Tool Love

Do I ever get bored?  NO! : )
I took Clay to his new doctor's appointment (got no solutions, but got a new appointment in two weeks-I think it's time for her to make a plan, read up on him, and have some solutions..), and then ran errands.  I tried to find some sleds, but no one had any.  The nice man at Wal-Mart (his belt said Arliss, so I think that's his name?), told me THEY used to make things, not buy them!  I asked him how, and he set about telling me how to make a sled with a 2x4 and a 1x10.  I told him that sounded great, and I had some saws, so we were in business!  After school, I took the kids to Lowe's.  Here are my monkeys at the store:

Total Gymnasts on the cart.  We looked like a side-show.

Yes, they really are mine.

And, we got to work.  I unloaded my groceries and the wood, then moved the van out of the garage.  We needed Work Space.  Our original plan had been to make two sleds, and the kids said they'd share, but then they wanted to paint them, and it was going to be hard since Ethan loves green.  He really wanted his own.  I changed the plan from two decent-sized sleds to three little sleds (the wood was kinda heavy anyway!).
First, I cut the two 2x4's into thirds to give us six runners.  I cut them on 45 degree angles to glide down the hill easier.  I used my handy chop saw:

You can tell I thought of it after the fact, notice all the sawdust?

Next, I had the kids mark the long 1x4's every 13 5/8" to make 14 slats.  They were going to be right next to each other, but we had to spread them out since we changed the plan to 3 sleds.  I pulled out the big table saw-such fun!  Yes, the kids stayed over by the doors while I was cutting. : )

It's probably wrong how much I love my tools, and look for a reason to use them.

Then the kids' fun began.  I let them set up the sleds how they wanted.  Clay was very 'into' evenly spacing the slats.

Ethan was just happy to be getting a sled!  (Mary Claire was the photographer this afternoon!)

Ethan wanted to use screws, but my corded drill had a locked-up chuck, and my cordless drill was smoking!  So we switched to nails.

Clay hammering with my big hammer.  (My little one is pink and black.  Totally matched me.)

They are done, and awaiting paint.

I got tired, started feeling sick (that's why I didn't post last night), so we didn't paint them.  We knew snow was coming, so we had to pick them up and pull the van in.  Ches didn't complain, but he wanted to know what we'd built when he got home.
Umm..sleds?  Are they that goofy looking that you can't tell?  We're counting on a big snow! : )