Bench Seat

Inspired by Pinterest, Heather had the idea to make a bench seat at our dinning room table.  So when we made the trip to Ikea to get our bookshelves, we grabbed a few of these cubes...

 and turned 5 of them into our bench.  We found two long bench pads that fit perfectly!

 Now for a back rest...

 I started by making two big frame with an OSB front.

 To hang them, I used a 45 degree angle cleat.

 Here is the top and bottom cleat lined up together.  The bottom piece is then mounted to the wall, pulling the pad and frame to the wall with the 45 degree angle.

 Time to wrap the frames in batting and cover with fabric.  My helper thought the batting was pretty cozy!

 I stretched the batting and stapled around the edges.

 Then wrapped with our fabric and add lots more staples!

 One panel finished...one to go.

 The first panel mounted on the wall!

 Stepping back, the panel is 44 inches across and 56 inches tall, added to the bench, it totals about 70 inches tall!

 Here is the cleat for the 2nd panel.

 ...and both panels hung on the wall.

 We then secured the bench pads with some Velcro to avoid slipping.

 And the finished product!

 A close up of the pattern on the fabric

 It's approved!  Trigg likes it and thinks the circles kind of look like golf balls.

Bench is installed and we can now comfortably sit 10 around the table!

Winter/Indoor Fun

This winter has been both cold and long.  With a active 2 year old, we have had to come up with a few indoor activities to play and hopefully burn some energy.

One fun activity was making a birthday card using thumb and finger prints.

Add a little crayon

And we have ourselves a "Happy Birthday Big Chugger!" card.

Another indoor activity we set up was based upon the classic board game "Chutes and Ladders", but this we just used the chutes.

We set up two tracks so the macaroni could race down into the container!  On your marks, get set....GO!

With all this snow, we have done a lot of playing with our trucks.  I pull in pans full of snow and let Trigg bulldoze, scoop and drive through it.  Heather found this recipe on Pinterest for "Snow Ice Cream" so we thought we would try that too!

Add a little sugar, milk, salt and vanilla...stir it up and maybe add some sprinkles.  From the smile you can tell it turned out pretty good!

Thankfully, the forecast is starting to show signs of warmer weather, so we are hoping to get outside soon!

Train Table

Trigg loves his trains!  His tracks were starting to sprawl across the floor and needed to be contained.  We have seen train tables online but with a price tag around $150 I was in the market to find a different solution.

Old coffee table!  I popped the top off and it will fit into the space perfectly!

Next task...build a new top.

I used some left over material that I had in the garage.  I made a "cut out" in the middle so Trigg could reach the backside of the table or the "other side of the tracks".  I attached sides all around the table to contain run-away trains.

Here is the table, all constructed with tracks and trains chugging.

Phase 1 of the table and Trigg is pretty excited!

Phase 2, I painted the edges white and we got a few more pieces to the track!

Phase 3, painted the "grass" green and a new layout for the tracks.

There will probably be Phase 4 and maybe Phase 5 and 6 in the future.  Trigg has mentioned having a blue pond or stream running through the "landscape" and also adding Cranky the Crane or a windmill to the track, but for now our train table is up and running!

Garrett - 1 month

It's hard to believe that this little guy is already 1 month old!  

We busted out the monthly ties and snapped a picture of Garrett to capture the 1-month mark!

Time is flying by and we are adjusting to the new normal of life as a family of 4!  Trigg is slowly warming up to his brother...but still keeping his distance!

The Dudes!

Getting in a little tummy time!

Garrett's official announcement