finishing touches

John's two-week project, building the kids' new backyard playground, is coming to a close. He's been working on it all day and is still out there now putting the last hand holds on the rock climbing wall, and to be tackled in the next few days is laying down some bark chips around and I think he'll be more of less finished. We also have to move that plastic playhouse to a new location and get rid of the large plastic play structure nearby. They still used that as recently as a few weeks ago but once construction started on this they have totally ignored it. And I don't blame them, in both form and function it's extremely sad compared to this.

The girls have been playing on it with every finished stage--first the swings, then the sandbox underneath the fort, then climbing in the fort itself, and today the addition of a rope swing and slide. It's been a big hit. John considered getting a playground kit which includes sanded, treated, and pre-drilled lumber but he decided he didn't like the workmanship on those. So he ordered a kit which was a box of hardware and an instruction book, and he modified the suggested plans and purchased his own lumber.

At breakfast today the girls were telling John he needed to finish their fort.
"Your fort? It's MY fort! I'm gonna move in and no girls allowed."
"But if you live in there you won't have any bed!" observed Kate.
All that planning and work and he left out such a basic need.

A mid-week photo, and after the sandbox was filled.

Some pics from today:

And as for the location on the deck where we used to have the girls' swings...John got a hammock for father's day, and that appears to be the perfect spot for it.