The Finished Clubhouse!

OPENING DAY!

Jackson hangs on for dear life on the new tube slide. I placed a tank of angry badgers halfway down the slide to liven it up a bit.

And it works. Just one short month after construction began.

Cooper hangs out waiting for a push on the swing.

Jackson is learning to swing all by himself. "Learning" being the key word.

Slides are hilarious. Even with angry badgers.

Cooper's first time at the top of the clubhouse.

The inside of the clubhouse. This is the ladder to the first deck where the hot tub and home theater is installed.

Clubhouse is done (almost). I still have to finish the landscaping around the swings and build a door, and put some trim around the windows, and touch up the stain, and fix one bolt in the slide that I did wrong, but other than that I'm done.

Next up... A fence. House #3 and fence #3. We don't buy houses with fences. That woud be too easy.

The Turbo Tube Slide!

Now that the stain is almost dry, today (Monday) is the day that the tube slide is attached. Jackson has been looking forward to this the whole time. Jason bought the slide at Home Depot and it has been sitting in our tiny garage for about 2 weeks. Here is Jackson getting a head start on the assembly instructions before daddy comes out....

...Daddy, I'm waiting patiently!!

Jackson decided that he would just assemble it himself on the ground, and then daddy would just bolt it onto the clubhouse!

"Is there anything I can help you do daddy?"

The finished product...sans swings.

Jackson's little buddy, Cole. They came over for dinner on Monday night...these two had a blast! Note Jackson's feet.

Crocs + dirty backyard= nasty black feet AND bathtub.

Jackson and Cooper both ate ENOUGH of their dinner (chicken enchiladas) to get strawberry ice cream! We have decided that they will now eat what mom and dad eat...no short-order cooking anymore (we won't count on it!)

Memorial Day weekend!

The Clubhouse......

This clubhouse--I call it the monstrosity (Only because it is WAAAAAY bigger than I had pictured it to be)--has been under construction for about a month. I saw it in the planning phases, when Jason painstakingly plotted it out on graph paper. That took about 3 weeks. It cannot be called an Endacott clubhouse unless it can withstand hurricane force winds.

Today was the day that Jason had set aside to stain the clubhouse. He chose today because there is no forecast for rain in the next 72 hours--which is how long it takes for the stain to cure. Do you know how hard it is to keep 2 boys out of their dream playset for 72 hours? Here is Jackson sitting and watching his daddy stain the clubhouse. He wanted to help so bad....sorry, the picture is a little crooked. I took it from the kitchen window!

I felt bad for the boys, plus, they were driving me up the wall! So I decided to take them over to the park. They had a great time, and Jackson even met 2 "new friends" as he calls them. I was really proud of him. He went up to them and introduced himself and asked them if they wanted to play. It was really cute.

So I am sitting on the parkbench. By the way, I think this has been the first time I could actually sit on the parkbench and just watch them play, rather than follow them around and make sure they don't fall off the structure. It was fabulous! So anyway, I heard Cooper laughing. I looked over, and this is what he was doing:

Here is Jackson climbing on the tubes...he was really worried about doing this at first, because last year, I had told him he couldn't do that because it is not safe. I think he can handle it now!:

Our brand new family blog!

Okay, so I am going to try out this blogging thing. I am forever looking for ways to keep in better touch with everyone. Well...at least you will know what is going on with us day to day, week to week or month to month....I'll do my best.

Our first blog will be about our trip to the East Hill Farm in Troy, NH. Jackson's preschool class went there for a field trip and Cooper and I were invited along.

A little background...

Jackson's class is about 15 kids. Most are entering kindergarten next year...Jackson will be enjoying preschool for one more year (flippin' age cutoff!). Okay...so back to the farm. This is the class exploring the old-timey covered wagon while not listening to this lady give the lowdown on the farm and its rules..ie: "no yelling, screaming or running. It will scare the animals."

First stop...the pigs. I think this was the biggest pig I have ever seen (lower right hand corner, you can see part of her.) She was just huge. It was almost disgusting. The kids loved her, though. Her piglets were about 5 weeks old and very very cute.

Cooper was really hoping to grab one of those pigs!

After the pigs, we headed over to collect some fresh chicken eggs. Each child got a basket, Jackson held tightly to his, and Cooper ditched his somewhere in the 50 feet from the pigpen to the chicken coop.

The lactating cows were waiting! I was wondering how the boys would do with this one....Not only did they both manually extract milk, but managed not to spook the cow!

Where's the antibacterial hand gel when you need it??
EEEEEWWWWWW!

Fun!! Let's go see the horsie. I had no idea that they would let each preschooler ride it! Each kid got to ride the horse around a circle one time--no big deal. Okay, in the meantime, I am trying to wrangle Cooper and keep him out of the pile of manure, AND keep Jackson waiting (key word) patiently in line. Not working well. I decide to take Cooper out to chase the chickens while Jackson waits to ride.

This working farm doubles as a bed and breakfast "inn" It's not surprising that it is a popular place to stay to experience the beautiful Monadnock region. The views of Mount Monadnock are fabulous!

I'll wrap up our first little blog with a few pictures of the boys. This is what a typical photo session looks like when trying to pose them.

There we were last week....stay tuned for us to thrill you next week!!