New Swingset!

Tige has a secret way of getting things he wants. It's called badger and pester the wife about it until she finally says "fine! If you'll just shutup about it, you can get it!" This is the way he got his truck, his xbox 360, his flatscreen TV, and most recently his road bike. Well guess what folks? It works for me too. I've been badgering and pestering Tige to get the kids a nice swingset for at least a year. "We need it this summer so the kids can play on it while I'm dealing with the new baby . . . " It worked! Tige broke down and bought this AWESEOME swingset at Costco. Then we just had to build it . . .

2.5 weeks later it's finished, and I must say, it's magnificent. It was beastly to put together, probably took us about 30 hours all together. We spent the first 3 hours just sorting through the hundreds of pieces of wood and sorting & labeling the thousands of pieces of hardware. Once that was done though, it made it so much faster and smoother. My husband is a master builder, and I read the instructions, told him what to do, and gathered supplies. It was fun to build it together. The kids already love it! So do I.

Getting started--the picnic table and the base of the playhouse.

Gathering wood for the next step.

Starting on the roof

More roof

Abby, our "good" helper

Roof finished

Last screws in the bay window

Bay window and sides finished.

Rounded "peeping" window

Swings up! We actually finished the swinging portion around 8:00 p.m., just getting dark and ready for the kids to go to bed. But Tige insisted they must swing. So we turned on the outside lights and let them swing in the dark. They loved it.

Dormer Windows

Ratchet Abby, again such a "good" helper. Why does everything go in her mouth? Yuck.

Installing the steering wheels

and telescope.

Completely finished. So exciting.

A friendly game of tic-tac-toe.

Now I need a patio set so I can sit in a cushy chair outside and watch the kids while reading a book. Let the badgering begin!