Now we never have to leave the house

For Jack's third birthday, several of our wonderful friends pitched in to get us a gift card towards the purchase of a backyard play structure. The grandparents gave us a little extra boost at Christmas. All we had to do was wait for the perfect one to become available. A couple of weeks ago, it did.

Once we got it, however, the question was how to put it together. The instruction manual said that it would take two people approximately eight to ten hours. It did not say that at least one of those two people needed to be Bob the Builder, Handy Manny, Jesus, or that carpenter guy from "This Old House," but I think that certainly would have helped.

As it was, Tom had two of his friends come over last Saturday to help put it together. All told, they each spent almost nine hours on it, and by the end of the day, the swings, the slide, and the monkey bars were still not up. The rest of the week, poor Tom had to work on it as best he could before the sun set, all the while dealing with Jack trying to "help" him.

Yesterday, as Tom was working on it, Jack asked me, "Why is Daddy building my play structure?"

"Because he loves you," I said.

"Oh." Then: "Why are you not building my play structure?"

Today, Jack and I went to a birthday party, which gave Tom several undisturbed hours to finish it. Total man hours? I'd say at least 35. Jack is thrilled. I'm just relieved that Tom got it all done without any trips to the hospital and all ten fingers still attached to his hands.

Here's what the play structure looks like from the Toys R Us website:


Thankfully, the finished product looks sufficiently like the one above:

Jack borrowing his baby sister's swing

Now all we have to do is figure out how to put a remote control motor on that swing so that I don't have to do any work at all. :)