It's Done!

We finished the swing set last week.  There is still more to do to complete the area.  The plan is to to section that part of the yard off and lay down wood or rubber chips.  But the swing set, it's up and in commission.  In the end, Mike put in about twenty hours and I probably put in nine.  Although extremely time consuming, it wasn't nearly as daunting as it first appeared when it showed up in it's eight boxes.  Once we (meaning mostly Mike) got going and became more familiar with the parts, it really started coming together.  I can safely say, however, that the club house is the closest we will ever come to building a house of our own.  Although

And I am happy to report, that I can still state that I have never heard my Michael swear.  Although when we were putting together the big tube slide (which the kids aptly named Big Yellow) and we were both trying to balance these extremely awkward huge pieces of plastic which were not lining up, he did threatened to kick big yellow over the fence.  And he may have kicked a piece.  But not over the fence.  And Big Yellow is now attached and enjoying kids repeatedly sliding down it (Little Man claims he did 100 slides the first day and judging by his sweaty hair every time he came in to report to me what number he was on, I wouldn't doubt it).

And every hour? Worth it.  The kids have probably already almost surpassed the number of hours we put into it with the time they've spent playing on it.  

Swinging (partially done Big Yellow can be seen on the side)

When it was all done, we found the slide was too close to the house and that it would work better flipped, so when my family came over for Father's Day we enlisted in everyone's help to move it out and flip it around, so it now is flipped.  

Hanging out in the fort one afternoon before the swing part was done (hence the boxes and again big yellow bellow it)