KIDS WITH HAMMERS

This last Christmas we got Cooper a tool kit (a nice 14-piece beginner kit from Lowe's). he's had a Handy Manny plastic tool set that has familiarized him with the names of the different tools. But a while ago he figured out that the tape measure didn't work, and that you can't do too much with a plastic hammer. Since Christmas, his tool set has been sitting on our tool bench in the garage, just waiting for something cool to do. We've talked about building a car race ramp, kinda like the Pinewood Derby style, or like the one they have at the Lego Store... but it seemed like a bit too big of a task to be our first official project. But on a quick trip over to Lowe's, I saw a sign about their BUILD & GROW series. Build & Grow provides clinics for kids to learn about woodworking, and the best part is THEY ARE FREE. cool, right? I was pretty stoked to see the next clinic would be building your own miniature GRAVE DIGGER Monster Truck. The Grave Digger has always been one of my favorite Monster Trucks, but that's another story. 

The clinics usually take place around 10am on Saturdays, so we hurried over there before opening day of our baseball season, and lined up. They have the option to register on their site, which guarantees you a free project pack, or you can just arrive as a 'walk up'. They provide you with a free apron to keep, and a hammer to borrow, and when you finish up the clinic they give you a patch commemorating the project to throw on your apron. We took ours home so that we could use all of our own tools and have some more space (really just so we wouldn't be late to baseball). Cooper ended up hammering all the nails in(!) then we threw the stickers on, and we had our own GRAVE DIGGER! STOKED! 

Check out your local LOWE'S Build & Grow site for their upcoming clinics. There's another Monster Truck build this weekend, so we'll be there for sure!