Rubber bands...

A few days ago at dinner Dad commented that there was nothing that the Hipps kids could not destroy or laugh at. In response, we pounded on our cracked dinner plates with our silverware and roared with laughter. I have been thinking about how clever of a quote it was (and how very true) and last night I was summoned outside to watch the newest invention/amusement. It proves at least the latter part of what Dad said, we can be amused by just about anything. I think in this case most of my readership will also be amused....

They called it the human slingshot but I think a more apt name is the giant rubber band snap. First, you get into the loop made out of inner tubes and get a lot of siblings to hold the other end.

Then you crawl like crazy one direction while they pull the other direction. Physics majors, you can start laughing now. Everyone else, keep reading.

When you have crawled whatever the group of siblings judges to be a sufficient distance, they will all yell and let go of their end. This causes you to do two things. One, suddenly you will have zero resistance and hence go flying in the direction you were originally moving. Two, get a giant snap on your backside from the part of the inner tube the siblings were holding. Of course, both of these reactions cause the siblings and all bystanders to laugh hysterically.

And this is where we prove we are the Hipps and there is nothing we can't laugh at. It also tends to cause whoever was getting snapped to roll around in the grass also laughing hysterically. I took a few short videos for the benefit of anyone desirous of attempting this awesome trick at home. Side note to these people, we would suggest wearing a few extra pairs of underwear...




While I refer to this trick as the human slingshot in this video, as previously mentioned the name was changed after observing it a few times. Please note Rosie's response, a typical Hipps laugh...

And there you have it. Ingenuity and old inner tubes meet again. When I was a kid we used them to roll each other down hills, but I guess we also had bigger inner tubes back then. :D