The swingset

So, we've been going back and forth for a good 6 months now about swingsets. Build it vs. buy it. What do we want? Why are they like a billion dollars?

So we settled for getting a Step 2 plastic play "castle" this summer. Ellie seemed to like that just fine. We actually picked up another similar plastic play structure at a friends' garage sale.

But then, the week before the BIG birthday party, Ryan was looking through some stuff of Craigslist and came across an ad for a used Rainbow playset. And it looked AWESOME. Big, spiral enclosed slide, 4 swing areas, another slide, etc. So even though it was still expensive used, we decided to take a look.


Well, Ellie fell in love. And so did we. So the weekend of the party, Ryan, with the help of both Grandpas, set out to transport this behemoth of a swingset.

 

So, over 2 days, it got torn down, loaded on a trailer, and reconstructed in our back yard. 

Ellie "helped" and/or watched wistfully out the window...

 

But, after all was said and done, and after Ryan got one heck of a sunburn...we are all loving the swingset. And now, after having it a couple weeks, I can say we've already gotten more play time on this one than the other one did all summer. Ellie LOVES it (Scarlett too, actually)

Plus, it was a big hit at the party. Now if we could just get the neighbors to stop referring to our yard as "Edwardsburg Disneyland"...