Ninja Warrior Course

So before "all of this" aka COVID happened, Cooper was supposed to go to preschool one day a week at Obstacle Warrior Kids.  We had taken him a few times to play there last year and he always loved it, so we thought it would be a good place for him to learn and play.  But we pretty quickly decided we weren't going to be doing any preschool (or most of our activities) this Fall.  So I had the idea to build our own Ninja Warrior obstacles for the backyard.  I found several plans on Pinterest and we bought the wood and supplies through Home Depot's curbside pick up and got to work.

We knocked out a lot of it over Labor Day weekend.  David measured and marked up the wood and together we cut it and screwed everything together.  We still have a few more things to do, but this was a start.

1. A long plank.  This is an 8 foot piece of pressure treated wood that we marked up every foot.  The intention is to cut it into 8 12"x12" pieces for Cooper to jump to, but we didn't get to that yet and he wanted to include it in the course-- he loves walking on it.

2. A balance beam.  A 8 foot long 4x4 with 2x4 supports screwed in

3. The easiest and cheapest obstacles.  $1 pool noodles from Walmart held up with pens.  We have a plethora of extra pens in our house, so I stuck them in the ground and the noodle ends fit over them.  I did the red ones further apart for a lower obstacle to jump over and the blue ones closer together as an obstacle to crawl under.

4. The floating steps.  These are at the beginning of most ninja warrior courses so we wanted to include them.  The top is plywood measuring 24"x16" and the legs are 2x4s.  We have enough wood to make 2 more so we'd have 6 total steps but 4 was a good start.

5. Rock climbing holds on our tree.  I had had my eye on some rock climbing holds and recently found these on sale on Amazon, so I used a gift card to buy a set.  You put the holds on the included rope and then it has equipment to ratchet it tightly around the tree.  Very easy to put up.  Cooper will only climb these with help right now, but he really enjoys them!

It was so fun seeing him enjoy the obstacles we created!  Looking forward to lots of time to play in our backyard this Fall!