Veronika loves our daily jaunt out to get mommy’s coffee, so today she got to play barista with a coffee shop of her own! To start, I simply set her up with a toy coffee machine set we have, one of those great ways for kids to mimic the grown ups.

She could brew the beans, pour the coffee, and top it off with sugar and creamer for her patrons (a.k.a. stuffed animals).

Even better, though, is when you give kids a chance to play with the “real thing”. When I set out my coffee pot, the game immediately became more fun.

Now she needed a full coffee house set-up. We added menus, for which I designed the outside, but she helped decorate inside.

She could take “orders” before very seriously pouring from the percolator.

Overall, this was a great riff on tea party play, and kept her quite busy for a while!