monday funday: cardboard car tutorial

O.M.G. will this cold weather EVER end???  i simply cannot take much more of my 3 year old cooped up in this house.  he NEEDS to be outside to play to get this energy out and there doesn't seem to be an indoor activity that quite meets the same need.  today i noticed our lazy inside slump and decided to mix it up.  the first thing i did was retrieve the giant box of toys that holden got for christmas that we just put out there until he was actually playing with toys.  a few new items and we had a happy baby! (as well as a happy 3 year old who seems to enjoy the baby toys as much as anyone).  the giant box i was left with reminded me of a project i had just read about in a parenting magazine, so off we went on our journey of making the box into...a CAR!

first i taped up the box completely

then i used a box cutter to make the windshield (by cutting off half the top and folding) and then cutting out the opening to see through.  i also cut out a "door" to make it easier to get in.

next i used the box cutter to make "wheels" out of styrofoam plates

and added them to the car

then came the steering wheel, also made from a styrofoam plate.  i even re-purposed a plastic piece that i just got from taking one of holden's toys out of it's box to attach it so it actually turns!

here's carter taking it for a test drive (whoops--the steering wheel needed attached a little better i guess)

there was even room for a little passenger (my niece claire) :-)

we almost forgot to put on the headlights!  the article recommended using red plastic cups, but since we didn't have any of those, styrofoam bowls it was.

the last thing to do was decorate and make it more fun.  carter thought it was pretty fun to have his hand painted and then put it on the back.  then after painting for about 20 seconds, carter left the job to me to finish and so i just brushed some color all over

not the most attractive thing i've ever seen (or made for that matter) but it added some variation to our day.  if only we could get some better weather, because carter would very much like to "drive his car to the park." :-D