Not Mission Critical

Yesterday, among other things, I showed you a picture of one of the new tables we've purchased for the new outdoor classroom. Here it is again.

Believe it or not, despite living in a place where it rains for 9 months of the year (okay, okay, 10 months), we've never owned real outdoor furniture. Up until now we've just been throwing past its prime indoor furniture outside to face the elements, then pitching it when it starts to fall apart. This is a big deal, I think, having not one, but 3 new tables designed to sit outside year-round. Of course, we're on a budget so they are of the assemble-it-yourself-with-an-Allen-wrench variety. In the quest to have the new place ready by this week, we only put one together, the other two not being "mission critical" as Charlotte's mom Amanda frequently reminded us in her effort to keep us on track.

So today, I just put one of the boxes full of furniture parts on the workbench for the children to assemble.

This one came with two benches instead of the four chairs. Charlie and Marcus' mom Shelly was our parent-teacher for the project and she joked that following diagramed instructions wasn't her strong suit.

But I guess the kids kept her on track, because by close of business we had the table and both benches assembled.

Perhaps most impressive was that this was almost exclusively a project of the 2 and 3 year olds, since the 4 and 5 year olds were too busy breaking in the new sand pit.

According to Shelly, our friend George essentially assembled one of the benches by himself.

This might be the shortest post I've ever written because I am, quite frankly, speechless. Never underestimate the ability of young children, especially when it comes to doing real stuff. I'm glad those tables and benches weren't mission critical.