New playset

I have been hoping to get Jacob a bigger playset for some time now. We have a smaller Little Tikes one that he loves to swing on, but he is just getting too big for it. Plus, I wanted something that his cousins or friends could also enjoy when they come over to play. I was hoping to get a wooden playset that he could use now and also "grow into" but I know that wooden sets can be quite expensive.

I have been looking on Craigslist on and off for about a year and in November, I came across a post that was offering a wooden playset for $150. I figured it must be not that nice and probably falling apart for that price, but we were pleasantly surprised when we went to see it. It is certainly not new - probably about 15 years old - but it is in really good shape. The owner was even nice enough to take it apart for us so that we just had to pick it up and then put it back together.

In December, Keith and our wonderfully helpful neighbors (who have a large pickup truck) went to pick it up. They put it in our garage and there it sat for the past three months.

It really didn't take up that much space, but it was enough that we could only park one car in the garage at a time. Thankfully, this winter was not that bad so we didn't have to scrape ice or brush off much snow from the car in the driveway.

Our weekends are usually pretty busy, so when we had an open one, Keith coordinated with our brother-in-law, Shaun and his friend, Rich to get the playset put up. Shaun showed up around 8am on Saturday and they immediately went to work. Shaun purchased and put together a MUCH bigger playset for his boys so he had some experience with this sort of thing. We were very happy to have his expertise!

Because our back yard is on a slight slope, they had to dig a trench of sorts and fill it in with gravel so that the playset would be on even ground.

I ended up having to go to the local hardware store to get more gravel. And, then they used some of the stone that was left in our yard last year when we got our driveway paved. Keith and Shaun would scoop up the stone and Rich would tamp it down. They definitely had a good system!

Keith also had to go back out to the Builders Supply store (which is thankfully only about a mile from our house) to get some bolts. Other than that, they worked non-stop and didn't have much trouble.

While the guys worked hard, Jacob had fun playing in the sandbox

and helping Mommy water some new plants. As you can see, it was a pretty warm day (almost 80 degrees in March!) so he went shirtless for awhile.

After about five hours, the playset was finished. There are still a few things that need to be done, including anchoring it to the ground. But, for the most part, it is ready to be played on...

and Jacob couldn't wait to try it out. We were playing inside after he ate lunch and he wanted to be in only a diaper. When I told him that he could go outside and play on his new playset, he didn't want to put any clothes on. So.....here he is enjoying his new playset....in March....in just a diaper. Gotta love Virginia weather!!

Yesterday, after church while Jacob was swinging, he said "I am so glad Daddy and Uncle Shaun and Mr. Rich put my new playset together. I love it." I told him, "Me too buddy. Me too!"