The Swingset

We have been talking about getting a swingset all summer. First, we were going to have it done in time to entertain the kids at Lili's 2nd birthday party in June...but it never happened. Then we were going to get one before our family vacation mid-July...that never happened either. Then we were DEFINITELY going to focus on installing a swingset when we got home from our vacation...nope, still didn't happen. Now it's the end of August and over the last 2 weeks, we finally got something together...

What we purchased is NOTHING like what we had originally planned. The "plan" was to go hog wild and get the super-dee-duper, extra-fun wooden playset with all the bells and whistles. Drew was going to get a couple of the neighbors to help put it together, which meant we could save some money on installation. He was also going to do all of the cutting of the wood himself, which would save even more. It sounded great, but what we finally realized is that there weren't enough hours in the day to give Drew the time he needed to run with that kind of project. Those swingsets are also a buttload of money...especially for the ones we were looking at. As we started speeding through August, quite a few online stores were putting their outdoor gear on sale and I found a pretty good deal on a Step2 play set. It's nothing extravageant, but it has a slide, 2 swings and a little clubhouse. It said for ages 2-6, so we have at least another 4 hours before we have to think about upgrading.

In the meantime, Lili absolutely LOVES her "house" as she calls it. She will occasionally refer to it as her "castle", but "I go play in my house?" has become a common phrase around here. I actually didn't think she had much coordination, but I have come to find out that she is a lot more skilled than I originally thought! She has yet to fall and has been climbing all over that thing like a little monkey! She adores the swings, but can't seem to make up her mind about being a big girl...or being a baby. She can totally manage the "big kid" swing, but there is a safety aspect to the toddler swing that I think she prefers. So, we'll swing on one for awhile...then she wants to try out the other one. Oh the joys of toddler-ADD! HA!