DIY Backyard Games - Checker Board

I love to entertain and I love to entertain in my backyard. Summertime seems to the best time to have all of your friends over for a little food, a little beverage, and a little backyard competition. Okay, maybe not competition, but it is fun to have a few backyard games handy to help everyone mingle, especially if not everyone knows one another. 

But there are times when it's just you and your family and you want to hang out and have some family fun. That's where this DIY backyard game inspiration came from. Who remembers playing checkers as a child? Who hasn't played checkers since they were a child? I can answer me to both of those questions. And because I haven't played in years, and because we don't have a checkerboard, I decided we needed one. And I decided that I could make it! I had my next segment lined up for Better Kansas City and for our next backyard family game night.

I enlisted the help of my dad, because he's who I always call when I need help in making something! And because I was going to be using power tools, I needed a spotter. Not because I thought I would cut off my hand or anything, but because I might cut off a finger instead. Plus, I knew there would be some math involved and I needed someone to check my measurements. You know what they say, measure twice, cut once. And, I like hanging out with my dad!

I headed to Home Depot, looked at all the items I thought I might need, and took screen shots. Loaded with my information, I showed my dad just what I was thinking so when it came time to make the purchase, I was ready. Turns out, he had some amazing additional idea, which involved some pretty tricky accessories to the already power tool use, but I was game to try! (That little accessory proved to be tricky and I let him do the whole thing!)

So, what do you need in order to make your own backyard checkerboard? Check it out below! 

We used a 2X4 piece of sanded outdoor plywood for the checkerboard. You could use a 2X2, or have someone at Home Depot cut it for you, but we used the extra wood to make the discs for our checkers. You can too, just stay tuned. We divided the board in half and made the cut, or should I say, I made the cut! EEKK! I used the Ryobi handheld circular saw and let me tell you, this saw was so easy to use! And it made a smooth even cut, even on plywood. Not a single nick of any kind!

This is a hole saw that attaches to your drill like any drill bit. It's the tricky tool I was telling you about. It cuts out circular shapes from wood and that's what we used for our checker pieces. The hole in the center will allow for hand storage! Want a more solid circle? You can easily purchase wooden disks online!

 

All prepped and ready for paint! Make sure you use sandpaper around the edges to smooth it down. Then paint them. 

Next up, the painting process and a process it is! First, paint the entire board a solid a color. I went with cream and green, the colors of our house. I painted the base cream, applying two coats, and allowing it to dry thoroughly before adding the blue tape.

Now for the checker grid..... It looks terribly intimidating, but it's not when your dad does it! Remember that math stuff I was telling you about? Honestly, I'm terrible at math and could never have done this! Basically, you measure off 16 squares, paint them, measure off the remaining 16 squares, and paint those! Again, I applied two coats of the green, waiting for it to thoroughly dry before applying the second blue tape grid. And here's a little tip, we all know blue tape claims it doesn't bleed, but you can never be too sure. Use an eraser to press down the blue tape to secure it all around the board. When I peeled off the tape, no bleeding!

And here is the finished product! Joel and I had a little one on one time and took advantage of  our "photo shoot" for the segment by playing a little game. It all came back to us and can't wait to get McKinley involved!

So serious about his next move!

On the flip side of the board, I painted it with chalkboard paint. Now, instead of playing competitive checkers, we can play competitive Hangman, our own version of Pictionary, or McKinley can just draw while Joel and I work in the yard. I love the versatility of this DIY backyard game board!

What do you think? Is this something you would tackle or would you just go out and buy your own game? I love that I was able to work on this with my dad and I love that when I pull this out for play, I know I made it! Next up, game night party in the backyard!

XO,
Andrea

*This Better Kansas City segment was sponsored by Home Depot. All products were supplied by Home Depot.

The River Week

We can officially check off "A Week at the River" from the summer bucket list! We got back last night and we are all well rested and just a tad sun kissed. This particular week during the summer seems to be our family reconnect trip. With very limited modern day resources like cable TV (we watch off of an antenna and no one really watches anyway) and no internet for McKinley to beg to watch any kind of video on You Tube Kids, we find ourselves doing what they used to do during the "old days", hang out together! The horror!

So what is it that we do when we're down there? We played board games everyday, some days several times a day, and I wished that I had packed more than just Sorry!, Babar, and Uno. McKinley played trucks galore, farming, hauling, and a few trucking games he has loaded on his Kindle which was the only screen time available. And there were Fla-Vor-Ice pops every afternoon!

My mom and I took to cleaning out the fridge, to make room for all the new groceries we brought with us, and found a solid yet gelatin like substance in the fridge door. According to my dad, my mom and I always seem to concoct something new and we realized it was the liquid to last years homemade Popsicles. This year, I made homemade pop-tarts! I have my own summer bucket list, which is really just a life bucket list, and on it are things I want to bake. Pop-tarts were one. I used store bought pie shells this go round, but will definitely make my own in the future. They went over well, but I know I need to make some tweaks to my recipe. 

In addition to homemade pop-tarts, McKinley made his own pizza and I made my own mosquito repellent! The week at the river is the best time for me to experiment, with McKinley being completely occupied by just about everything, giving me time to myself which doesn't happen much at home!

The river was where most of the action took place and it was the summer of firsts for McKinley. He learned to bait his own hook and reeled in a fish! Not his first fish, but the first of the trip! I missed the whole thing, because I had gone back to the car, so no photo was captured! As a result, McKinley can give you a tall-tell of how big the fish was and you can imagine just how small it was! It's the age old fisherman tale, right? In addition to learning to bait his own hook, he learned to catch crawdads on his own. At first he used a rock to scoop it into a red Solo cup. By Friday, he was picking them up from the tail to avoid being pinched. Big Johnny was the largest crawdad of the week and came back to the house every afternoon in my dad's crawdad bucket. McKinley finally released him Saturday afternoon and I'm sure he was happy to back among his family and friends. According to McKinley, he would really miss Big Johnny.

Did you know that Wimbledon was on this weekend? Well who needed ESPN? We had our own version of championship play with a little family badminton. Even Meme got in on the action. It was doubles play for about five minutes before she grew weary, and hot, and left me to fend off the boys by myself. No worries, I was victorious in my own right! We have decided a new badminton set is in our future and games will played in my parents backyard! 

 

McKinley loves to "drive" Dodgie every chance he can get. Dodgie is a 1984 Dodge Ram that he has loved since about the age of three. He's been driving it just as long. He's convinced that this poor old truck will last another eight years, allowing him the chance to drive him at the age of 16. He has big plans! Dodgie will come to KC via a flatbed truck where he and Granddaddy will restore him back to his former glory. He will then drive this truck for the rest of his teen years. Unfortunately for McKinley, this truck can barely turn over as is, so the likely hood of old Dodgie making it to KC are slim to none. At least the memory of him can live on in McKinley's heart.

Lastly, my mom and I pass the time with scratchers! I walked away $7 richer too! We sip champagne, scratch our earnings, and discuss what we will do when we really win the big money! Joel is holding out for the cool million so we can buy our lottery dream home! 

The river week is one for memories. Memories that I hope McKinley holds dear for years. I hope he recounts this time to his friends as he gets older as some of the coolest days of his youth. I hope he tells his children about all the adventures he took when he was their age, like my dad does with his own stories, and calls them best times of his life. I hope the river memories always flow.

XO,

Andrea

Peach Picking

Sometimes I wonder what my family actually thinks when I mention things like, "Let's go peach picking on Saturday." But much to my surprise, they were all game! We loaded up the car on Saturday morning, and when I say loaded up the car, I mean the three of us, rain boots in case of mud, cold water, and snacks and drove the 30 plus minutes to Gieringer's Farm. 

McKinley and I have been U-Picking here before, loading up on strawberries a couple of summers ago, but this was Joel's first visit. We took a tractor ride to the orchard, and a second ride to the peach portion of the orchard, and then got to picking. The trees were brimming with peaches and the smell of this sweet fruit was amazing! You simply picked a peach from the tree and it was like a scratch-n-sniff sticker! Heaven! And McKinley always gets in the spirit of u-pick. He travels from tree to tree, picking the "best" from each one, and claiming he'll try a bite when we get home. The latter never happens! Joel on the other hand, couldn't wait to get home and bite in. He's a huge peach fan! Too bad the old saying isn't a peach a day....

So what do we have in store for these beauties? Well, we today for a week at the river and we plan to make peach ice cream, maybe a peach pie or cobbler, and if we get enough time to slice and freeze, maybe peach preserves later this summer? I mean, we have 15 pounds of peaches. We have plenty, I think!

We decided that we needed some blueberries as well. McKinley was all about picking them with me, until he spotted the small playground on the way back from the peach orchard, so I lost my picking buddy to play. It takes a lot of patience to pick these tiny berries and I lost my steam half way through. But, I got about a pound and a half of blueberries that will be served up in pancakes and possibly muffins!

Are you a u-picker? What farms to you tend to visit during picking season? We've picked strawberries at Johnson Farms in Belton, MO and apples at Cider Hill Family Orchard in Kansas City, KS. And after you've picked, what do you do with the fruit? We love to can apple butter, bake just about anything for dessert, but I also love to use frozen berries in smoothies. Nothing like fresh fruits!

XO,

Andrea