Summer - The Idea Room

Potato race cars

I just recently spent several hours with some of my very favorite people at a family reunion. I feel like I must mention how lucky I am to belong to such an amazing family. We grew up going on trips to Lake Powell and St. George together every summer. And we just generally have a great time hanging out together.

And even now, as we have all gotten older and had families of our own, we still really enjoy getting together at our annual family reunion. My husband and kids also really enjoy these reunions. I ran my half marathon the morning of the reunion this year and my kids made me promise that we wouldn’t miss the reunion.

We always have a BBQ or some yummy lunch. We also always have a big water fight with the younger kids, while the older folks compete in friendly basketball, horse shoe, and sometimes a volleyball tournament. Most of the time we are able to have the reunion at a great location by a lake which we later get to play in together.

And we always have some other fun activities for the kids to participate in. This year my cousin Angie showed us all how to make a race car out of a potato and arranged for the kids to make some fun Potato Race Cars. Then they raced them down a Pinewood Derby race track.

They are really easy to make.

You will need the following for each Potato Race Car:

Potato
4 Pinewood Derby Car Wheels (can be purchased online or at a local Scouting store)
4 large nails
4 small washers that fit onto your nails
potato/cheese grater
decorations for your cars

You may need to shave your potato so that the wheels fit on nicely and roll without rubbing on the potato. You can also shave some from the bottom of the potato so that it will roll down the track easily.

Stick the nails though the washers and wheels and then stick them into the sides of the potato. Be sure to place them so that the car rides evenly.

Then bling out your car with your favorite accessories. This can be difficult to get it just right…haha! I love how serious she is about getting her car just right. Isn’t she adorable?!

Then when you have all the cars made…line them up and let them go!

We had some great cars. But wouldn’t you know it…one of the youngest competitors won the whole race. And this was his winning Potato Racer!

And this is the grand prize!

Such a fun activity that got all the kids old and young involved. It is similar to a Pinewood Derby activity I shared with you in an older post…Banana Pinewood Derby Cars.

Do you have any fun ideas that your family does to make your family reunions special? I would love to hear your ideas!

Checking back in…

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Hey everyone…tap, tap, tap…is anyone still out there? I am still around, I have just been busy! B.U.S.Y! Can anyone relate?

I thought summer was supposed to be relaxing and kick back. When I scheduled out our summer I thought I was doing a good job at keeping things easy going, but then all of a sudden I had a million things going on all at once. And with five kids (and their friends) underfoot, and all the mess that goes along with that, I have found myself crazy busy!

We have been busy with a lot of good things, but sometimes I think we can get caught up in too MUCH good. If you have been following along with me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram (name: theidearoom) you may have caught a glimpse of the craziness :)!!!

For example, in the last 45 days I have slept in my own bed only 21 times. Where have I been you say? Well…the better question may be…where have I not been? haha!

I shared with you our family reunion/vacations to California and St. George, Utah here.

I was home from those family vacations for four days before I packed up and headed off to the EVO ‘12 Conference.

I was able to stay in this amazing Links Luxury Rentals in Park City.

I was also able to spend some time with some amazing online friends…new and old.

Upon returning home from this conference, we celebrated my daughter’s 8th birthday (Ombre Cake Tutorial here), met up with our old college buddies my husband and I used to double date with before we were both married.

Then we packed up AGAIN and headed off for a little family camping trip with my sister and her family to Flaming Gorge, Utah.

Immediately after that trip, I had to get all of my projects finished for my rooms in the DIY Blogger House, as we were finally able to get inside of the house to work on them.

I spent several days at the house getting everything ready with Brian, Jen, Char, Lara, and Shelley.

After a long Saturday at the DIY Blogger House…Lara, Tauni, Char and I enjoyed ourselves at the Neil Diamond concert. We had purchased our tickets back in December of 2011!

During this time, my Mother-In-Law came out for a little visit and for my daughter’s baptism into our church which was the following Saturday after the Neil concert. She was a great help with the kids!

A few days later we had a party at the DIY House to kick off the Parade of Homes with several bloggers and we found out Our Parade of Homes house swept all three awards in our category! These included: ARCHITECTURE / HOME DESIGN, INTERIOR DESIGN, and BEST OF CATEGORY!!

I spent a few days at home trying to catch up with everything that had been neglected…laundry, thigh high weeds, dirty toilets and floors…you have been there…right?! And snuck in a quick lunch with my best friends from High School (minus one)! I still absolutely enjoy them like I did back in high school. We have a lot of great memories from the good old days! I love that we can go a long time without seeing each other and pick up right where we left off. That is a sign of a true friend.

And then…if that were not a long enough list…I hopped on a plane to Dallas…in August…YIKES! (It was HOT!) and spent some time with some of the lovely people that work for Michael’s! I had a great time and will be sharing some fun things here with you soon about my trip.

The very next day, my family and I spent the entire day up in Park City, Utah with my husband’s co-workers at his company party.

So today…as I type this, I can’t help but feel a bit worn out…PHEW! I need a vacation…haha! Not really. I need a really long nap.

Things are THANKFULLY on the down swing. I have a couple more things on my calendar until the kids start back to school just after Labor Day. I am looking forward to school just so things can slow down a bit…haha! Like that is really going to happen right?

I feel like I need to explain all of this to you so you know why I have been pretty absent around here. ALL the projects in my house have been on hold all summer. Crafting (other than the DIY House Projects) has been pretty much non-existent. But the kids and I have been enjoying and getting the most out of our summer as we possibly could. That is what it should be about…right?! You should be seeing a little bit more of ME in the upcoming weeks, that is a good thing…right? ;)

What about you? Have you had a busy summer? Are your kids back to school yet?

August 16, 2012 · Filed under: Personal Tagged with Summer

pvc sprinkler tutorial

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A few weeks ago I shared with you this PVC Sprinkler that I made as part of the #LowesCreator challenge. I am FINALLY getting around to sharing with you exactly how to make a PVC sprinkler for kids.

This is really a pretty easy and inexpensive project and the kids were all super anxious about helping us build it.

I originally saw the idea in the Family Fun Magazine and decided to design my own version. I wanted one that the kids could run under or ride their bikes and scooters under.

This is the original version that I sketched out. We used the design and then made a few modifications when we actually were building it.

You can make your own version or build ours. You will need the following:

Materials:

1o feet of schedule 40 1/2 inch PVC Sprinkler Pipes

Pipe Cutter

Four 1/2 inch three-way corner joints

Seven 1/2 inch T joints

Three 1/2 inch 90 degree elbows

One 1/2 inch threaded T joint

1/2 inch riser

Full Sprinkler Head

drill and a 1/16 inch drill bit

hose attachment

1/2 inch coupling (one side threaded)

We cut the PVC into 4 foot (top cross pieces) and 5 foot lengths. We drilled holes (with the water running to make sure we didn’t lose too much pressure) along some of the sides and top pipes for a fountain effect. You can always fill the holes with silicone if you get too many or one is out of place. We did a total of about 30 holes.

For the middle cross piece, we cut the four foot section in half and installed the threaded T joint for the sprinkler. For the house attachment, we put it on the bottom, front end.

We did not glue any of the pieces so we could store it easily. Sometimes a connection would come apart from rough usage but it was easily fixed.

The kids have loved the different ways to use this. They have ridden their bikes through it, run under it, and even used a giant sheet of plastic for a slip and slide.