Outsie?

Elyse loves to play and one of her favorite places to go (besides "bye-bye" in general) is outside, or "outsie" as she calls it.

We've been talking about getting her a nice playset since before she was born. We've been watching CraigsList and they are rarely on there and when they are, and at a decent price, they go quick. We've also watched the pricing at Costco. When we saw a good set for $999.99 we were pretty impressed and close to making our decision. Then, we saw it was on sale for $799.99 through April 22! This was a GREAT deal. We were going to wait until the end of the sale to buy it. Then we remembered the one and only problem with Costco. If things sell - they can be gone - never to be seen again. I went in one afternoon with Elyse in early April and sure enough - they were sold out. I was pretty disappointed when I was told they were gone and they a) weren't sure if they would get more and b) couldn't guarantee if they did that we would get the sale price. I will spare you the details, but let's just say this involved a few conversations with the manager in person with me, later with Bill and then over the phone with both of us. A week or so later - we got our playset at the sale price and we'd even saved some gift cards from Christmas to help ease the hit (yay!). We were so happy!

Poor Bill. This playset came with just thousands of parts. He really wanted to do it on his own. As hard as this was to watch him go at it alone - I do understand. Projects like this can be frustrating! The instructions said it would take 12-15 hours with two people. Bill worked on it over three weekends. He did an amazing job!

Here is Tanner on the set - it was about halfway done at this point.

Elyse getting smooches from Grandpa Fred.

Tanner - helping Elyse shut the door. He is so sweet with her. My nephew has the most gentle heart.

Bill - and crew!

The first group to officially break in the completed set were Lucien, Gabby and Elyse one morning at playgroup.

Lucien and Elyse were playing in the dirt. Check out that face - the sign of a good day!

The following weekend was Mother's Day. It was a beautiful morning at the zoo and a lovely afternoon for time in the backyard!

Grandma Deanie - check out the shoes! Perfect for pool day!

The End!

PS: I'm still behind on blogging. It is a chilly June day today and seeing these warm weather pictures makes me envious!!