4th of July Project that Took all Weekend

Its hard to believe but this little playset has been with us for 7 years now!

Do you remember this?

That darn truck has been with us that long too.  We bought, we sold it to Coverstar, then we re-bought the ugly thing when Adam purchased the company.  It's got over 300,000 miles on it, but it is still one of my favorites.  It reminds me of the beginnings of our Connecticut adventure that has become our lives. 

*Ellie Sept 2006- 3yo

It's paint job has been haunting us for the last few.

We knew it needed some love, but we could still remember how long it took 

to paint the darn thing the first time.

But what else to do on holiday but find a project?

Adam power washed in the morning and got carried away and washed not only the playhouse but our house.  Don't get me wrong, it looks great, but that little side project ended being the big project for the morning.  We had a picnic to go to midday.  Cayden and Seth's extended family gets together every 4th of July and they invite us to come along.  It is a sweet time for the boys to re-meet some of their relatives.  The boys bio dad was there for the first time.  It was kinda weird, but a good weird to see them meet.

After the picnic we put those grumpy boys right to bed and headed outside to begin the painting.  Gracie was a trooper and loved helping.  We weren't too stressed about tidyness and let her at it.  She stuck with us nearly the whole time.

3 hours later, we had the first coat on, and we were disheartened to see that "yes" it would need another, mostly because my darling husband decided to ignore my texts and just pick out any old green stain he wanted:)  The new green is much darker than the origional and after only one coat is was still blotchy.

Time to break for a bit of a cook out and fireworks with our friends.

Since the big girls were off "seeing the world" it left us with only "little" kids for the holiday.  That meant that we didn't neccesarily need to find a huge fireworks show to watch.  Something small at home would be just fine.  But after we lit off our first "small" firework and it hit the trees and bounced towards us and all of us taking cover, we decided to head to the warehouse for a bit more distance. from the actual sparks.

*Everyone caught a parashut and was unscathed from the night's adventures.

Friday, Adam ran off to work hoping I would do some more painting.

Oh, noo, I found plenty of other things to occupy my time.

And so Saturday naptime found us out there again.

Gracie had long abandoned us for her cartoons.

Painting on the second coat.

3 more hours.

Happy Birthday little playhouse!

I will not be painting you ever again.

Next time I'll send my teenagers at you.

Then my sons-in-laws.

And then my grandsons and daughters.

*She got new swings too.

*we really didn't hate the painting so, so much.  When else have we had that much time to work on a mindless project together and just talk?  It was a lovely weekend.