A Hands-On Weekend

We are definitely a DIY kind of family, and this weekend was DIY to the extreme.

Brennan's big birthday present this year is a new play set extraordinaire.  Jim's parents offered to pay for installation so that it would be put together in time for Brennan's birthday party this weekend, but that didn't quite work out.  

After talking to N.E.W., the national installation company that works with Sam's Club, I was scheduled for last Monday.  The local guy (a 3rd party provider) then called to tell me that he couldn't do Monday, but he could do Wednesday instead.  He told me to call him back when I could confirm that the play set would have been delivered by then.  So, as soon as I got the call assuring me that delivery would be on a Tuesday, I called back to confirm installation for Wednesday.  

Unfortunately, the phone number I was supposed to use stopped working (it had worked before), and it didn't accept incoming calls.  When I tried to call N.E.W. back to tell them about the situation and confirm installation, the guy on the phone called their second party to figure out what was going on, and that person said that there was no way I was actually calling anyone and that I was "a liar."  (I had, in fact, used the phone number correctly, and it did turn out that something was wrong with it.)  Then, after being called a liar, I was rescheduled with a different local provider for this coming Monday.  When I  got a call from that local provider to schedule again, it turned out that I had been rescheduled with the exact. same. people.  

Outraged and disgusted, I called and canceled the installation, and Jim spent the weekend in pouring rain and forty-degree temps working his butt off to build Brennan's play set.  

Every single review we read said that this set takes 17 - 25 hours to put together for two people, and every word is true.  As I write, Jim is on his eleventh hour working alone, and I would guess he is only halfway done.  

So...

While Jim built and built, Brennan followed him around like a little puppy dog.  I took advantage of a little quiet time to make this banner for the birthday party, without a Silhouette, thankyouverymuch!  :-)

I do have a paper cutter, circle cutter, corner rounder punch, and a printer, and the graphics are from a piece of fabric Brennan and I bought at a local fabric store recently.  Overall it was pretty easy!

Brennan was supposed to make a 3D mouse for M week at school, so we made this one out of stuff we had around the house (I did have to buy Hershey kisses, but I wasn't complaining):

The body is a plastic Easter egg, the feet are flat glass marbles, the eyes are brads I poked through with the help of a piercing tool I had in my scrapbooking arsenal, and everything is obviously a pipe cleaner.

The kids also enjoyed coloring on the chalkboard wall, which I have almost finished framing.  (It still needs some glue, wood putty, and paint.  I'll post better pics of the actual chalkboard when it's done.)

All in all, it was an incredibly productive weekend.  I can't wait to post pics of Brennan playing on the completed playset!