The Big Build

Memorial Day weekend, we bought (what we thought was) a good-sized playset for the backyard. With three kids currently ranging 9months old to 4 1/2, I just CANNOT get out of the house as much as I'd like...going to a park these days is almost impossible...Elise wants to do all the 'big kid' stuff. Ainsley wants to do everything Elise does, so I have to keep a CONSTANT eye on her. (although she's insanely coordinated, so there are actually some things she does better than Elise! BUT, she's not even 2 1/2, so...I'm following her all the time!). Ainsley also LOVES the "Game" of Hide-From-Mommy-and-be-really-sneaky. I hate it. She's a good stinkin' hider (is that even a word?...) and it really scares me sometimes when she disappears. Mitchell isn't happy just being in my arms anymore- he wants FREEDOM! So, at parks, I'm constantly trying to keep him on a blanket, pull wood chips/grass/bugs out of his mouth, run back to help Ainsley, fix a scraped knee by Elise, run back to Mitchell b/c he's crawled onto the (HOT) pavement and is crying, give him some Cheerios, search for Ainsley hiding under a slide, then pick up Mitchell b/c he's exhausted since the poor guy NEVER gets a full nap- i feel like we yank him out of bed for something every naptime. Sounds fun, right?!! And then there's packing/prepping sippy cups, snacks, sunscreen, hats, potty emergencies while there...PHEW. Can't wait to join us, right?

So, From inside SAMS CLUB, this playset looked great. It had the elements we wanted, was a 'reasonable' price as far as these things go, and since Adam is great at this stuff, we knew he could assemble it all in a few days' time and we'd be up and running! yay.

So, this top picture was Sunday afternoon...the rest of the pictures are all in reverse-order, but I really don't have the time or energy to cut-and-paste each one individually and make it the correct chronological order. So, scroll to the bottom of this post and then work your way back up! THANKS!



Finished enough to play for a couple hours Sunday afternoon! The girls are excited. Mommy is in love with the convenience and safety, and (now 4 days later...) we've already had 3 sets of friends over to play together! YAY for everyone! And, oh yeah, it turned out WAY BIGGER than we expected. Funny how it looked 'normal sized' inside a cavernous Sams Club...and it really is over 13 feet tall- it comes as high as our back deck off the kitchen! BUT, it's still great.

FINAL PRODUCT!!! A neighbor pitched in a couple hours on Sunday and I was able to help during naptimes, but that's all the help Adam had. He had to customize the right side(above) to accommodate our steeply sloped backyard. Good work!


We went to church w/o Adam on Sunday so he could keep working (uninterrupted). This was at 1pm when we got home. ROCK WALL is on! Yay.
This was 8pm-ish....ALL DAY LONG. 2 quick food breaks. Probably 11 hours of work.
About 1pm, making GREAT progress. All by himself. YAY for ADAM! BTW, it was the "hottest, most humid day in years" that our neighbors could remember. Awesome.
By about 10am, this was the scene...YAY, the actual assembling has begun!

I got the girls out of the house for a few hours that day, but they just wanted to WATCH every second...

Early Saturday morning, Adam got started digging out a spot to level the 'princess tower'.


308 pieces of wood, 1200+ screws/bolts/washers/etc....we prepped for a few hours on Friday night in the basement.