Backyard Fun

In my research for Angry Birds, I found two blogs that made giant slingshots for their backyard to play a LIVE game - Simply Styled Home and April Pizana.  Loved it!  Two problems.  1. One version was a permanent structure in the ground, did not want to do that.  2.  My husband wasn’t on board with making the slingshot.  In comes a little creativity.  I grabbed two yoga bands and cut the back off an old lawn chair that we were going to pitch anyway.  I don't sew, so I just snipped a hole in each of the four corners and shoved the yoga bands through.  The part that stumped us was how to anchor it.  We thought about having a person on each side to hold it like a water balloon launcher.  Then the lightbulb went off, the railing on the deck on each side of the steps!  I tied the yoga bands to the railing and gave it a test run.  It worked!  No permanent structure and it was free!

The blogs that gave me the inspiration did a much more authentic version.  They also primed and painted all the balls with Angry Bird and Pig faces.  In typical “Kim” fashion, I was excited and painted one (no primer or sealer of course) and that’s as far as I got.  But it didn’t matter, we had the slingshot and the fun.  I will say, the hard part was finding those kind of balls in November.  They are more of a summer item.

We also improvised on the structures we knocked down.  I had every intention on getting a bunch of boxes for the structures like I found from my inspirations, but crunch time got the best of me and I surrendered to what we had on hand.  We used toy cardboard bricks and toy bowling pins and raised them up on our patio tables so that the balls had a chance of hitting them.   I'm all about taking a great idea and changing it to work for me.   So remember not to worry about making it perfect, as long as the concept is there everyone will still have fun.

Stop by tomorrow and check out our Angry Birds cake!