The cost-per-use is going down by the minute

You know how we got a backyard playstructure over Easter? Well we'd been looking for awhile. But the brand-new Rainbow ones were outrageously priced (honestly, you could buy a used car for what they're charging!). So we looked and looked until we found a used one on Craigslist that met everyone's criteria (I wanted affordable, TubaDad wanted something BIG that the girls wouldn't grow out of, Ro and Ree wanted monkey bars and swings). And the girls have spent joyful hours on that thing every single day since we got it. I am not even exaggerating—HOURS. So the little cheapskate in me is publicly declaring that behemoth was worth every penny. "Mama, come on here with us! What do you mean your butt is too big?": "Oh yeah, I'm awesome, I can do the monkey bars now": Ro is always dangling from one thing or another. That girl has callouses on top of callouses: Ro hops on the swing and then yells for assistance every time "One! Great! Push!": The grab-and-go bar on the slide might be more aptly called the mid-air-launch bar: "I fink I can, I fink I can": Ro is a cheesy little monkey: When she isn't swinging (her favorite thing in the world), Ree loves to be upside down: "Hi mama!" (giggle giggle): "Here sister, I'll help ya": "You're almost there": "Hey we both made it": "Ok, now it's my turn, hold the rope, Ro": "I gotcha, Ree": "I did it!": "Look at me, mama, I'm at the top, whee!": This picture just kills me. Ree is smiling sweetly and Ro is smugly communicating that she is king of the world: Hanging from the trapeze bar: Hey, what's under here?: "Is that my bedroom window, mama?": "No, I fink it's that window": "Whatever, I'm going to show you how to use the old baby slide properly": Little cuties. I was playing with the manual settings on my camera while getting these pics, and half sun/half shade really made things challenging. Who cares, though, I learned a lot, and we all had fun. PS: I had a request to post a pic of the whole thing, so here's a quick snap of it. It has a big canopy that goes on top, and we usually use the rope swing in the third swing slot, but it's moved aside temporarily because we had a bunch of kids over.