Blood, Sweat, and Tears

For Izaac's birthday this year, he got one of the biggest gifts, he'll probably ever get.

His amazing and generous Aunt Amanda got him a play ground!!

We were all super excited about it. 

However, it raised up quite some conversation, because our back yard... well wasn't exactly up to par with having a swing set built in it. It was literally a jungle with hundreds and hundreds of, I kid you not, shoulder height weeds. It also was 100% covered in rocks. So even if we were to get rid of all the weeds... we still didn't want to build a play ground on top of the rocks. We instantly saw near death experiences.

But eventually (after about a month of just talking about what to do) I decided that it was time to buck up and figure it out. So with the weeds I started.

I really wish I had taken pictures. I feel like I keep doing these grandiose projects and never get a good before or after picture. Anyways, picture a huge disgusting jungle. 

Weed by weed, I picked. 

It took about a week. It really was such hard work. Most of the weeds were in there so deep. It was also really gross.

 Why, you ask?

Oh, because our hose faucet outside (which was literally buried by the weeds) turned out to be leaking. So a huge chunk around the hose (like 10 ft diameter) was soaked and completely muddy. So if you were to pull a weed out, mud would spurt everywhere. It was awesome =)

Anyways, eventually I finished. And not one weed was to be found.

And so, it was time to move the rocks. 

Because we decided that it would probably be best to build the playground, you know, not on top of rocks. So we were going to clear out a big section and then fill it with sand. This way it would be safe for the kids to play in. Luckily, my dad came up to help with this part.

Moving the rocks was ridiculous. Talk about some serious hard work. And I don't mean to brag or anything, but I did most of it.  =)

You see, Jimmy and my dad wanted the playground to go in a certain spot and I just wasn't loving it. So I decided if I want it to go where I want, I'm gonna have to do most of it myself lol.

Anyways, eventually by the end of the day, the rocks were cleared and it was time to outline our perimeter and such. 

And after that, it was pretty much up to me again to do the rest =)

So day by day, I worked at nailing in the wood to surround it, putting up the playground, cementing it in (yes I mixed and poured cement all by myself!) and then bringing and shoveling all the sand in. Oh! And I also made a path of rocks with stepping stones at the same time.

Again, I didn't take the time to take pictures. But here are a few that I did manage to get of the kids. They were so great in wanting to help me, especially my Izaac. It was starting to get pretty dang hot too and I was impressed with all their hard work.

Don't mind the undies. Pants is kind of optional at our house =)

And now the play ground is secure and the kids play on it as soon as that sun starts to go down since it's getting super hot during the day.

I loved this project. I love hard work. I really do. I love to push myself and see what is possible. 

I am grateful for my dad who I think gave me this drive. I was actually excited each morning to run out there and keep working on it. And I love that my kids got to be a part of it. That they got to feel hard work and see how it pays off. I just think it's such an important lesson!

And thank you again, Amanda for giving us such a big and wonderful gift!