Ch-ch-ch-Changes.

A few goings on at our house.  Our swingset was old and rotten so we bit the bullet and bought the girls a new one from Steepleton's.  (merry christmas and happy birthday for the next ten years)  It had gotten to the point where I was afraid to have both girls swinging on it at the same time, and we knew we would have lots of girls on it during our croquet party, so, down it came.

My burly husband took it down on a few Saturdays ago.  Fast forward a week-and-a-half, and the nice man who sold us our new set arrived with another man to assemble our new one.  Took them two-and-a-half hours.  So glad we went with a local store that includes installation - who knows how long it would have take us and now it's up and level and we know the girls are safe.

new set going in

Caroline monitoring the progress.

All done and ready for play.

Ellie and Caroline have played on it every evening (and some mornings) since.

Ellie was so happy to see it when she got home from school.

Ellie's neighborhood friends had a good time on it while the adults played croquet. 

These girls don't mess around when it comes to play.

Brandon Eason, Croquet Champion for the second time.

We're pretty happy with the purchase, and love to hear Ellie as her imagination takes her on boat rides, airplanes, and in the car all while she stands at the steering wheel.  Little sister has decided she's not so little anymore and also wants to be in on the action.

I just can't take her face sometimes.  Heartbreaker.

She climbed right up on her first try.

Another change - perhaps a bigger one - has been in the bed department.  Pete picked up matching twin sleigh beds I found on Craigslist a few weeks ago, but we didn't have mattresses for them.  Ellie knew about them, but wasn't asking for a big girl bed, so we didn't rush her.  Then, a couple of weekends ago, Ellie mentioned something along the lines of, "maybe when I'm a 4-year-old I'll get a big girl bed."  We asked her if she'd like to sleep in her big girl bed now, and she replied that she would.  So the next day we bought her a mattress.  The evening of September 1st Ellie slept in her own bed and hasn't looked back since.  

What I found when I checked on her a couple hours after bedtime.

Later that night, after I'd righted her.  (we now have a bed rail.)

We had been putting pillows on the floor, and she fell out a couple of times, but has done really well.  We kept her crib on the other side of the room for a week or so, just in case she decided she wanted to go back, but she didn't, SO..... next we increased Caroline's real estate!

First nap in the big crib!

Sleepyhead

old crib, new spot, new tenant

The official passing down of the crib.

So that's what's new with us!  Big day on Monday, so get yourself ready for lots of pictures of the Littlest!!