Guest Post & Giveaway: Janessa from Thrifty Nifty Mommy!

This is a guest post from Janessa at Thrifty Nifty Mommy:

I've been talking about this for a week on my Facebook page and it's finally here--my review of the Step2 My Clubhouse! We were SO excited to be given the chance to review this from Step2! We have a number of Step2 products and all of them are extremely well made AND well played with!

My husband and I have been wanting to get my daughter her own playhouse so this came at the perfect time. The box arrived and I'll warn you, it's pretty big and weighs 61 pounds! Thank goodness my husband was home to carry it inside because I would not have been able to do it! My daughter Maggie saw the big box and the picture of what was inside it and she wanted it set up right away (and she's not even 2 yet!). To say she was really excited is an understatment!!  Unfortunately for her it was nap time so we told her that it would have to wait. She took an extremely short nap (we're wondering if she just couldn't sleep because she was so excited,) and an hour later she came downstairs asking about it. We left the big box in the entry way of our townhouse and just carried the pieces up to the main level of our house.

I have never seen my daughter so excited before! Her eyes just sparkled as we carried the pieces upstairs and she ran all around the house. We cleared a place for the house and my husband got to work right away.

*I do want to mention here that if you plan on making this house an outdoor toy, I would recommend setting it up outside. Unless you have wide doors, there's a good chance it won't fit through your doors! We decided to make this an indoor clubhouse.*

One of the questions I was asked by a fan was how long this house would take to set up. From start to finish my husband spent an hour setting it up. I do want to mention however that we took time to film AND he had the "help" of my daughter while he worked. Without distractions, I think the house could be set up in about 40-45 minutes.



My daughter was playing with her new clubhouse long before my husband had it finished. In hindsight, we probably should have set it up while she was taking a nap to make it easier on us, but we didn't think about that. She kept  running in and out of the house through the doors saying, "door, door, door..." just as happy as can be. My husband says that the house was super easy to set up. Honestly, I think just working around Maggie's excitement was the hardest part! She had a blast using her own tools (coincidently, from Step2 also--see my review of the Step2 Home Depot Big Builders Workshop) to "help" Daddy while he worked.



Another question I was asked about this clubhouse is the construction of the roof. The roof is made from a piece of sturdy canvas and has a few plastic support beams under it. It does not however have a solid plastic roof. I'm not sure how much weight the canvas would support, but I would not recommend allowing your child to climb on it. They aren't going to fall THAT far, but they probably would tear the canvas!

The clubhouse has 2 doors--the main door and a side door. It also has another crawl space. The clubhouse also comes with a built in picnic table/bench. Maggie has really enjoyed playing with that feature! Normally her daddy or I sit inside the clubhouse (comfortably too!) and we serve her. She has really enjoyed playing "restaurant" with her new house! She has also decided that the tabletop can double as bed and enjoys laying on it. I always find it amazing the ways that children use their imagination!

Step2 has generously offered to give one of these My Clubhouses away to one of my readers! I am so excited to give one of these away! Just click here to find the Rafflecopter form to enter to win!

Wow! What an awesome giveaway! Thanks for letting me share this with my readers Janessa! How fun! Good luck everyone!!