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DIY Aquarium Divider
So our water babies had arrived and we thought we were ready to go, when we realized that they were different sizes and couldn’t be housed together. You can read about our axolotl tank set-up here. The other thing we learned was that they were too young to have even fine-grained sand in their tank. This was a simple, if not easy fix. We took out the sand and are saving it for future. In terms of keeping the larger axolotl from the smaller two, our options were to have two separate tanks, or to install a divider to keep them apart. We opted for the divider, since we had…
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Build Your Own Lego Table
Can you have too many Legos? No. Not if you have four kids who love them. What you can have, however, is the problem of figuring out how to manage them all. Without a space to corral them, they can get out of hand fast! When our youngest was a baby, we encouraged our older kids to use our pool table for their building. They loved having a large space to create and we loved keeping small pieces of plastic out of the baby’s mouth. We left the pool table behind with our move, and ever since, we’ve been doing this: Once we started unpacking the boxes and boxes (and…
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Axolotl Tank Setup
Our son had been waiting for his axolotls for months. You could even say he’d been waiting for years, since that’s how long he had been asking to get them. He did his research on habitats, feeding, and care. He reminded us often how cute they were by sharing photos. He even formed an argument about how we could help a species survive extinction by keeping them since their natural habitat in the wild is all but gone. Finally, when we decided to move, we made an agreement that once we were settled he could get them. Axolotls? What are axolotls you may ask? (I did). They are salamanders. Unlike…
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Whodonit? (Plush) Shark Attack and Restoration
The Crime Scene One morning, our son woke to find his beloved shark stuffed animal savagely mauled outside his bedroom door. Poor Sharky. There were no eye-witnesses, but preliminary forensic evidence pointed to a list of usual suspects thought to be in the vicinity at the time of the incident. The Suspects: Ridley: 7 years old, brother of Samus, cuddle bug, verbslizes hunger every morning, has place at family dinner table, Hadley’s disciplinarian, clean record Hadley: 14 months old, spotty record, expert chewer, high energy, toy thief, occasionally poops household objects Samus: 7 years old, sister of Ridley, get-off-my-lawn face, murder button permanently engaged, loves coffee, cuddles in order to…
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Indoor Monkey Bars
We have a long hallway in between our bonus room and the rest of the house. One day, while walking down it, I realized it would be a perfect place for some monkey bars! We needed something for the kids to climb because they were quite literally climbing the walls. Supplies: 2×4 lumber (We used a total of four, two on each side. You will need the length of your monkey bars x2) 3/4-in x 10-ft galvanized steel pipes OR you could buy them pre-cut, if you can find a length that works for you, like THESE 3/4-in galvanized 2-hole pipe straps 3-in screws Paint for 2×4’s (optional) Tools: Tape measure…
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Indoor Swing
We are always looking for ways to make our house more fun. When I saw indoor swings online, I thought our bonus room would be the perfect place to try them out. Here’s a girl and her puppy hanging out in the bonus room before the swing: There are a lot of different options available, from chairs, to pod swings, to more hammock-like versions. We decided on these Harkla swings: The swings themselves are pretty cool but we found you could only twist so far before you recreate The Helicopter move from the playground. We found a swivel you can add in between the ceiling plate and the swing so…
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Cardboard Castle
Trunk-or-Treat happened to fall on the day of our birthday girl this year. She wanted a birthday party and the other three wanted to go to trunk-or-treat. As you often do with a family of six, we compromised and decided to host a trunk that was birthday-girl themed. She was already heavily into princess-mode for her costume so the trunk plans quickly became a birthday castle. We needed materials that were temporary, easy to move, and not too expensive since it was likely to be a one-use castle. We had just moved so we had a LOT of boxes. Cardboard castle, here we come! Supplies: Cardboard boxes Heavy duty scissors…
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Play Area Under the Stairs
When we moved into our house, we found that the previous owners had left us a tiny door in the attic. Someone had a fun project planned that never came to fruition. As soon as we discovered it, I knew we had to find a way to use it. I have always loved the idea of hidden play areas and secret worlds. I blame the The Chronicles of Narnia for my obsession. Supplies: Tiny door (You can buy these online, pre-framed) Drill Oscillating multi tool Reciprocating saw Vacuum (so much debris under the stairs) 2″ Wood screws Molding – or however you want to finish the outside of the door…
