Introducing the Play Set

Over the course of three days, Chris assembled our new play set with some helpers. We were blessed with a reprieve from the deadly heat wave and it was only about 85 degrees, overcast, and, at times, raining. Thank you so much to my husband for all his sweat and labor to finish this project!

John took great leaps off of the stacks of pine chips.

John is very fascinated by all things "upside down" (and saying the phrase "upside down") these days.

We discovered a slight problem with the placement of our slide, which was put on nearly last, long after the play set can be moved. But, really, kids aren't likely to fly off the slide that far or veer to the left to hit the tree. (The first time John tried to slide down the slide, he hesitated and said seriously, "Daddy, would you just cut down that tree first?")

This is the view of the play set from our back deck. I wanted to be able to supervise from far away (although I think for some time I'll still have to supervised right up close because of Mary's young age).

Although we cut down a couple more trees, you can see that it is still heavily shaded above the play set.

This rock climbing wall is the scene of John's first big fall. He was climbing on the inside of it and had reached the level of the five-foot-tall platform when he slipped and fall flat on his back below. He was really shaken and, even after he stopped crying, he just sat in my lap for 15 minutes, quite subdued. The poor little guy has scrapes and bruises on his back (although not terrible ones), despite wearing a shirt and landing on four to six inches of pine chip padding.

I stepped inside to finish a sewing project and returned to learn that Chris had been pushing the kids on the swings for half an hour straight. Look how high Mary insisted on going! (I call that "Daddy high" because Mama wouldn't have been brave enough to try that!) We didn't order the special baby swing and apparently being 20 months old means you don't need one! And look at John swinging so freely! It was only in the last two months or so that he went from refusing to swing because he disliked it so much to suddenly launching into the fun of it.

We are so pleased with the new play set. Watching it go up really had me reflecting on the American Dream: we have a playground in our very own back yard and we're not even royalty. Perhaps that sounds silly, but I've travelled the world extensively and seen Third World poverty, so the contrast of what is available to us in America really amazes me sometimes. I feel incredibly blessed and unworthy.