Swinging!

Things are quiet here again. I say again because my sister and her family came for a visit and with them, all the lovely excitement of 6 little cousins playing together. We had such a good time, that we hardly took out the cameras! D'oh! I have very little evidence, picture-wise, that they were here at all, save for a couple of pictures taken at the very end. I could kick myself, but we had a good time and that's all that matters.

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Before they got here, Mom wanted to get the kids a swingset to play on. We had been watching sales and tracking prices and a few days before my sister and her family were due to come, the one swingset I had my eye on went on sale. So we picked that up, and I sort of hoped it would be set up before they got here, but who am I kidding? I needed help. With Andrew's crazy working schedule, 4 kids to chase and everything else I gotta do, there was no way that swingset would be up in 2 days!

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Luckily for us- my sister was up for the challenge! They got here on a Wednesday; Thursday, we cracked the box open and worked a few hours; Friday was a lovely day and we worked all morning before a cousin popped up with 4 kids of her own to make it 10 little ones running around. No way we could have worked with all the kids around, and we had a good time catching up with each other. Saturday, we picked up where we left off and worked all day until our tummies growled for dinner; too cold to work on Sunday (they're from Florida, 40 degrees is freezing to them!); and we finished Monday!

Teena and I did the majority of the work-- we always were a good team! Her husband helped out a little here and there, but mostly he kept an eye on the kids. Teena and I were pretty determined to finish it ourselves. The kids scampered all over the place, climbing partly finished clubhouse, ladders, and monkey bars and I'm sure we would have finished much sooner if not for the kids, but... it's done! I'm proud of the work we did and the kids are really loving it! Thanks to Mom for getting it and Thanks to Teena for helping set it up!

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The instructions for the swingset said it would take two people 10-12 hours to set up. It took us about 20 hours, but we had diapers to change, meals to make, children to chase, tools to take out of naughty little hands, children to rescue from ladders, power tools to wrangle from kids, drinks and snacks to pass out, boo-boos to kiss, children to scold... I'd like to see a pro do what we did in 20 hours! :o)

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I miss my sister and her family already. The house is so quiet-- even with my four kids. She took Mom home with her, so I miss Mom, too. But!!!! But, but, but now I have an excuse to go visit HER! Someone has to bring Mom back home! Yay!! We'll be going down next month to visit for a few days, our first vacation in quite some time. Can't wait! See ya soon Sis! xoxo :o)