This tutorial is for the fantastic Celebrate the Boy series by Dana and Rae, because what could be more boy then standing up and falling down over and over again.

A balance board is an incredibly simple toy. You put a board on top of a cylinder, stand on it, then try not to biff it. It is really a fantastic toy for all ages (though my toddler is a wee bit too small). I’ve even found myself fighting for a turn.

For the balance board itself I don’t have a list of materials or even measurements for you. The directions are basically, go look in the basement or the garage and see what you got.  The longer the board the easier it will be to balance. The width doesn’t matter so much, but your kids should be able to fit their feet on it.  As for the cylinder, I started with a piece of PVC pipe, but it was just too high for my kids (perfect for me though!) so I used an 1 1/2 dowel cut down to the width of my board. I couldn’t actually find the dowel when I was decorating the board and taking pictures, so what you see above is a block from my kid’s toys. What I’m trying to say is, you can make this toy with what you have, all I’m going to show you how to do is pretty it up.

I wanted something on top of the wood to protect my kids’ feet and make it easier to grip. Duct tape to the rescue!  You could easily just do stripes, but I thought why not make something super stylish instead. To make the chevron pattern, first you have to rip the duct tape into strips.  Cutting the tape is almost impossible, so just clip a bit at the end of the tape and then rip it into strips while it’s still on the roll. I ripped my tape in thirds, but ended up only using the right and left sides–the edges on the one in the middle were just too raggity to use. So I would suggest just ripping the tape in half. You will waste less (though my son did have a hey day with the extra tape), but the chevron stripes will be much thicker.

The length of your tape strips will depend on how wide you board is. Play around a bit to see how you can make a few zigzags  fit just right. For the first chevron stripe, start in the middle and make a V with two pieces of tape, making sure the point of the V is in the center of the board. Now that you’ve zigged, just zag out to each side.

For all the other stripes, start from the right and work your way across. Put one tape strip down, then overlap the end of that piece with your next  piece, as you can see above. Use the manufactured edge–because it’s super straight–to overlap a little bit the stripe that came before. Then trim the ends flush with the sides of your board. That’s it. Just keep going until you’ve filled the whole board. This project is a little fiddly at first, but don’t worry after 3 or 4 stripes it picks up speed and you’ll be wiping out before you know it.

You can decorate the dowel with all the leftover bits of tape. It’s not necessary, but it does make the dowel much easier to find. :)

The more I play with this toy, the more I like it. It works inside and outside, it’s a good gift to give kids, and it’s endlessly customizable. I made another one painted it with a little leftover paint mixed with sand (so it’s non-slip) and I have ideas for lots more. So if you know me, you children will probably be getting a balance board for their next birthday. Or I might just keep them all for myself.

Mollie from Wild Olive guest posted recently on Whip Up and shared a tutorial for a peanut butter jelly game. I’d never heard of the game before, but thought it was hilarious and immediately set to making it. My felt supply consists of forest green and hot pink for some reason, so I turned to prints instead. I grabbed whatever was cute and vaguely peanut butter jelly-y. Gingham bread? why not? Psychedelic jelly? shit yeah.

I used her patterns, but sewed two pieces right side facing instead, then topstitched all around because I will do anything to get out of hand sewing. It was more work then if I had used felt, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. And the kids like it! And they can play the game all by themselves, though they usually end up fighting.  But pretty much any activity ends in a fight these days, so it’s not the game’s fault.

If you make the peanut butter jelly game, keep in mind that you will never get the song out of your head. ever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Because you guys had such fantastic toy suggestions, maybe you know of good games too? Because candy land is killing me.

Have you heard about the awesome project Katy has going on over at the big dill? She’s rounded up a bunch of fantastic people and asked them all to design a project inspired by their favorite children’s book–it’s called Once Upon a Thread.  She so kindly asked me to participate and I was super excited to be a part of it, but then I kind of choked…well you can read all about it on her blog.

Also, wow! you guy are amazing! Thanks for all of the toy suggestions on the last post. Be sure to go read the comments to see what all the kids are playing with these days.

I’ll admit I totally bought this toy for myself.  I fell for this wooden robot the first time I saw him and saved up my pennies (this is no 2 dollar plastic pig) so I could take him home.  This gentle giant is designed by David Weeks, who has made many super fantastic things like the beautiful and clever flashlight/candlestick combo the castlight.  Well designed toys are much easier to find these days, but they are sometimes more design than toy, know what I mean? But this simple robot is just right. Be warned, once he moves out of cube form you will have to work pretty hard to get him to go back to that convenient shape again unless you are some sort of rubiks master.

We are at a toy crossroads these days, I think. My girl is five and my boy is four (the baby is happy playing with a spoon). They still play with little people ,we call them guys, but they are in pretty rough shape–most have a limb or an ear chewed off by the dog.  Is there a toy like little people for the next age up–playmobile maybe? Blocks and big legos are still going strong. We are slowly venturing into little legos as the baby stops putting everything in his mouth. Do you guys have any recommendations for good building toys? We got Citiblocs for christmas and they are super awesome! I would have never picked them up–they just look like sticks, expensive sticks–but they teach you how to build in a different way than regular blocks do. Anyway, long winded way to say, “hey, do you know of any good quality toys that my kids will play with for years to come, rather than the next three minutes?”

We celebrated my little boy’s fourth birthday this past weekend–a week late. On his actual birthday we were all too sick, or if not sick then too crabby, to do much of anything.  But this week we were better! We ventured out of the house! And we had a sledding party!

My son actually came up with the idea (is he secretly reading crafty blogs?) while we were in Hawaii oddly enough. And it seemed perfect: the sky had just dumped ridiculous amounts of snow on the midwest. But then we got back and it was 40 degrees and you could see the grass! In February!  The day before the party it snowed a few fluffy inches, just enough to fly down the hill on. Thank you weather.

It was a small party, so making favors was a pleasure rather than a production. We made vanilla marshmallows, which we packaged in waxed paper bags all prettied up with snowflakes. I doubled my friend Lily’s recipe for hot cocoa mix only used regular sugar and threw in a few teaspoons of salt for good measure.  Some of the hot cocoa mix went into jars I scrounged up and with the rest I made a vat of hot chocolate for the party. And then made a vat of whipped cream to go with it.

Obviously, I stole the tail gating idea from Courtney and actually I think this was the first time I’ve ever even been to a tail gate party. Not a lot of sports fans in the family.  It is awesome (if you didn’t know). And it is super awesome for a little kid’s party. They just come and go when they please, while you help yourself to another spoonful of whipped cream in your coffee. dontmindifIdo.

Slowly everyone’s toes froze and it was time to go home. But before that there was much sledding and snacking and frosting on faces. I say it was a success and my big four year old boy says so too.