Marble run

One of the great things about Eric as a dad is that he actively thinks up activities that he and Emmett can do together.  He knew that Emmett would love throwing rocks in the water, so that became their thing back in Nashville.  Since he's busier during the week now, he's dedicated Saturday morning to getting donuts with Emmett (I think you all know how much Emmett loves chocolate with sprinkles).

The newest activity that Eric has dreamed up is the marble run.  At first he was going to use some of Emmett's Christmas money to buy one, but after looking online at some homemade versions, he decided to get crafty!  We had all the supplies on hand, minus the marbles.  This was a pretty easy craft, although the assembly was mostly done by Eric.  Emmett helped by coloring the old cereal box and cutting some construction paper to add flair.  This marked his first time using kid scissors, too!  He was super pumped about that and made very funny concentration faces while cutting.

All Eric did was get an old cereal box and cut the front off.  Then he used that cardboard to cut long strips that would eventually become the "runs" for the marbles.  We just folded up the edges of the strips to create a track.  Then Eric hot glued the runs to the cereal box, taking note of where the next run should be placed and so on.  Then he glued a small paper bag to the bottom to catch the marbles once they'd gone through the run.  That's it!

Emmett loved using the scissors, although he did give us a couple heart attacks by putting his other hand so close to the blades.    Loved the faces he made though.

Making some good cuts now!

The first marble!

During the first marble run - success!

The proud crafters with their marble run.  I should not have asked Emmett to smile, haha.  I took a few more pictures of the crafting process.  You can see them in the January photo album.

I took video of Emmett playing with the marble run for the first time.  He is so entranced by those marbles!