Impromtu Swing and a Funny Sad Baby. :(

The back yard at our new place has lacked kid friendly activities since we've been here, and because the kids have been asking for a swing, I decided it was time to take action.  However, I didn't want to buy a new rope and board so we looked around the garage for available resources.  We had a 12 ft nylon rope used to pull sleds, and an old tractor tire tube we'd used at the lake for floating on.  Our tree had some great branches for a 50 ft rope, but only 1 long, low hanging branch for a short rope.  So, due to limitations of resources and time (Those kids really wanted a swing; yesterday!"), we ended up with a swing that became more fun than I would have planned given more time and resources.  The kids loved it and it has held up surprisingly well!  The low hanging limb sways in perfect rhythm with a the big circular motion (Somewhat like a teather-ball) of the swing.  Here's a quick video of some fun we had after the swing went up.

As a bonus, here's a funny (maybe sad if it's not your kid) video of our youngest family member putting on his best sad face........because of the piano.   And we thought we'd have musical kids?

The End.

Bunk Bed Project

To celebrate being pregnant with our third child, (Yes, that's kind of an announcement!) Em and I decided to create a little more space in the boys room by adding a bunk bed.  This couldn't be just any old "Wal-Mart special" or "K-Mart express" or an "ALCO piece of junk" or "Target over priced luxurious looking but still poorly made" piece of furniture.  This must be an Engle Project! 

So Em looked up some plans on *cough* Pinterest, and I did my best to not use them to build a bunk bed for our Mini-Me's.  However, directions soon proved to be essential so I found myself working away from *cough* Pinterest while having some fun myself.  Nothing makes me feel more manly then getting to go to the hardware store and spend money on supplies I'll actually put to use.  Actually, I think if I could have starred in this Old Spice commercial, I'd have felt more manly. 

 Anyway, I was very blessed to get the whole afternoon to work on it, so here's about 4 hours of work condensed into 30 seconds of still video.  The boys really enjoyed it and I even got a hug and a thank you from our oldest.  That was a great way to end a fun project!