blerg. i mean, serious blerg. ...and then happy yays.

Before:

Our chicks are on our playset all. the. time.  It's {many times} where they eat lunches {when at home} when the weather is nice, {many times} do homework, have plum wars, hide for hide-and-seek (when you think about it, not a very good place when you hide there often)...  this 'fort' is our kid's favorite pastime.


After:

This is what we came home to after a weekend of camping.  Nice, huh?  Well, after a long Sunday afternoon of listening to the roaring scream of a chainsaw, we and some friends had this dang tree off our beloved playset.  As you can see, the front right section of the fort was still standing and along with a small part of the right end of the swings.  But if you could see what we saw of what was really left of the playset, you'd realize that these two small sections were all that was left standing.  The rest of it is smashed to smitherines.  Mere splinters.  FAAAN-tastic.



Wellllllllllllllllllllll.....
Many calls and about a month and a half later, we got our insurance claim $ to replace the playset.  A couple upgrades on the new set (thanks to Mom Z.):  instead of 6 feet of head room in the gazebo, there is now 7 feet---hey, we've got some tall kids.  ...not 7 feet tall.  A 'bumpy' slide instead of the straight one.  And the swings changed a bit: instead of 3, we now have 4 and as you can see, we got rid of that ball thing and replaced it with a trapeze bar.  And we added the skateboard swing, as a surprise for 2 out of 3 of the chicks...which I think that will be used by all 3.  =)

So here it is.  The new playset.  YAY!