Not crazy - just ambitious! I have no suggestions - sorry! Never tried any of those projects. I bought a little wooden bridge from Christmas Tree Shops for DD (age 3) -painted it up in bright kid colors and made a faux stream bed out of the rocks in the yard. DD just loves going back and forth over the bridge. I DO have plans for planting on either side of the bridge so that it seems like you HAVE to go over the bridge. Making a sunflower wall on either side - the plants are just seedlings now... As for the sandbox - do you want fancy or simple? Why not get some lumber and simply make a BOX? Add some supports and the canopy. No plans - just some measuring

Many of my ideas were hit by frugalwallflower and katlan. Personally, I don't like giving books unless the person is an avid reader who reads books many times over or are a book collector and you know what they want. Except of course something like coloring books or if they like the crossword puzzle books, word search* or something. Otherwise, books are the poster child for one-use clutter if they get used once. Why teach kids that? Cash is still a great gift. Gift cards are a distant second or third since so many gift cards just don't get used. Do you bake? With your handle, I assume you do. That age group loves cookies, bars, Krispie bars, brownies and much more. Nothing to be ashamed of giving a gift of food. Or mix it in with some of the other ideas. The real young with a coloring book, crayons or colored pencils and a plateful of goodies? Few wouldn't be in hog heaven. Younger would probably like Old Maid cards, and I don't know what classic board games go for these days but there might be an option too. The youngest ones should be very easy to stay under the $10 mark, even under $5 if you want to go the purchased present way. Older ones? Well, keep in mind they might be approaching driving age. Something for the car if they have one. A key fob, first aid kit or even tools. If they have a car, floor mats are usually needed. It's late to start now but if you're near Menards or Ace Hardware you can buy a lot of stuff free after rebate or super cheap after rebate. Examples, 25' tape measure, wrench sets, screwdriver sets, hats, t-shirts, etc. Flashlights are a great gift too. The little LED ones that go on a keyring are handy and useful. A decent flashlight is usable by most anyone. Other ideas for the older, near driving age, is an ice scraper for northern climate or sunshade for southern. Both can be had for a couple dollars. I'd say fire up the stove and oven. And look for some things they might need or find useful. I might sound like a broken record at times but I really believe in avoiding the trash presents, meaning the ones that are a waste of money since they won't be used, or won't be used more than once and will just wind up in the dumpster. Food and cash, most always get used and are still appreciated far more than the stores and "shopping addicted" want people to believe. *One year as part of the gift I made up some word search puzzles and gave to the kids and had a little contest. I made the younger ones easier puzzles than the older ones. WordPerfect had a feature in it that let you set up the puzzle and it would fill in random letters in the blank spaces so it was easy. I had a 1st, 2nd & 3rd place prize of $3, $2 an $1. (there were 3 kids so each got a token cash prize and I planned a small gift for each so each actually got the intended prize, but it was down as a prize for winning. They loved it.

Well, I don't know that this works perfectly, but it gets at least somewhat of everything you want. Perhaps that is enough?The family entrance to the home is in the side. Enter there, and you'll pass the 5' x 5' half bath (with a window!) and a closet and hooks on the back of the pantry and/or on the long stairwell wall. Not the most elaborate mudroom or half bath ever, but it's more than you have now. If you would like to trade traffic flow for a bigger closet, you could always close off the entrance to dining/kitchen areas from the mudroom. (If you're carrying groceries, you'd probably enter the house through the deck doors anyway.) Like this: In addition to the half bath and mudroom, this plan also gains you a big kitchen with an island that is not a corridor kitchen. Moreover, though you cannot see the entire living room from the island, you can see the entire dining room and about half of the living room: Note that, though the living room does not change in size, it has a new traffic pattern running into it from the new hallway. This will shift any natural living room furniture layouts to the right. Does that leave you enough room for a decent furniture layout?

I have found that sweet banana pepper will produce through most of the summer, where bell peppers only make in early summer and late fall. My kids like both, some prefer one over the other. Also, use a high quality potting mix, not potting soil. Anything with soil on the name is meant for the yard and probably will not drain well. You can add pine bark to help stretch the mix to lower the cost. I would not go more than 3 to 1 (3 pine bark to 1 potting mix). Peppers do well in 5 gallon containers. Tomatoes need 15 to 20 gallons unless they are a true dwarf like Red Robin. That tomato will only get 8 to 12 inches tall and can be grown in gallon size containers. You would have to order seed to grow them.