POOL NOODLE RACE TRACK...

I'm pretty sure I saw this idea a while ago, but just never got around to buying the supplies.  But after reviewing projects to do this summer with my boys, I knew it was time to make the Pool Noodle Race Track...

So I went back and looked at this one over at Home Spun Threads, and this one at My Little Gems.  My initial intention, was to make it for cars, but the noodle I purchased at the Dollar Tree didn't have a big enough center hole, so I had to improvise.  Luckily, I had some 3/4" wooden beads in my craft supply stash - and they worked perfectly.

But of course, we couldn't just leave them plain wood... the boys went to town on them with washable markers, but after handling and playing with them for sometime, it seemed that their little hands were permanently dyed - thank Heavens for washable.

Normally, I would go over the top on a project like this... for instance, I would have had "Start" / "Finish" flags, and I probably would have covered the mailing box with something.  But instead, I actually took into account my boys track record of how quickly they can destroy something, so I didn't waste the time on things that would have looked great for photographs, but they could care less about.

It was a HUGE HIT!!  In this photo, I just know they are saying...

"Mommy, you're the BEST!!"

And of course, they totally proved me wrong and didn't destroy it... YET!