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Gun Slinging Haleys

Zack attended Camp Skeeter which is something his school does for all third graders at the end of every school year. The kids fabric paint a shirt with the logo of a bug and the camp title, make things to buy in the "depot" with bucks they earn during the year for being good, and this year they also made marshmallow guns. Zack came home with the prototype, Seth wanted one, and Daddy came through with a trip to Lowe's.

In fact, we all got one! We used a pipe cutter clamp thingy to cut the long piece of pvc pipe which Josh had already purchased for a previous manly project with our neighbor John. We cut our own (except Seth... he asked for help) pipe and then put our own gun together with fittings, following Zack's model. And then Josh got out the electrical tape to decorate his and the kids followed suit. I got out the scrapbook stickers to decorate mine and Seth followed my inspiration. Any project is made better with stickers, right? Unless you're going for the military-I'll-woop-you-don't-mess-with-me look.

Here are the measurements to ours and the pics (all except Zack's... maybe he took his back to school today) so you can go make your own. Make sure all the fittings are slip style and not threaded. Also, we bought all the fittings in bags of 10... it's cheaper... and we just need another pvc pipe to make one for Zoe when she gets bigger.

• 1 straight piece at 7.25 inches, pvc pipe 1/2 inch
• 6 straight pieces at 3.25 inches, pvc pipe 1/2 inch (or you can make one longer for your forward grip like I did... mine was the last one to be cut, so I just left the extra inch or so that was leftover)
• 2 caps, 1/2 inch slip
• 2 elbows, 1/2 inch slip
• 2 tees, 1/2 inch slip

If you live in my area, Kroger is having a sale on mini marshmallows which are needed for ammo. Marshmallows as ammo... talk about an oxymoron, but those soft and seemingly harmless pellets hurt when they're blown hard by these weapons. Oh, I forgot to say how to load ammo... put a mini marshmallow in the mouth piece and then blow. Simple, yeah? You would think that you need to plug the hole going back to the back grip, but you don't need to worry. The capped end provides the pressure needed to blow the ammo out the tube that doesn't have a cap.

Another tip... push the marshmallow in a little bit so that it doesn't touch your tongue before you blow. It keeps the marshmallows from getting sticky so you can use them again and it keeps you from inhaling them accidentally so you don't choke and die.

One more tip...play outside. I'm paranoid that we have forgotten mini marshmallows in our living room. When they're wet and somebody steps on them, they are hard to get out of the carpet.

On second thought... marshmallows are nasty little buggers.