The Swingset Debate is OVER

After much debate (mostly with me, myself, and I), we have a swing set. Clif didn't really care which set, but he's happy with the one we ended up with.

Who would have thought a swing set purchase would have required so much research and debate? Over the past two weeks I have been trying to narrow down our choices. The triplet group I belong to had a discussion about a company here that had great prices and a beginning of the season on those nice wooden sets.

Hey, that would be nice. We could get a good price on a set that would last a while and if we move, they will move it! Two Sundays ago Austin and I left Daddy home with the triplets and we went to check it out. Ten minutes after we arrived Austin fell and got a goose egg on his forehead. And he's the oldest of the bunch. We ended up walking out to think some more about this.

Since then, the debate has been which of the little sets we should purchase. You can still spend a pretty penny on these Little Tyke and Step2 sets, but I the biggest issue was use and safety. They are a little less bulky plus they are plastic (no splinters). We figured that we could get a couple of good years out of it and then we'd move to the big set.

Yesterday I left Clif with all of the kids and went to ToysRUs. After several phone calls to stores like ToysRUs, I found that there were only 3 or 4 different sets that people actually carried. And there was no way that I was going to pay over $150 to ship this thing to my house! I'd settle for what was in stock.

After purchasing the Little Tykes Clubhouse Swingset, I waited for the nice young men to bring the box. It was enormous. It wouldn't even fit in our big Chevy Express Conversion Van. Frances to the rescue. She drove me back last night in their truck to pick it up.

The most surprising part of this experience is that it got put together in only 3 hours this morning. Luckily, our neighbor felt sorry for us and came over to help. The kids love it and we'll be able to get them out playing safely in the back yard. The next debate is over placement and ground cover. We'll update on that soon.

The collage shows our fun day. It looks like we should keep the box, huh?