The Village Builds a Treehouse

A few months ago, Joy mentioned to our friend Frank that she'd like to have a treehouse.

He gathered spare lumber from everyone he knows, then invited a bunch of other friends from church to come help build a treehouse in our back yard this weekend.

Joy loved that they showed her how to use the power tools and then let her cut some of the lumber, even though she got covered in sawdust in the process.

Once the platform was assembled, the builders lifted it into place and secured it to the support beams . . .

. . . then Joy and Daniel helped carry the ladder over so it could be fastened on too.

The kids enjoyed playing on the platform while the builders put in a few last screws and then wrapped up for the day.  Frank and Daddy plan to put up a railing and a tarp overhead, but they didn't have enough daylight or energy to work on those things this afternoon.

We set up some archery targets once the tools were all put away, and a few of the builders stayed to relax and shoot some arrows with us.  If you look closely near the center of this picture, you can see our new tree house (or as one builder called it, our "tree deck"), peeking through the trees. :)