The New Playground!

This past weekend it was BEAUTIFUL! For the weather man calling for 5-8 inches of snow (or more!) the Wednesday before - to the point that all schools closed and we only had drizzlish rain - the weekend was extremely nice for this time of year. It was in the 50s and while still chilly, it was sunny and nice enough to go outside. On Saturday morning, I told the boys that we would go check out the new playground at the school behind our house. The old playground equipment was broken, according to my niece, and there had been nothing there but a lame pickle ball thing for a long time. Now there's a new play set, but it's pretty lame compared to the old set it was replacing (but obviously WAY better than nothing).

The boys loved this thing that they can spin in above. I was afraid it would make them motion sick to keep spinning. Caleb didn't want to be in it while Joshua spun it, but he loved spinning his older brother!

Speaking of spinning, Joshua wondered how this thing worked, so Daddy tried to show him, as Joshua walked away. The Bean asked Daddy to help him try, but he wasn't quite tall enough to make it work. :)

There's also this little thing that is like a teeter totter - what do you call it?

The boys struggled to climb the plastic "rock" wall - it was slippery! Shawn climbed up first and I stayed behind Joshua to show him where to put his feet and hands to get himself up.

He was SO proud when he conquered it and made it to the top with Daddy!

I got a picture of his smile afterward!

The boys did enjoy the double slide. I was glad there was at least two. But, on the old playground set, there was six slides - three on the back right, one that was a circular one, and now I'm forgetting if it was one or two on the back left. Either way, there was a lot more to do on that play set.

And where big brothers go, little brother follows. You can see Ryan behind the older two in the picture below.

Shawn seemed surprised that Ryan was coming down! He is getting SO big and he is so brave!

Joshua played the drums!

He's also amazing at climbing and using his arms on monkey bars to get himself across with no difficulty at all. He is SO strong!

There's also a small balance beam that the boys can do.

But, it's a small enough area that the kids asked to go to the other side. Now, imagine it with hundreds of children at recess. It really isn't big enough for its purpose, in my opinion.

We walked over to the older play set. Ryan climbed right up!

Caleb tried to do the monkey bars, but needed a little help. At the end he did it once by himself, and he was tuckered out!

Joshua on the other hand sails across these with ease!

I loved this picture of Caleb! He was SO happy to be outside in the sun! Caleb even played in the driveway with me later after we came home because it was just too nice to be inside. :)

And this was my favorite one of Joshua, who was also excited to be outside!

Joshua continued to impress us with his monkey bar skills.

Ryan found another slide that he went down by himself!

Caleb was all smiles! I love this picture of him as well. :)

Here he is when he conquered the monkey bars himself!

I caught this one just as he had climbed up this little pole!

And Joshua agreed to one last picture before we left!

Pretty soon other families started coming to the playground, so we opted to go back home for Ryan's nap time. I love watching him and Daddy walk together. They are "in step." It was a fun weekend!

The following day was supposed to be even nicer, but it turned out to be windy so it didn't feel as warm. I still got to go for a run outside. It will soon be spring, right?