Backyard Mini Golf...

...or as I like to call it recyclable mini golf!

The goal here was to make a miniature golf course in the common area of our neighborhood out of recyclable things. I started with a table full of cereal boxes and empty food containers. The best part of this project was the grand total for making it was exactly $0. That's right FREE!

 

I cut them, and folded them, into tunnels and arches. Then painted them red with a can of old spray paint. I took the long white tubes from the picture above and cut two notches in the end and put a piece of stiff rectangle of cardboard between them to make some gold clubs.

 

 

I added in a few of the toys we already had around the house. The multicolored baby ball funnel, as I like to call it, and some tracks from my son's Mario Kart Kinects set were both useful to make golf holes. I can't for the life of me remember what those things are called right now. Hazards? Traps? Contraptions? I can't think. Throw in some electrical tape and some dollar store pool noodles and we have a golf course. The key here is being creative and using things you already have.

 

Just for fun and to add a little order to the chaos that is children, I made little colored flags out of 12 inch bamboo kitchen skewers and sticky back foam sheets.

 

The balls we used came from various sets; from a real golf ball from my honey moon, to the colorful balls that go with the multicolored baby ball funnel. I also used the bamboo skewers to add support and hold things in place.

 

 

I used the skewers to hold noodles in the ground and empty cheese, yogurt, and bread crumb containers to make the 'holes.' The biggest problem we ran into was the grass hadn't been cut in a while so it was a bit hard to get the ball through the grass to the hole. If I were doing it at my own home I would recommend making sure the grass has just been cut before doing this.

 

 

However, we did this in the community common area in our neighborhood and set up quite a few holes on the cement basketball court and it was much easier there.

 

 

It was fun, more so for the youngest children. Also, most of these children had never played min golf before today. Eventually it turned into kids rolling the balls by hand and making ball launchers out of the tube golf clubs. Oh, the creativity of children far exceeds what I expected. It was also good to have my husband and younger son come out and say hello.

 

 

Grand Total = FREE!

 

Tune in tomorrow to make Payday Candy Bars with us!