Swing Set Or Play Structure?

We knew Luke heading back in for treatment was going to be rough on the older kids.  And we knew that we would be exhausted all the time, and have very little energy to entertain them.  So Danny and I decided it was time to finally get the swing set we had been looking at.  It didn't seem fair that Luke get chemo and the kids get a swing set.  But they were going to need something to do while everyone was focused on Luke!

We ordered the swing set from Wayfair.com, and Danny knew he was going to have to get it all put together himself.  He wasn't too worried about it.  Until a freight truck dropped off five boxes weighing hundreds of pounds at our home!  Ok, so that was a lot of wood...but Danny was still feeling confident. :)  We hadn't told the kids what we had ordered, and thought it would be a fun surprise.  So we sent them to stay the night at Grandma Candy's house on Friday night, and Danny arranged for his Dad and brother David to come early and help us get this swing set up and ready.  

At first, things started moving along pretty nicely.  While the boys drilled and such, I unloaded all the wood from the five boxes and organized it into alphabetical piles...as well as organized all the bags of screws and bolts.  Danny would shout out what was needed for the next step, I'd grab it and hand it to them, and they'd assemble.  It was a pretty nice system!  The hours kept on moving along...yet somehow the piles of wood didn't seem to get any smaller.

This was going to take a while. :)

I eventually had to go get the kids from my Mom's, and they were elated when they saw what their Dad and Papa were working on!  When I told the kids that they were coming home to a surprise, Sophie got excited and said, "Is Lukey home?!"...and then Claire shouted, "Is it a puppy?!".  Errr....I kind of started to feel bad about saying there was a surprise. :)  But they were very surprised and very happy when they saw the partially erected swing set...or what Danny was now referring to as a "play structure".  This was no ordinary swing set!

Most of the construction was finished by the end of Saturday night...but not quite.  Enough that the kids could play a good 2/3rds of it.  On Monday, Danny adjusted our Luke schedule and allowed some time for him and Papa to finish up.  By Monday afternoon, it was complete!  Isn't it gorgeous?  Every single piece of that wood was assembled by hand...plank by plank.  Not a stitch of it came pre-assembled.  I'd have to agree with Danny...this is no ordinary swing set.  This is a play structure! :)