The Playset

Nearly everyday for the past six months Lucy has asked for a play set. She's not dumb. The park is a daunting experience for me. I can't take both kids by myself; they both need lots of help and play on different equipment. So that left our front yard and cul-de-sac. I'd been jonesin' for a play set just as much as Lucy. We've been looking and researching for months. We finally decided with the one at Lowes. Other places we were looking charged about $1,000 more to put it together. We were all for saving a $1,000, so we bit the bullet and bought it. I was dreading the whole experience. All those pieces. And what were we going to do with the kids while we put it together? How long would it really take to put it all together? And would Dave and I still be talking after it was all said and done?

Saturday morning we decided we were going to do it. It was a hundred degrees, literally, and we decided to build a play set. What were we thinking? The good thing is that our backyard is shaded. The closest Lowe's didn't have the tower. So we drove to the one in East Cary. The boxes barely fit in the van. When we got home Gus took a nap, Lucy tried. She was so incredibly excited that we finally got a play set, she could not contain herself. At one point she went and put her purple necklace on and said, "I'm getting weady foe my pway set." Because, of course, we're supposed to dress up when we first meet our play set! It took over an hour to sort the pieces. Meanwhile, our neighbors four kids came over to help. Dave was so incredibly patient. It really amazed me how he could think and focus with all that chatter going on around him. One neighbor came over at just the right time to get everything level for the tower. One of the neighbor's kids watched Lucy and Gus for a few hours so I could help and get the rest of the pieces (the slide, swing beam, and rock wall).

Saturday night we went over to Ted and Darlene's, right next to us, to have drinks. We like them. Our monitor works over there. It's kind of handy and it definitely took the edge off.

On Sunday after church two families from our cul-de-sac showed up with their drills to help again. We didn't ask a soul to help, they just heard the banging and came over. I love our neighbors! Gus loved being able to play with all the tools. He had a screwdriver in his hand for three hours. He would take it up to the screws on the play set and try to screw them in. I guess Handy Manny is really educational. We have to do some more grading around the swing beam, but for the most part it's done. We let Lucy come out last night when it was dark to swing. She was thrilled! Yesterday afternoon she thanked us for building a park in her backyard. How great is that?

Lucy had a very hard time going to sleep last night. She got up around 6:45 and wanted to go on the play set. I was able to keep her in until 8. We played for an hour until Gus got up and then we went back out. Gus loves the Clifford swing (some friends gave it to us two years ago and we've hung onto it, just in case). The slide is still a little too big for him. He went down this morning on his belly, feet first. He was trying to do the slide like he does the stairs and I caught him at the bottom. It was a little too thrilling for him.

The grass is coming in quickly. It hasn't rained since we seeded. We're watering every other day-Cary has us on a schedule. The pictures are from around the house and are the after pictures from all the clearing. Almost everything that is hay/grass used to be trees when we first moved in. It's such an amazing transformation. I really wish I had good before pictures!