Last summer, I saw a bunch of ideas of things to do with pool noodles, including this great list, so I bought a bunch at the dollar store while they were in season.  They mostly sat in the kid’s closet until this weekend (minus that one time that we made a marble run out of one of them).  This weekend we were supposed to have good weather, so I decided it was a good time to get them out of the closet and into the backyard.  I couldn’t figure out how other people had attached their noodles to the ground, but then I ran across garden staples and it all made sense.  I did a little graphic of how I did mine, it’s far too simple to call it a tutorial, but I thought I’d share anyway.

1.  The first thing I did isn’t actually pictured here, I cut the noodles in half with a kitchen knife (be careful!).  I figured then we’d have twice as many hurdles and maybe they’d be a bit easier to bend into the half circle shape.  Then, I took my half noodles and garden staples outside.

2. I threaded the garden staple through the bottom of the noodle, leaving at least an inch at the bottom so hopefully they don’t rip through, but there’s still enough staple to go into the ground.  The garden stakes are pointy, so it’s good to do this part without help and to use these with supervision to make sure the pointy part stays in the ground.  We didn’t have any problems with this, but you know, safety first and all that. 😉

3. I stuck the staple in the ground and repeated for the other side of the noodle.

4. I continued to place them haphazardly around the yard, then let the kids come out to play!

They did all sorts of things with this set up all afternoon!  They kicked balls under it, played “croquet” with a plastic golf set we have, jumped over them, and crawled under them.  They resulted in a lot of cheap fun and at the end of the day are easily taken down to be played with again another day.  We have a small yard that doesn’t allow for any sort of playscape, so I’m always on the look out for things that can allow for a different kind of play in the backyard to keep them occupied back there.  This is one I think we can bring out over and over again!