The New Sandbox

10 Jul 2009

Okay so since we aren't moving this month like we'd planned. The kids and I decided to sell all my stampin up stamps and use the money to buy a sandbox. We've been working on it all week and it is finally finished. Yay! The kids really love it and it will be nice for them to be able to play outside for a few hours a day without getting sunburns or ant bites. (Plus the grass will all be dead soon because of the drought and the stage 3 water restrictions. We are only allowed to water the lawn for one hour every other Monday.) Here is our sandbox diary.

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Monday: We made dad come to the store with us to get wood for the sandbox and the tomato planter "tables" (cause we can't put vegetables in the ground - we're renting).

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Tuesday: It was raining so we didn't do anything on the sandbox.

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Wednesday: Derek and I measured and cut the wood - well I did, Derek was too scared of the saw. Then we used the drill (or the "big screwdriver" as Derek calls it - thanks Handy Manny) to put the pieces of wood together into a really complicated, technical "box" shape :) This was the fateful day where I got 6 ant bites (and for those of you who don't know - Texas ant bites are BAD - even though the ants are TINY), heat stroke (I've never had it before - it's crappy), and a broken finger (it turns out that it's not broken - just smashed and purple.)

This is Tyler's first attempt at taking a picture of Derek and I putting the sandbox together. Ralphie looks like a hot dog despite his summer haircut.
This is Tyler's second attempt at taking a picture of Derek and I putting the sandbox together.

This is Tyler's third attempt at taking a picture of Derek and I putting the sandbox together.
This is Tyler's fourth attempt at taking a picture of Derek and I putting the sandbox together. Ralphie still looks hot.
This is Tyler's fifth and finally sucessful attempt at taking a picture of Derek and I putting the sandbox together.
This is my first attempt at taking a picture of Tyler spazing out and Derek smiling in a very obedient way.

Thursday: I got some plastic and stapled it into the bottom of the sandbox. I know, I know, it will hold in moisure and the wood isn't pressure treated, blah blah blah. I don't care. We only need the box to last 5 months and the plastic's only job is to keep the sand from sliding out from under the box. I don't care if water can't seep out. It will evaporate - probably. I mean it's 105 degrees out there and it's only rained once in four months. Thursday night we borrowed our friends' truck and went to Lowe's to get the sand.

Friday: The kids and I carted the sand from the driveway to the back yard and filled up the sandbox. This picture is for real. We had 17 bags of sand that weighed 50 lbs. each and the kids moved three of them all on their own! I was very proud. The other 14 bags however, made me very very hot, tired and sweaty.

After the sandbox was filled, the kids helped me clean up the bags.

And...drum roll...the sand box is finished! Yay! Tyler looks tired because he is, and Derek looks super-extra excited because he is. They played in it for about two hours this morning and another hour after lunch. What good, cute kids.