Monday, May 30, 2011

Ga-Ga Ball

On Mother's Day we made a trip into Waterloo and bought some lumber to build a Ga-Ga Ball Pit.  It took us about an hour to build.  You just can't beat the Clark Assembly Line when building things.  I think we've gotten our money's worth out of it already.


You can find the official Wikipedia Ga-Ga Ball rules here.  Our kids learned to play at IRBC.


We enjoy it because the whole family can play.  The big boys are usually nice about letting the little ones get their fair share of game time.




Jumping to avoid the ball.


One of the main hazards of the game is bloody knuckles.  We've invested in a super-sized box of bandaids.


Hudson getting in on the action.


The agony of defeat.

Chase wrote this endearing message with his blood...


Macklin gets to watch from outside the pit.



We were hoping to have nice weather for Alex's graduation open house so the little kids could be outside playing.  Unfortunately, it was rainy, so we didn't get to share that day.  We have had a couple opportunities for friends to come over and play since then.

Wanna come play?



"Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession."  Proverbs 28:10

5 comments:

Caitlin K said...

YES I WANT TO COME PLAY!!! Too bad we live so far away..Might have to convince Mom to make a day of coming to visit. :)
~Caitlin

Unknown said...

Could you post a pic of how you built the gate -- or do they just climb over? By the little guys' pic watching from the outside I see a 4x4 -- what was that used for? THanks!

Unknown said...

Did you guys make a gate or do they just climb over? Also, in the pic of the little guy watching from the outside I see what looks like a 4x4 piece of lumber intead of the other 2x4s -- could you tell me what that was used for or post a pic? Thanks -- we are trying to build one for our church.

Shannon/Jodi said...

We made it completely out of 8' 2X4's. We used hinges to attach 2 'walls' together, and made (4) sets for 8 total walls. Those (4) sets are then attached with hinges that we are able to take the pins out of, making it easier to come apart and transport. We take it to church occasionally. The vertical supports are 36", and there are (5) horizontal boards per wall. We did not make a gate. They simply climb over. I believe we used 2-1/2" - 3" screws to attach everything together. We put it together in just a short amount of time. There was minimal cutting, and we set it up "assembly line" fashion. With a couple power drivers going, it went together pretty quickly. We've had it for a couple years now, and it's still going strong. It sits outside all winter long. We've used it both on grass and in the basement of our church. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Shannon/Jodi said...

If I remember correctly we bought (40) 8' 2X4s for the horizontal supports, and (12) 6' 2X4s for the vertical supports which were then cut in half, using (3) per wall. We determined out spacing, then cut blocks of scrap 2X4 to put between the horizontal boards while we screwed them to the verticals. That way we didn't have to measure each one. We used two hinges for each joint. The lumber was pretty cheap. We used treated lumber because we knew it would be outside most of the time. The hinges got a bit pricey. We used 3" hinges. We used cheaper ones on the fixed joints. The ones with the removable pins were slightly more expensive.