Christmas in June

Last Christmas, Miss C asked for three things.....roller skates, a red guitar and a playground. A girl with simple requests, huh? Well she got the guitar and eventually the roller skates, but Santa just couldn't deliver on the playground. I know, I know. These kids are so deprived. Don't you just feel sorry for them?

This summer J and I decided to finish up the landscaping and finally get those poor kids a playground. We bought it a couple of weeks ago but have been waiting to get approval from the HOA to put it up. We've also been calling around trying to find someone to put the set together for us. Unfortunately, we did have much luck. Either we never got a phone call back or they wanted more than what the play set costs to begin with. So J and I decided we would put it together ourselves. Let's just call it a temporary lapse of sanity.

So this past weekend (oh and it was the hottest weekend yet this year too boot) we decided to give it a whirl. We started Friday night separating and sorting all of the parts and pieces. We should have known we were doomed when the bag of screws and bolts weighed about 50 pounds alone. But none-the-less, we started 7 a.m. Saturday morning bright and early. Here's a pic of J so optimistic about the project

Mee Maw was nice enough to bring in donuts in hopes of us giving us a sugar high and keeping us motivated to work. Unfortunately the kiddos got into the donuts (oh, and a little sunflare too)

Taken with my 50mm......I need to use this lens more often. It's been neglected lately

Which kind of backfired because they were the ones on the sugar high. Actually, it wasn't so bad. Here is Miss C helping. We probably would have had an easier time putting the thing together if we hadn't left her responsible for reading us the directions. Maybe that's why it took us so long.

Goomps and daddy putting the structure together. This was by far the hardest part. We were trying to make sure it was square and level on the ground which was neither square nor level. That kind of made it a little difficult.

Fortunately for me, I had to take the kids to a birthday party at 10:30 that morning. We went to a pottery store and had fun painting and eating cupcakes.

The next 1 1/2 days were kind of a blur to me. Once I got home from the birthday party I got right back to work. J and I worked for a total of maybe 12 hours on Saturday and 7 hours on Sunday. J had to leave for a business trip Sunday night so we didn't get to finish, but it's 75% done. We just have to put the swings up, build the picnic table and monkey bars and finish the decorative touches on the roof. Oh, and we have to build a wood structure around it and have it filled with cedar chips. Ok, maybe we're like 50% done.

Regardless, the kids just love it.