La Mariposa

You've heard it.  You know it's true.  Size matters.  For the most part here at Casa Doyle, we counter that assertion with the motto, "Good things come in small packages" but even we must admit that, sometimes, the best things absolutely do come extra large.  

So, without further ado, I present......La Mariposa.

As you can see, it is a first rate pirate ship sailing the high seas right in our back yard.  Or maybe, as its name suggests, it is a butterfly, carrying fairies to and fro from one adventure to the next.  Better yet, it may be a castle complete with secret hiding places and a rope for princes to climb and rescue damsels in distress.  All of the above and more.

But let's back up a few weeks.  Or months.  Last Halloween, after a very fun party with neighbors and friends, I asked Chris to pull down our old play set.  It was the scariest thing of the night, swaying under the weight of all the kids.  So, Chris and I pulled the set apart with the intention of replacing boards, re-staining and generally making it safe for play again.  Fall turned to winter and winter to spring and still, the play set sat.  The kids would go out back and dangle on the one monkey bar far enough off the ground to support them but the back yard was a "graveyard of buried hopes" for them.  They missed their swings.  

The day I drove Mia and Grace to take their piano theory exams, we passed play set heaven.  On the way home, we stopped to check it out and I met Roger.  I asked a lot of questions, looked around, paid attention to what Mia and Grace gravitated toward and left with a beautiful, color catalogue featuring anything one could ever want in a play set.  That was January.  Late this spring, when we decided to stay here for awhile, I convinced Chris to come back to the play set store with me.  The day was sweltering but we took the girls and stayed almost two hours.  Chris wanted to use every single salvageable piece off our current play set.  He also wanted to be sure we didn't pay for even one piece of equipment that we didn't need or want.  In other words, he used his well-honed negotiation skills and got us exactly what we wanted for the best price possible.  That actually happened over several weeks through emails and phone calls.  He and Roger are now officially best friends.  In the end, the only thing on my list that I didn't get was a curly slide off the loft.  I thought it would make a phenomenal water slide but it was an easy tradeoff because Chris was able to keep the bottom line where he wanted it and we can order the slide later.

After all of the wheeling and dealing, Chris and I were probably more excited about the play set than the girls.  One night at dinner, I insisted that everyone offer up a name.  Mine was the USS Barcelona--I wanted something Spain-oriented.  Chris' was the Emerald Flyer because of all the green.  I don't remember what Grace, Sophie and Ella said but Madeleine wanted to know why on earth we had to name the play set anyway.  Of course, she was more enthusiastic than the rest about its arrival.  She loves to go out back, don her headphones and swing away, lost in her music and imagination.  Mia suggested we name the play set the word for butterfly in Spanish.  It didn't make much impression at  first but after some thought, Chris and I decided it was perfect.  So--La Mariposa it is.  But don't let the name fool you.  There are usually some serious scaliwags aboard.

It took a lot of work to get the back yard ready.  The old play set had to be dismantled and moved.  We trimmed branches off the huge tree in the back, all of which had to be cut up and bundled to go out with the trash.  The bed to the left in the photo had to be taken out.  The original plan was to take out the whole thing including the tree but Mia became quite passionate about saving the tree.  It worked out well.  They were able to build the play set around the tree which now offers extra shade.  Chris dubbed the tree the Mia tree.

Our now pristine back yard with wood ready to go.

So, the swing arm to the right is actually not the one we ordered.  As it turns out, it was a happy mistake--I'll explain why when I post the photo of the final play set.  Gilberto and Jorge, pictured here, were absolutely awesome.  It took all morning and some of the afternoon to assemble La Mariposa.  It was very hot but they were cheerful and extremely accommodating.

 Breaking it in

Captain Ella at the helm

Vamos a jugar!