Playground

Almost a month into the new year and I'm still telling tales of 2017 - in late November, we took the plunge and bought the kids a real swing set. After spending weeks reading reviews, we picked the McKinley model from Cedar Summit, taking advantage of some shipping discounts from Home Depot. It got good reviews for being sturdy but perhaps more importantly, it got good reviews for coming in large pieces and being relatively easy to build.

Many of the wall panels were already on the frame, though nonetheless there were so very many small pieces. Fortunately, it was easy - but more fortunately, we recruited friends to help!

In one weekend, they had it almost completely assembled. The roof had arrived with some wood slats broken, so we had to wait until Cedar Summit sent us a new one.

Fast forward one week (well, fast forward two months until I took this picture) and we have a well-loved play set, with a swing for each kid, a play kitchen and mailbox, and a speedy slide. We also still have the tiny Little Tikes set on the side for bonus play.

Here's the view from closer to the house for context - it will be a long time before we let the kids play outside alone, but one day, we can let them frolic in the yard and see them from the kitchen window. But for right now, the little one is still trying to throw herself headfirst down the slide, so that may be a while.