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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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Sand Dune Arch is a Great Place to Bring the Whole Family – Arches National Park
If you’re visiting Arches National Park, choosing what to do can be daunting. There are too many wonderful options to fit into one trip. Every time we go, we do some of our favorites and find a few new places to explore as well. I can’t believe it took us until our fourth trip to discover this one! Sand Dune Arch was a favorite, especially of our kids. It’s a short, easy hike to a secluded arch among fins of rock. The opportunities for play around the arch are endless. Want to read more about Arches National Park? This post is a continuation of a series on Arches National Park.…
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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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Delicate Arch
This post is a continuation of a series on Arches National Park. You can find the others by clicking on these links: Park Avenue The Windows Delicate Arch Sand Dune Arch Skyline Arch Devils Garden Delicate Arch is the world-famous, iconic arch of Arches National Park, and has become one of the state symbols of Utah. It’s the largest free-standing arch in the park and the one that has made it onto the Utah license plate. Logistics: Distance: 3 miles (4.8 km) out and back Elevation: Approximately +760 ft (232 m) Difficulty: Easy/Moderate Facilities: Pit toilets and picnic tables Dogs Allowed: No Parking: At trailhead, overflow parking available 1/4 mile…
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The Windows
This post is part of a series on Arches National Park. You can find the others by clicking on these links: Park Avenue The Windows Delicate Arch Sand Dune Arch Skyline Arch Devils Garden Logistics: Distance: About 1 mile (1.6 km) for loop, not including primitive trail Elevation: +164 ft (50 m) Difficulty: Easy Facilities: Pit toilets and picnic tables Dogs Allowed: No Parking: At trailhead Getting there: First Head to Arches National Park You will need to pay an entrance fee, which is good for 7 days, or have an America the Beautiful Pass. There are also certain Fee Free days and did you know that 4th graders can…
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Park Avenue
This post is part of a series on Arches National Park. You can find the others by clicking on these links: Park Avenue The Windows Delicate Arch Sand Dune Arch Skyline Arch Devils Garden Oh how I love Arches. So many breathtaking vistas. So many great hikes. So many arches! All close to the fun town of Moab. As you drive into Arches, the first hike you reach is called Park Avenue. Apparently, the giant walls of this canyon reminded early visitors of buildings lining a big city street. Logistics: Distance: 2 miles (3.2 km) out and back Elevation: Approximately 260 ft down into canyon and then back up at…
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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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