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 :)
 .

Never to young to be a cowboy

I have been going through and cleaning up files on my computer and came across these pictures of the kids. Their love for our horses just melts my heart. I'm SO THANKFUL that our kids can grow up riding and that they love it so much! It's so fun to watch our 3 year old, he just LOVES LOVES LOVES putting on his cowboy hat and his boots no matter where he is going :)

Ashtyn and her horse Punky

Chili Cookoff!

WE DID IT!!! TJ and I participated in our 1st ever chili cook off and it was a HUGE success!! :) We had SO much fun together! :)
Matt stopped by at 10:30am on Sat. morning and told us about it, we headed up town to see what was going on. Then continued our plans and went to Marshall. We decided around 11:30 that we should enter it! So luckily we have some pretty awesome friends... Matt registered us and Darren and Erica let us borrow their camper! :) We headed to Hy-vee as I called Tiffany to buy the groceries that we needed (she had an awesome recipe for chili)! :)

The cook off started at noon and judging took place at 5:30pm.
Well the kids fell asleep on the way home from picking up the camper so we stopped at home, put the kiddos to bed for naps and got the rest of the things we needed. Thankfully we have an awesome sitter who was able to come hang out while the kids napped.

We arrived up town at 1:30pm. Almost everyone was done cooking their chili. But it was so fun!
TJ and I had the best time together and it was fun creating our very own special recipe (I am not sure if I could ever duplicate that same chili)! There was so much random dumping of the spices! hehe

The kiddos walked down with Katie after nap in time to try the chili and play with the other kids! It was the best day! :)

Judging started at 5:30pm, we drew number 7 (out of 18 teams). Our chili was judged around 6:30pm. Then around 7:30pm they came and asked us for another sample!
We couldn't believe it!!
At 8pm we all headed into the bar with all of our chili for everyone to sample and to hear the results!
They started with 6th place- a tie (each getting $20). 
Then they said 3rd place-- TJ and Heather Gniffke! We were ecstatic!! WE COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!! :) We also received $120 for winning!! :)
AMAZING! :)

Here are a few pictures from all the excitement! Click here to see more from the cook off!

1:3Opm getting ready to start :)

TJ and Matt checkin out the chili, Sarah and Maisie in the background

Ashtyn and Brayden were being soo good so they talked us into letting them get their own soda from the machine!

Some entertainment as we were waiting for the judging to begin!

Thanks to Dillon and Sarah for letting us use their camper to brown our hamburger!

Ready for judging! :)

It's time!! :) Getting the samples ready to be judged!

3rd place BABY!!! WOOOHOOO! :)

Thank you Pinterest :)

TJ is starting to HATE pinterest. I keep finding all these sweet projects and then have a dream... to finish it right now, usually the day I decide that it will work in our house and where it should go.
Here is the newest pinterest project that my hubby and I made together ;)

the cut apart spindles

TJ adding the crown molding to the bottom shelf (this was the hardest part, cutting the correct angles from that molding... ufta).

attaching the spindles and shelves

and woohla! The shelf (now it just needs some paint ;)

Nailed to a tree

sad to think how much time we spend preparing for christmas but not for easter. something i don't want to become a habit of in our home. esp. since without easter, christmas would mean nothing.
Jesus came to this earth, as a man, but still remained fully God. to suffer and die a horrible death. for us, sinners. it's all amazing. he did it with a purpose. so he could live as we live. then allow himself to be killed so he could bring us to God. to our eternal home. easter is such an important day and we need to make sure that we are celebrating the real meaning of easter. not the bunnies, chocolate and eggs.
here is something fun we did as a family. turned our thankful tree (that we made over thanksgiving)
into our "crucifixion tree"

we have been reading lots of different books that talk about Jesus' life and death, we made these little crosses and we all wrote things on the crosses that we want to thank Jesus for doing for us or that we want to repent of.
and as a family we prayed together over these things. it is such a rewarding feeling when the kids ask to add another cross to the tree, just out of the blue on certain days.
may we all remember to celebrate the true meaning of easter. to celebrate our precious Lord's life and death and most importantly his resurrection!