Playground Fun!

Yes, instead of referring simply to our “swing set,” I am now referring to our “playground” since the addition of two half buried tires entered the picture over the weekend. They are actually for children to climb on and jump from – NOT doggie urinals like Bridger originally thought. They were sort of placed in the dogs dumping grounds however, so maybe he has a point. Poor Bridge. He is such a good dog that he had taken to pooping in the compost pile but then it got moved and a swing set erected over it. So that place kind of got taken over. Then he started going over in the empty grassy area by the wall. Suddenly two urinals were placed there with little girls bounding all over them. So where’s he supposed to go now, poor boy? The people are slowly taking over the compound… But wait. How did I digress to the toileting habits of my dogs??

Back to the playground/play area. It is coming right along. We can seriously have hours of fun out there on our swing set and the muscles in my shoulders are actually sore from pushing my 36.5 lb child through the air over my head! She is a pretty darned good little swinger too. She hangs on well and never gets scared even when I’m scared for her!

So following are some pictures of our “play area” put to use.

The Tires

Tires can double as a boda, donkey or horse

Oh how I like that figure!!

You can practice your ballet moves on a tire (well, at least Montanans can)

And other moves

Dismount (which is half the fun)

The Swing (and a variety of ways in which to swing on it)

On your stomach. What even adds more to the thrill is getting rocks and throwing them at the wall when you do this. Just hope that your mom or dog isn’t in the way!

Standing

The one foot stand (can you tell that her old lady used to be a trick rider?)

The midair dismount

The Rope Ladder

This is as high as I’ll let her go. Her feet are still over my head! Her 6 year old friend Janet climbs right to the top one and just squats there like a little bird. They like to peek over the wall and spy on the neighbors…

The major thing that our play area is lacking now is a slide. I’m going to keep my eyes open for a nice big plastic one. They have metal ones but they get hot and rust up. I don’t mind putting some money into a nice play area for my kid considering the fact that kids here can play outside 12 months out of the year, we live in a really small house and my kid plays outside more than the other average expat kid. That’s partly why she’s so dark – she’s outside playing in the sun all the time.

Yes, the dogs feel left out although the doggie urinals do help. Now if only the kids will stop playing on them… ;)