Make-It-Yourself Marble Launcher

Today we decided to get a little goofy and bring out the foam noodle for some indoor fun; I figured there had to be a way to turn it into some kind of marble track. So, I rigged it up with some neon green duct tape to the edge of our kitchen counter and propped the end up on a chair. Then we set up a Sponge Bob dixie cup to see if we could catch the marble upon launching it through the noodle's center hole. I knew we'd have to get the angle just right to defy gravity and get it to go up at the end...

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Little Biscuit couldn't wait to give it a shot!

 

Whoo-hoo, here comes the marble! The first few tries we defied gravity with no problem but took a while to get the cup in the right spot. Then, ...

Ta-da, we did it!! Yipee! The marble launcher worked AND we caught the marble in the cup!

So after our first success, we decided to get even more wild and crazy...

We made a marble "monster truck" course! Can our marble jump the stack of cars and land safely in the farm wagon? The suspense was killing us...

 

Indeed it could...way to go Little Biscuit! Then we had a great time experimenting with the angle of the noodle and seeing how high we could make it jump. This one made quite the evil kenevil leap into the air...but alas, we missed the mug at the bottom :)

If you have a marble and a noodle, why not give it a try? It was an entertaining way to spend a cold a morning and made for one happy little boy :)

 

Alphabet Soup Activity

It's warming up outside, woo-hoo! But still a little too wet to go to the park or play much outside. In the meantime we passed some more indoor time today making some "alphabet soup" out of magnet letters just for fun.

First we found a nice soup pot and some water...

(Chef Smiley had to approve of course!)

Then he went "shopping" for his ingredients.

After he had his ABCs, he added them to the pot...

Then he stirred it up and let it simmer...

 

Time to add some seasoning...salt and pepper for sure.

Time to test the temperature to make sure it's just right...

 

When it's just right, he's ready to serve up a big bowl of alphabet soup!

MMMMM!! Yummy ABC soup!

DIY toddler wall storage solution for play area

We just got home from a wonderful Christmas travel tour to visit both sets of Little Biscuit's grandparents. He didn't get spoiled in the slightest (yeah right!) Today we spent a lot of time removing Christmas decor and trying to find places for all the new toys. The biggest order of business was to make a special spot for his new fire house and gear. I decided to keep it really simple and instead of buying an expensive coat rack for the fire jacket and hat, we'd stick with Command strips. Besides, the extinguisher and hatchet wouldn't have worked on a coat rack. Those I just attached using the super-techy hair tie nailed to the wall with a  photo frame nail :)  The extinguisher and hatchet both store and come out really easy...and should hold up well too since they're stretchy.

I may use the same hair tie system to store some other stuff in his room too...

Of course it's not about the storage...the fun is getting it all out to play with!

here he is all decked out...

we call him "Captain Spaghetti Face!"

(On top of Old Smoky...lol... :)