A New Play Structure!

We decided in late February that we wanted to save for a new play structure for our backyard. We are currently going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and decided to use one of his techniques about showing kids how to raise money and save money so we bought a big glass jar and sat down and talked to the kids about the goal and asked if they wanted to participate in saving money. They were so excited so we all decided that for the next few months we would save every penny we found, every dollar we got for all 4 of our birthdays and any extra money we got along the way and add it to the jar and SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. The goal was to buy it in June and have it up for summer but when the funds weren't very close at the end of May, we again sat the kids down and talked about the possibility of taking some of our saved money and making updates and remodeling our current one until we had enough money for a new one. They agreed. And then our garage sale last weekend was awesome and we were able to raise enough money to buy the new play structure. So, while the kids were at their grandparents, Brian and I shopped and shopped and shopped. After endless searches on the internet, some trips around town, and scaling the shelving unit at Menards to climb up and evaluate this one....we decided this was the one!
While the new one and the old one don't look too different, the new one is much taller, has more surface area, a taller slide, a climbing wall, more swings, and the opportunity to grow or add elements as the kids grow and earn the money to make the changes. We needed something new that would grow with our kids for the next 5 years!

So, we began deconstructing the old one

The kids helped with absolutely everything as we wanted to be sure they felt part of this process and assumed some ownership in this play structure. We scooped all the old sand out

Removed every single brick from the outside area ( so we could make the new one larger)

Carried and stacked all the bricks

And tried to even out the mulch. We have a huge yard already but without the big swingset, it looks enormous!!!

Construction of the new structure began this week with the neighbors coming over for food and beers and the men beginning work. Here it looks like Matt is working and D and Bri are drinking. Figures!

We aren't far yet and there is still lots more to do but wanted you all to have the update!