How to make your own balance beam

Katy wanted a balance beam to practice on at home but I balked at the $150-$300 price tag... So we made our own! Total cost of materials was $26, Katy said, "that's awesome" when I told her how much money we saved.

First we needed a trip to Hobby Lobby...

(flowers were not purchased in the making of the balance beam.)

I got some batting from Hobby Lobby and some suede fabric that kind of looked like the material covering the balance beams at her gym.

Then it was off to Home Depot to see what we could find to use for the inside. We looked through all the lumber aisles and then finally found the perfect beam and lo and behold it was only $7!  Katy made sure to test it out in the aisle by cartwheeling on it 😄

When we got home with all of the materials and started assembling it I felt like the batting I had gotten wouldn't offer enough padding so I dug through my craft supplies in the attic and found enough thick felt to put in there too.

I assembled all the layers with some basting spray and then stapled them on the underside and ends, making sure to pull taut as I went. Then I put the top suede layer on top.

I did end up with a seam at the one part because I didn't want to buy yards and yards of the fabric... but Katy has decided she likes the seam because then she knows when to dismount so alls well that ends well :)

as you can tell she's very happy with it :P  It's light enough that she can carry it upstairs to practice on too.

Katy also got a little treasure pouch of her own, she had been borrowing one of Jo's for a while... for some reason Jo had two and Katy had none!

I had been ordering lots of things from Amazon for Christmas gifts and this jingle bell collar for the goat just magically jumped into my cart too!

He's such a cutie.

The last day of November we went with friends to the annual treasure/scavenger hunt in Intercourse, PA.  This year 10 businesses were participating. You go in to each business, solve a riddle and then receive a prize.  Some of the businesses are very generous with their prizes. One of our favorite places is this candy shop. They have a whole spread for "hunters" that includes candy and hot chocolate and then they even give you free fudge samples!

We always end up buying something in this store so hopefully their generosity pays off for them :)

Intercourse is a really cute touristy town and we enjoyed going into the various shops in the town.

You can walk to all of the places except for the last two. The greenhouse usually has a craft to make and take.

All three kids were able to go this year, last year we missed Chase because he was off hunting with Ricky.

They made "snowman soup" at the one candle shop we stopped at and Katy made hers when we got home and took these cute pictures :)