Couch to Smokies finishes up with parchuting

Well, like Murphy's law dictates, my Couch to Smokies series did not go as well as anticipated.  I was relying on great weather for many long walks and runs but we have been plagued with rain.  Today I was forced to turn on my creative juices to get them moving and let me tell you, it took a power juicer to get them going.  Something about the rain just makes me want to curl up in bed with a good book; as if I've even been able to do that since having kids. I fought through that urge, poured an extra cup of coffee and decided to have a jumping contest.  Every good jumping contest needs a parachute, right?  This is what we did...

 I started with an old pillow case (obviously I haven't finished simplifying my house since I have random pillow cases sitting around).  I cut the pillow case in half.

Then we painted them.  Sorry for the blurry picture, I guess I moved.

It's interesting to see the difference between the art work of a 6 year old...

compared to his 17 months younger 4 year old sister

After they dried, I was forced to venture outside to get some sticks for the handles.  I used my nifty Pampered Chef scissors to trim them.  I love these scissors as they cut through anything!

We used two sticks per parachute to make two handles.  I just took the stick and placed it on one of the corners

I then rolled it up to see how far I needed to go to cut my handle slit

I then cut a slit just above my roll

I then rolled duct tape (because it holds anything) around the stick to make a firm handle

See, nothing fancy here but it's sturdy

The kiddos grabbed the handles, held the chutes above their heads, and jumped!

Over, and over again

Lots of fun and great exercise! Rooster was the longest jumper but one could guess that given how big he is.  They asked if they could keep their chutes as if I had just created some forbidden toy!