since I was working with little, slow hands. I imagine my kindergartener and third grader would have moved more quickly, giving the paint time to dry before it was time to say goodbye.

While I certainly love a good unstructured playdate with spontaneous Taylor Swift sing-a-longs (including me, of course) and baby doll tea parties (not including me, of course), it was fun to be a hero for the afternoon. Being rewarded with a lovely grown-up gift didn’t hurt, either. And, truth be told, I think about once a month is just right for that type of structure and polished craft in our family.

So, what do you think? Does this sound like the #perfectplaydate solution to you?

Disclosure: I was sent this Avery & Austin box at no cost for the purposes of this review. All opinions are my own.

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