Handy Riley

Riley and I went to a building workshop at Home Depot, just us girls. The last time we attempted to participate in a workshop it was at a competing hardware store and I was outnumbered 2:1. It took place in December so the kids weren't following their normal schedules. I shouldn't have been surprised that a newly 10yr old Isaac had a meltdown when the nails didn't just jump into place themselves. It doesn't rank among my favorite parenting moments. The experience led me to two conclusions: 1) Home Depot Kids Workshops are better and 2) Isaac was not invited to anymore building workshops.

I'm often amazed at the tiny human I produced. She loves tools, craft projects, gardening and having her independence recognized. She is such a great mix of her father and I. She's my partner in adventure. This little trip was no different. We went to build a wooden herb planter. Home Depot even provided a packet of seeds to plant in it. Miss Roo and I arrived right on time and got a space right up front. It was bit of a balancing act with Roo, my purse, my crutches, and tools/materials. Everyone was extremely helpful. It was a very straight forward project. Riley was thrilled to wield the tiny screwdriver they provided.

Once it was together it was time to paint! You better believe Little Miss was excited. She used a whole rainbow of colors (mostly pinks) and did her best to cover every inch of her planter. While her masterpiece dried we tossed rings and bean bags. It was incredibly pleasant morning. Riley earned a certificate and a pin for completing the workshop. She chose a packet of rosemary seeds. My little builder was as pleased as she could be with the finished product.

Building Workshop FAIL

So, I took the kids to Lowes this morning to build Santa's sleigh. I was on my own because Mike was smoking ribs for Isaac's party. We got there early and discovered we had to go inside and all the way to the back corner of the store. That was my parking spot choice fail, oops. They had a piece of plywood propped up on buckets for a table and buckets for chairs. Low to the ground seating, Lowes (small) fail. Then we waited for someone to check us in we were 3rd in line. They gave me kits, but no aprons, fail! Apparently there weren't enough goggles to go around either. They just seemed less organized.

We were super excited to build Santa's sleigh and much to Riley's delight the only tool for this project was a hammer. They had tiny kid sized hammers, very cute. We started out excited, but it was a challenging project. I mis-hammered and bent a nail and hit my thumb, my double fail. Riley happily hammered next to me while I floundered starting her project. This time there weren't several store employees helping just one and he stayed at the first table, fail.

About 20mins in I looked over and Isaac was red faced and glassy eyed. I told him to take a deep breath and congratulated him on being halfway done. I'd still only gotten the first nail in and was wishing I had 4 hands. When I looked back it was clear he had not taken a breath. I got Riley's project situated and was getting ready to examine his when he exploded into tears! FAIL.

I told him to pack it up and tried to explain to Riley we'd finish at home. That made it worse and now everyone was staring at the lady with the crutches trying to scramble up from her too low bucket and collect her hysterical kid. Nice. I get Riley packed up and following me and I slow down to check that Isaac is with us when I bump into a friend of mine and her 3 beautiful (well behaved) children. I greeted them and explained we needed to make a quick exit glancing back at Isaac still having a fit behind me and flashed them my bloody thumb. I can't imagine what they must think of me. I can't imagine what any of the other parents thought.

Off we went for the long trek back through the store with Isaac sobbing and Riley yelling at him at a torturous crutch walking speed. Sigh. When we got to the car he had calmed down and I informed him he would not join us for any more of those. He apologized to Riley. She went home and finished her sleigh with Daddy and the big hammer. I put Isaac's away for another time.

I don't have any pictures from sleigh building, but here are the kids napkin holders with fancy Thanksgiving napkins in them!

Can we build it?

Yes, we can!!

We went to the Home Depot building workshop today. We'd never been before and I was excited for Riley to build something with real tools. 9am is a little early on a Saturday, but it was free. We went to build turkey napkin holders for our Thanksgiving table.

I was nervous because it was a first come, first serve deal and we were a few minutes late. It was fine though. They were very nice. I filled out a very short form and they wrote each kids name on a snazzy orange apron. The supplies were in shrink wrapped kits and all the necessary tools were set out on a handful of tables.

Unfortunately, my phone froze up when we got there so I didn't get any pictures during the building process. Riley was thrilled to screw the pieces together. She also thoroughly enjoyed painting it. They had a separate long table with washable paint, plates, foam brushes and wet wipes. Isaac skipped the turkey they provided completely and tried to paint one. It turned into a peacock. We will have a Thanksgiving peacock on the table this year. Jealous? You should be.

The real A+, not that I wasn't already impressed, was that they had games for the kids to play while the paint dried. Football toss, beanbag toss and ring toss. Well done, Home Depot. We left with two beautiful napkin holders, two orange aprons, two coloring pages, two bags of popcorn and a free plant. The plant was for joining the garden club. Now we'll get home depot coupons.

Riley's only compliant besides not wanting to go home was that she didn't get to hammer anything. Isaac, who initially didn't want to go, had a good time too. When we got home he kept his apron on for an hour. Adorable.

Click the pictures to see them bigger