The Mothership has landed

Christmas literally came early last week. As a gift, we had a playset installed in the backyard on Thursday, and we are loving it.  It is so nice to be able to let the kids climb and swing and slide without having to worry about being outnumbered at a busy playground. That - right now - makes it worth its weight in gold to me, and I'm the kids are just so excited about it.

Here are a few pictures from install-day and the finished product.


















Two of my favorite moments since we've had it:

1) As the guy who built/installed the set was cleaning up, Cooper went outside to check on things.  I'm assuming the guy told Cooper it was finished, because I watched him tear across the backyard as fast as he could and almost run up the ladder.  It was so cute.

2) Yesterday morning I had Caroline and Graham outside while Cooper was at school (and as an aside, let me just say YAY for year-round preschool). The set was a little wet from the previous night's rainstorm, and while I dried off the swings, I didn't think about the slide. Both Caroline and Graham climbed the ladder, backed up to go down the slide on their bellies, and - one right after the other - shot down the slick slide so fast that they actually caught some air and landed flat on their tummies on the ground.  Graham let out half of a whine, and I think Caroline actually said "Oof." But they got up immediately and climbed the ladder again. Meanwhile I was cracking up, and I so wish I had had our video camera at that moment.

(Just in case anyone is curious, we got the set through Woodplay, and we're very pleased with the set itself and their level of service. Highly recommend.)