In response to sickness and the Ohio weather shifting from mid 70s to upper 30s overnight, we present to you some indoor fun…
**drumroll please**
Marshmallow poppers!
I like to keep a little bank of fun games for cabin fever, rainy days, and the newest addition to our family: the Kindergarten sick times.
We love this one because it packs a lot of punch for such a simple idea.
Here’s how we did it:
You’ll need:
Party cups
Mini marshmallows
Balloons (how cute are these emoji balloons
Rubber bands
Step 1: Cut a hole in the bottom of the party cup. My scissors weren’t quite the jabbing kind, so Husband got out his man knife and sliced right into it like butter. I know this made him feel both heroic and quite manly.
Step 2: Cut the round top off the balloon, and tie the end you’d normally tie off if you were to blow it up.
Step 3: Pull balloon over the cut end of the cup and use the rubber band or hair tie to keep it secure.
Step 4: Place mini marshmallow inside the hole that forms when you pull back gently on the knotted end of the balloon, and let it fly!
If you were thinking to yourself, “I wonder what would happen if my kid stealthily walked up behind me and shot at my back at close range?” I’m here to tell you, friend, surprising as this may sound, you don’t wanna know.
“But Momma, I was just trying to scare you!”
Well done, son. You absolutely did.
We learned that when creating shooting devices, we should probably follow our sling shot rules.
“All clear!”
Please don’t repeat my rookie mistakes and end up with a little red marshmallow mark on your skin. You’ll look like the girl who couldn’t remember to warn her kids to please not shoot anyone with their marshmallows.
*This has been a public service announcement.*
We played a couple different games with it, but what surprised me most was that they were totally okay with playing this little homemade skin blaster for quite some time.
You know who else loved it?
Hattie Bat, our Husky. She is quite the marshmallow enthusiast and was such an engaged participant.
You haven’t met the pup yet? Meet Hattie AKA Hatherine AKA Hattie Bat AKA Hattie, NO!
Don’t let that face fool you. She’s Quick Draw McGraw if there’s a marshmallow on the floor.
She loved it.
The boys not so much.
They were not quite as excited about it as she ate their ammo before they could get to it. She’s fast. I mean, you’ve seen her chase a squirrel, kids.
They’ve got to learn to hustle some time. Why not marshmallow shooter day?
Handy tip for marshmallow popping: keep a close eye on the young one. He’ll shoot your eye out.
Disclaimer: If you hate a mess and don’t like little marshmallows all over your house, this will most likely make your eye twitch.
Disclaimer 2: If you shudder when your children pick things up off the floor and eat them, keep handing them new marshmallows to shoot until they’re done. Then, offer a grand prize clean marshmallow to each kid after all the floor marshmallows are picked up and handed safely to you. I tend to err on the “a little dirt don’t hurt” side of things, but you make it work for you 🙂
I liked that the target practice let Cohen work with a few numbers, and if I was really a thinker, I could’ve let him use the calculator to add up his score. He loves playing with the calculator…I’ll definitely try that next time!
I hope you love this game as much as we do!
Enjoy!
~Andrea 🙂
