If you build it, they will play.

About once every three months for the last year and a half, Chris has asked me if I wanted to add a swing set to the back yard.    A firm and quick  'no" always slips out of my mouth as soon as the question is asked.  But a couple of weeks ago when Chris asked me this question again, I changed my mind!  As you may know, life with toddlers seems to change every few months and in this phase of our lives, a swing set seems like. . .  fun!  There are so many different structures to choose from and it took us awhile to settle on one that would meet our criteria and needs.  As soon as the swing set was put together Chris and I knew that we picked the right one.  It is the right size and level of complexity for this age and this house.  Cheers to us!

We did not tell the boys about the swing set when we ordered it. Once day they just woke up to two huge boxes with a picture of a play structure on them and we let them figure out what was inside.  I think it was hard for them to conceptualize that a play structure was going to emerge from those boxes, and really they just wanted to play inside the giant cardboard boxes.  Chris was very excited to build the swing set with his boys.  He had the boys help for a few hours and did not let them slack at all!  They were able to help remove pieces of equipment from the boxes and lay them out on the ground, carry pieces over to Chris when he needed them, hold allen wrenches while chris tightened bolts and pass bolts to chris as needed. They also volunteered with a few of their owns tools to ensure that things were being done to code and proper CTS guidelines (California Toddler Standards).

In addition the manual labor, the boys were also key equipment testers.  They had to test out the slide to ensure it was fast enough and test the structural integrity of all the playhouse walls.

After a few hours, they boys kind of lost focus.  Brady ended up sitting inside what is supposed to be a basketball hoop and refused to do any more "work" and Brody decided the project would go faster if Spiderman showed up.  We gave them a break and Chris continued putting the structure together during nap time.

When the boys woke up the swing set was finished.  They ran outside to see for the first time and Brody exclaimed "This is AWESOME" and gave an excited fist pump.  Brady kept muttering "I love my swing set" while he was falling asleep that night.  I can't believe how good it feels to be able to do these kinds of things for your kids; it's a truly amazing feeling.

I am ending with a picture of the whole structure and a hug that says it all- special reminders for the memory book!  Everyone was very happy!