a little weekend construction

we're building a backyard play structure, a sort of tower-fort. And by "we" I mostly mean Spud, but I did swing the hammer a bit. Ma and Nick helped too, but the chief assistant was, of course, the Widge.note his little power drill. You can get these super-realistic toy tools at Toys-R-Us. You can actually even get a toy welding kit, in case your toddler should need to weld some imaginary superstructure for his imaginary oil rig. (By the way, Uncle Stan: the Widge has a toy chain-saw too, and far more realistic than the one I had as a two-year old: it actually has a moving chain. He doesn't know about it yet, we're saving it for some future tree-trimming day, or something to that effect)

which reminds me: whenever I trim trees, I always have to use a saw (in fact for a while I used the miter saw, which you, Forky, know as the "bone saw" because thats exactly what it looks like, but Spud found out I was chopping trees with his saw and put the kibosh on that. Now I have to use an annoying hacksaw on which I swear the blade part is loose, because it buckles in the midst of serious and even moderate limb cutting. Tree limbs, I mean. Anyway, its still better than the hatchet, which is a fun way to get out any aggression you might have, if you're an aggressive sort of person who might otherwise be tempted to bludgeon people, but is otherwise a fairly crude instrument for tree-cutting, and also awfully hard on my wimpy wrists) Why do I never get to use the chainsaw?! I used the electric drill just fine. It was suggested this weekend that I, personally, am the reason we don't own a nail-gun. I choose to revel in my notoriety: I am infamous!

Anyway, I don't have a photo of how the fort looks now, which is a real shame, because all the wood parts are attached, and its now two-toned, in that we got one coat of paint on, barely, and then ran out of that color, so the second coat is partially on in a whole other color. And I had to stop part-way into the second coat to rescue bugs from the sandbox and other standard mom duties. but I'll certainly post pictures when its finished. After the paint, we need to attach the slide, a few side panels, the shade-cloth, a rope ladder, and various other minor but cool accouterments.

Meanwhile, he got a haircut:
he looks like a little shorn sheep! This is what happens when dads are in charge of haircuts.
And speaking of hair: why is mine still so curly?!