Summer Playground or Neighborhood Eyesore

I got the BJs catalog in April and saw these blowup waterslides. I thought I really wanted one but I waited and just kept thinking about it. I was trying to take my time and see if it would really be worth it or not.

Some of my thought processes went like this: "Although we have a pool pass, it is going to be a really hard year at the pool with Piper. She's not toddling around playing in the baby pool, she needs her afternoon nap, she doesn't sleep very long in her car seat, there is SOOO much to pack when going to the pool ... It might be nice to have the waterslide as an alternative so the baby can sleep in her own bed and the kids can still play in the water" .... "My kids always want to have friends over to play and since we don't have an official rec room, I feel like our toys/games are always everywhere and I am hesitant to have kids in the house, this way kids can come over and play in the backyard"...." Both the boys want to have their birthday partys at Lazerdome which would be very expensive, if I can convince them to have it at home and play on the waterslide, it will pay for more than half the price of the slide"..... "We are not going on an official family vacation this year so we can use the extra money on the slide"

So I convinced myself and bought it a couple days before my sister Brielle arrived for a visit from ID. She was planning on coming to my house one afternoon and I told her to bring her girl's swimsuits because I picked up a little something that hooked up to the hose for the backyard. She was surprised, to say the least, when I asked her to help me move it out of the car.

The girls had a GREAT time even though the water was freezing. We packed up 2 days later, which was a HUGE task for two little ladies, and drove it up to the cabin for our Memorial Day family gathering. Again the kids had a great time and an alternative to swimming in the muddy pond. (Although my boys did plenty of that stating that the pond was much warmer than the hose water) This time we dried it out throughly and two brawny men (Dan and Brock) folded it up so tight that it fit back in that tiny little dufflebag they give to you as a carrying case. (The smallest we girls could fold it was about 3 times the size of that bag :)

MacGregor had a friend over 2 Saturdays ago and they played outside on the waterslide for about 4 hours. We had taken it down when we left for Oklahoma and Daniel helped me set it up again last night. (We have to move it around the back yard because it's a huge grass killer, but somethings ie.. childhood memories... are worth more than a perfect lawn) We then sat outside and enjoyed our children enjoying life for about 45 minutes. So I must admit. Already it has been totally worth it! I just hope a bunch of 10 year old boys don't ruin it this Saturday.

And I do appologize to the neighbors because it is a bit of an eyesore, but at least it's only inflated when the kids are on it, once you turn off the blower the whole thing deflates and lies flat.