Playhouse picture album

Well, we got bored after building this house and decided we needed to build another one.

This is the playhouse in its current state! Actually, Dave got the trim around the windows done today, but I didn't have the camera out -- but this is pretty close to its current state.

The playhouse, which was intended to be finished for Erik's birthday but didn't quite make it (though we haven't actually celebrated Erik's birthday yet -- we're waiting for Nama and Grandpa to come back for the party), sits on a platform five feet off the ground. The platform is 6 x 8; the playhouse takes up 5 x 6 of that, and the rest is taken up by a covered porch. There's a ramp to go in on the north side of the porch (grownups find this a little tricky; the kids scramble up and down likes it's nothing) and a slide going down the east side.

I think it's a hit! The cousins have been over many times as this was being built -- they've had all sorts of scenarios going on over there. Playing house, of course, but once there was a slave camp, once there was a ship -- and they do a lot of cooking with dirt, water and weeds. We've had to do a bath every night since the playhouse was up, but I guess that's OK!

Here it is in process:

Don and Mary were here for the initial stages -- plotting out where it would go.

Actually, figuring out where it would go was a really time-consuming part of the process. We thought about putting it over by where the swingset is, south of the old farmhouse -- but then I couldn't send the kids out to play and still watch them from the window. Right in front of our big windows was too much in the way of cars; to the east of the house is the driveway to the tractor shed; to the north there is not a clear view except from bedroom windows, and the mosquitoes are worse back there closer to the slough; and to the west of the house is taken up by berry bushes. I mentioned that the best spot for it was really east of the sauna -- right where that hideous eyesore of a junk pile was. I wasn't sure Dave would take me seriously, since I had mentioned wanting that junk pile moved before and he might have thought this was just a ploy for that -- but then he thought for a moment and agreed with me! So now the junk pile is half gone (there's still some clearing to do to the south) and there's a playhouse in its place.

It was really hard to keep the kids from climbing the ladder while the house was in progress! That was a motivating factor to get it done quickly.

This photo was taken from our dining room windows -- see what a good view I have of the playhouse from there?

It actually came together in about a month's time.

Here they are, playing happily!

Though we still have painting to do -- Sofi REALLY wanted to paint today, but there was just a little too much of a chance of rain. And it's a good thing we didn't paint! We only had about 10 minutes of rain, but it was a downpour. Our paint would have washed half off.

The playhouse will be -- guess what colors? Red and white, of course! Like any good little Finnish house. I also bought a variety of little sample jars -- the five kids (Briella's a little too young) can work on painting the inside however they like.

Here is a smorgasbord of other photos of life in the last few weeks:

The garden is going gangbusters -- even if we lost the war with the weeds when we left on vacation, and then had a time of mourning when all sorts of things seemed less important. Mari actually picked all those green beans in the middle of the day during some nearly intolerable heat and humidity.

Mari and the girls came out for three days when Doug was on a trip -- one day happened to be Amara's birthday (Aug. 8) so we had an impromptu party for her. The actual party is this weekend.

The two littlest cousins seemed to enjoy this story by Mummu!

Sometimes they play together quite well. Other times they fight over toys -- but that's part of the whole learning process, I guess.


We also had the girls do some modeling -- Mom had made some hats that have been languishing for months without being posted to her Etsy store, and Betty also had some brooches that needed modeling. The girls seemed happy to oblige! Even Erik wore a hat for the occasion.

This summer is living up to the hot summers of my childhood memories. The wading pool has been out quite often. This was a splashing contest with the cousins.

Having Dave climb up on rooftops has been a theme around here lately. He helped install a new antenna on Mom's roof -- her TV service was discontinued, so she went back to plain-old TV. Sometimes it works well and she gets four channels; sometimes she only gets one, or none at all. We haven't figured out the pattern yet.

Summer is rushing by! Sofia starts preschool Sept. 9 -- that's just three weeks away!