Hurray for powertools!!

Since part of my hours taking care of Baby are spent here at my house I've been looking to buy some toys. Grant it, he's been very entertained by our pets, empty boxes, broom and dust pan and the magnets on the frig. I imagined a little wicker basket kept in the corner full of pretty little toys that he can pull out and play with, blocks, little animals, balls. I've been looking in the toy aisles of every store I go into. WOW! Its been eye-opening!!! First of all, cheap,crappy plastic toys are EXPENSIVE!! I can't even find decent, sturdy, classic, simple toys anywhere local. Online, they are outrageously priced. Target at least had a few wooden, non-battery-operated options but they were WAY out of my price range.

I decided to take things into my own hands. I'm making my own. DH has access to tons (literally) of scrap wood at his work. I had him bring me some pieces home. My first project is to make a set of wooden blocks. Looking around the Internet for some inspiration, I noticed lots of places selling little wooden cut-outs of animals and people. That will be project #2. Cars and vehicles, I think, will be project #3. I saw a beautiful wooden horse and cart set I'd like to try an make. Hey, if I can't have the real thing, I'll just make one out of wood!

So, we're at Menards yesterday afternoon pricing scroll saws. $99 and its a BIG piece of machinery. I have NO idea where we would set this monster up at to use. Little disappointed, but hey, we really don't NEED a scroll saw to do what we're thinking of, but it would have made it a little easier and alot more fun. Son#1 and I are wandering through the aisles when we come upon the Dremal section. I love Dremals. I've been wanting one for over a year now. I'm looking (and lusting in my heart just a little for one) at them and I see this handy-dandy attachment that you can buy that *WA-LAA* will turn ones Dremal into a jig saw.
*SCORE!!!*
For the same price as the big, clunky scroll saw I now own the biggest,baddest Dremal on the market that can not only saw wood it can do a zillion other things as well, we might just be able to do our own dental work with this puppy now! KIDDING, KIDDING!!!! Plus when we're done with it, it all stores back inside its handy-dandy own little case that can sit on a garage shelf and not take up much room at all.


image courtesy here

Got home with it last night and the boys went to town breaking it in and trying it all out. All 3 of them stayed out in the garage well past dark, working together (oh thank You, LORD! Those 3 hours of peace,cooperation and brotherly love were worth the price alone!!) planning, drawing, experimenting and making various sorts of wooden weaponry. We reading The Lord of the Rings in school this year, so there was a whole lotta discussion going on about creating the various characters weapons. There are 2 plywood battle axes drying their glue on my dining room table this morning and I heard of all sorts of plans in the making for long swords, short swords, daggers, scabbards and ninja throwing stars.

All I wanted were some wooden building blocks........