Selling the Play Set

It is time. We've had to come to terms with the fact that although beautiful, our play set has been sitting vacant in our back yard for quite some time. Gone are the years of activity when neighbors, family and sisters escaped to the swings or the fort. Gone are the hours of water play, swinging and climbing. The girls are adult-size now, and it's hard for them to even fit through the openings in and out of the structure. I've held onto it longer than I should because a little piece of my heart is out there in the backyard, tied to the play set.  Thank goodness for pictures.  

We invited our closest neighbors over to say good-bye. Here they are years ago and then now. Time has flown.  No kidding.

The morning the new family was to come and remove it, I went outside to take pictures. I took pictures from every angle blinking through tears. I wanted to remember every moment, every giggle, every smile and squeal of joy. Oh my heart. I'm still teary typing this. After I said good-bye, we went off to church. When we came home, it was half gone. And then gone for good. The yard is empty now, but we will always have our memories. We hope the new family (cute little boy and girl whose mommy is from Scotland where the parents met) will enjoy it just as much as we have.

Building for Real

Our daughters LOVE MineCraft.  It is all the rage, and I have to say that the concept is great.  The kids can uses resources available to build houses and farms, and raise farm animals and crops.  They can mine for minerals and gems as well, and the whole thing is very creative.  We laughed when we first saw it because the graphics are so 80's pixel style.  But they love it.  The downside is that they can spend hours, and hours, and hours on this computer game.  On Friday, a non-school day for us, Heather and Jenna had spent a few hours playing on MineCraft when suddenly Jenna came and asked for the Lincoln Logs and blocks.  She and Heather got them out and started building.  Building for real is right up Kelly's inner-boy alley, and he joined in.  The fun continued later in the evening when Sarah came to spend the night.  She and Jenna built a log cabin and block tower together, and then had fun destroying the tower.  Even when the computer games are educational and have a great concept, I still get a much better feeling when the girls are engaged in play away from the computer.  I have to attribute that good feeling to the Spirit helping me discern between what is good and what is better/best.  I'm so glad my girls were the initiators today.  I hope they have the same feelings and continue to choose this kind of creative play on their own, or at least balance it with the computer play.