Marble Run

I attended a child care conference in Sioux Falls this past weekend and got SO MANY aweseome ideas of things to do and make with the kiddos! So of course as soon as I got home I had to try one of the awesome ideas from Jeff Johnson... the MARBLE RUN!

It can be done indoors or outdoors, we chose to do it outdoors (only because thats the only place you will ever find our kiddos)!

It is so inexpensive, SO EASY and so much fun!

My only advice is to let the kids help you build it, or give them tape and let them build and and invent the way they want to make the run themselves (they will amaze you with what they come up with)!

WHAT YOU NEED:

*Pool Noodles (buy @ the dollar tree)

*Tape (Duct Tape works the best but can use packaging tape as well)

*Knife

*Marbles (I bought ours at Hobby Lobby in a bag of 25 for $1.99)

HOW TO MAKE IT:

*Cut the Pool noodle in half the long way (you can also cut the noodle the short way to make tunnels, ect.)

*Use tape and tape the cut pool noodles together --> then tape the noodles to the steps or whenever you want to make your marble run

*Then let the kiddos play!!

Pool Noodle, Marbles and the top of the noodle cut off!

Make little tunnels by cutting off the top of the noodle

Cut the noodle in half

Tape the ends together

Tape down the noodles!

Let them play, figure it out and invent what to do with it!

And let them fix it!!! They will Be SOOO Excited when they figure out how to make it work on their own!

The exitment of figuring out how to fix it! :)

ENJOY!! :)

The Sandbox

There will be no more playing in the dirt/sand on the end of the sidewalk/side of the road!

The kids and I took it upon ourselves to finally build a sandbox! I envisioned this to be an easy quick project... boy was I right wrong!
Here is how it went down; Brayden I figured out where we wanted our sandbox. He and I measured the spot we wanted it. Headed to Marshall, brought Halie with us and went to Menards. There we got everything we needed (50 pavers, 16 bags of sand, paint and black fabric). It only cost $99.00!! Woohoo!
Then... we got to WORK. We picked up the rocks (bucket fulls) and then started digging... and continued to dig...oh and didn't stop digging for 2 hours! After we were sweating and super dirty we got it to wear we wanted it. Ashtyn was amazing at running that little shovel! Then we laid down the fabric, used landscaping nails to secure it. Found an old plastic ring that was in the yard before (we dug it up!) then I carried ALL 16 bags of sand and ALL 50 pavers to the back yard = NOT FUN. But I kept seeing the end of this project flashing before my eyes :)
Then we put the pavers all around the edges just as we finished that TJ got home! (Perfect timing for him..) He helped us empty the bags of sand. Since then... there has been hours of playing the sandbox! The kids LOVE it! So our hard work definitely paid off! :)

Peyton LOVING the sandbox :)

Making 'mud pies' and 'lasagna'!

2012 Summer FUN TO DO LIST!

I like a schedule and a plan... well most of the time. But I'm also very spontaneous and I LOVE be on the go.. pretty much all the time and I love to do anything fun or interesting or well just anything with my kids and hubby in general will usually satisfy me. And if it wasn't as I had hoped or planned we all try to make the very best out of it. Well this summer is going to be our best one yet! This is the 1st time I actually had to worry about a 'summer break' from school. What a bummer. So anyways, I am bound and determined to make each day special and fun and make a memory out of everything. That doesn't always mean going somewhere but it means enjoying every little simple thing in our day! My friend Katlyn made one of these (summer list -below) and I LOVED it. When the kids, TJ and I were driving to Lester Prairie we all shared things that we would love to do this summer, Ashtyn sat in the back seat and wrote this list on a few sticky notes...which I transferred to this...then printed it off...decorated it and hung it up on our fridge! I will update a few times throughout the summer with what we have accomplished on our list :)
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