The month of birthdays and an early present

Between the end of July and mid August we celebrate three wonderful birthdays. My partner having her birthday, exactly one week later the baby of the family will turn two and seven days later, my eldest will turn nine.
We decided to surprise my youngest with something she really wanted.

How did we know what a two year old wants?

Well, we went to her cousin’s birthday party where there was a massive play area with some plastic houses which she kept going in and out of.

So, we looked online for one and lo and behold we found a second hand one for a massive bargain.

I went to get it from this family and this is how it arrived at the house:

This was going to take ages.

The elder three saw it and were excited, even though they couldn’t figure out what it was yet.

Five minutes later:

This didn’t seem so bad after all.

My second had to have a go and join her younger sister.

Fifteen minutes later, which included a pause for them to look around and enticing them to come out so I can finish it, it looked like this:

Not bad, only the roof missing. This shouldn’t take too long.

My-my was I wrong.

The assembly of the roof was straight forward enough, but lifting it and getting just right was tricky.

The girls went back into the house and guided it along and hey presto! We have a house.

Now the real hard part began. I had to get my tools and do a lot of screwing, by the end my arms ached but it was worth it.

Then came the cleaning which I left to the girls:

And here is the final product:

The girls had a lot of fun helping me build this house, cleaning it and having a cheeky play in it before their sister saw it in the morning.

When the children came down in the morning it was like Christmas had come early. My fourth couldn’t believe her eyes and the youngest wouldn’t stay out of the house.

It is a joy to watch them play so nicely after all the help they had provided me with the previous evening.