More Play Structure Fun

The boys are absolutely sold on the new play structure, and it isn't even finished yet!  The weather over the past few days has been less than lovely, but at each sun break they have run outside to enjoy it.  Here's my favorite picture, showing our progress.

Here we see the finished rope bridge and the attached rock climbing wall accompanied by my children who posed themselves with no help from me.  My favorite part is Luke's left hand on his hip.  Who taught him to pose like that?!?  Do I do that in pictures?  Where has he seen this modeled?  (Pun intended.)

In not-so-fun news, Paul has had three bloody noses in the last 24 hours.  I had bloody noses as a kid, so it's probably just a crazy dry nose thing.  He goes everywhere with a red washcloth now.  And I'm letting them watch a video in an effort to let his goofy nose rest and heal.  Sad that the weather today is finally awesome.  Oh well.  We have the whole summer, right?

New Play Structure

Before they left on their latest adventure to Russia, Grandma and Grandpa helped us to begin the summer birthday fun with the purchase of a new play structure.  We have all been eagerly awaiting the delivery of the boxes, which finally happened on Friday.

Saturday was so exciting here.  Our awesome church declared the building of our play structure a Roots Mens Event.  How awesome is that?  So, some dudes arrived and began the process.  Check out all the work Erik put in ahead of time.  He sorted all the wood into different projects and included the necessary hardware.  He even made copies of the directions.  Is that a former production manager I see there?  :-)

 He even labeled stuff.  He's so awesome.

 The first thing that had to happen was the removal of a rhododendron in order to make room.  That's Big Paul carting a big branch.  Notice the observers on the left.  Very interesting.

 The arrival of more slave labor...I mean buddies!  Thanks for coming and working, Romi!

 These guys worked hard, so we fed them.  It's a good thing.  And yes, Little Paul is wearing his bathing suit.  It's a new one.  A new Star Wars one.  Expect to see it a lot.

 The finished climbing wall!  

The guys were able to make a huge dent in the project and keep four boys under the age of seven entertained for over three hours.  I escaped to attend a baby shower.  Love it! 

This morning, after presenting Erik with his Father's Day gifts (two new Star Wars themed t-shirts) we headed out to continue work as a family.  It was so fun to spend the morning working together.  Luke and Paul really got into it.

 Paul is double checking the measurement of the steps.  He's very serious about this.  Luke is helping Daddy prepare to put the lower decking down.

 Luke is holding the carpenter's square steady while the Daddy-Man puts in screws.

 Paul never quite picked up on the idea that I was taking a picture.  And I don't know why he has the tape measure in his mouth.

 Luke on the finished lower deck with his drum.  The play structure came with this blue drum, a red drum and a yellow shaker sun thing that will eventually be installed.  Super cool.

Finished upper deck!  They are pretty excited, and so am I.  We hope to finish it up within the next week.  I will keep you posted.

Play Structure Void

We are getting a new play structure!  The boys had outgrown the other one, proven by their ability to rock the entire frame with a coordinated effort.  So, we sold it on craigslist!  And now we are waiting...the new one arrives via Costco on Tuesday and will be constructed next Saturday.  Stay tuned for that goodness.

A word about these outfits.  Luke and I were at Fred Meyer together this past week when he saw these shirts.  He loved them, and so did I.  Luke's says "S.S. Cutie Captain Amazing" and Paul's says, "S.S. Cutie Captain Adorable."

It's all gone, but they are so excited about the new one!

Last Day of School!

We finished our Core (Science, History, Literature) this morning, so it is the last day of school!  We will continue to do a bit of Math and a bit of Handwriting over the summer, but we are celebrating the end of school today.  I asked the boys to each pick a favorite book that we read this year.  No joke, they whined about only getting to pick one.  So I let them pick three each.  I love homeschooling.  :-)

Here are the pics!

My future Literature Major, Paul picked Uncle Wiggly's Story Book by Howard Garis, The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, and The Milly Molly Mandy Story Book by Joyce Lankester Brisley.

My future History Major, Luke chose Mummies and Pyramids by Mary Pope Osborne, The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky, and King Nimrod's Tower by Leon Garfield.

Crazy Hair

Does anyone else out there feel like God gave them their kids to make them smile when things are hard? The other night, the boys were inspired to do this to their hair.  Love it.

 I love this picture.  Luke's hair doesn't stick up as much as Paul's, but his face more than makes up for it.

I just think this guy is cute.

For some reason this guy's hair is particularly prone to sticking up.  Not sure why, but it makes me happy.  Judging from the look on his face, it makes him happy, too.