These past few weeks we have been planning and building a new addition at our house. Just some additional square footage where our daughter could decorate to her specific tastes (pink) and hopefully give her some much needed freedom. Since she’s only two, I wasn’t quite ready to send her off to her own apartment, so we came up with a compromise that the whole family is thrilled about.
It started with a plan, and we quickly put that plan into action.
The buidling foreman
The construction crew
The resulting addition was even cuter than the plans had let on, and the Step2 Gather & Grille Playhouse is hands-down the coolest thing a toddler or her parents can imagine. I’ve talked before about how much I love Step2 and their wide array of products that inspire the imagination and encourage little ones to explore the world around them, but this was my first experience with one of their outdoor toys.
The Gather & Grille Playhouse is one of Step2’s awesome new releases for 2010 and the perfect thing to get our house ready for hours of play. Besides being the perfect little apartment for our daughter, the Gather & Grille Playhouse has some amazingly cool features such as a working door bell, an opening and closing front door, and the coolest little patio a kiddo (or her mama) could ever hope for.
The Gather & Grille Playhouse also has plenty of large open windows to provide lots of light and air, which makes the playhouse ready for all sorts of shaded summer fun. Hopelessly cute from the outside, but even more so on the inside thanks to all sorts of touches only Step2 could create, like a mini kitchen with a sink and stove (which is great so she doesn’t mind being away from her mega Step2 indoor kitchen for long.) But, to make it really feel like home, the Gather & Grille Playhouse has a fireplace, mantle clock, and pantry decals that really make the playhouse feel like an apartment.
On the outside wall of the playhouse is an attached BBQ grill for realistic outdoor cooking that can be accessed right off the playhouse kitchen. The patio feel is completed with a bench that is just the right size for a child or two waiting for something hot off the grill. Included grilling accessories/tools hang on little hooks underneath the BBQ so they are always ready for action, and little condiment bottles are supplied so you can have your burgers just how you like them.
This back patio area is one of my favorite things, and what makes this little playhouse so amazingly versatile. Having more than one way in and out means numerous kids can all play together at the same time without getting in each other’s way. While one child is busy opening and closing the front door, another child could easily be manning the back door and entertaining a small gaggle of kiddos on the BBQ patio. The back door is also extra large, making it much easier for older kids or even grown ups to join in on playtime (thank you, Step2!
Having a real destination for outdoor play that holds the kiddos attention for hours has been a great addition to our house and our entire neighborhood. While we had always talked about building a tree fort someday for her, the sad truth is we don’t have any trees large enough to support one, and our daughter is much too young to be climbing trees anyway. The Step2 Gather & Grille Playhouse gives her the same exciting play, in a sturdy, well-built structure that she will surely be playing with for years.
The Gather and Grille Playhouse is not only absolutely adorable, it's twice as cute and three times as sturdy as anything we could have built ourselves. And as an added bonus, I feel like the best mom on Earth when I see her eyes light up after I suggest we go play in her house today.
Dimensions: 54" interior height, ouside dimensions of 59" H, 51.50" W, and 72.00" D
Price: The Step2 Gather & Grille Playhouse retails for $399 (though we’ve seen it on sale) and is sure to be a favorite hangout for years and years to come.
A huge thank you to Step2 for not only giving us some much needed living and playing space by sending their Gather & Grille Playhouse for review, but for also making our backyard simply adorable in the process. All opinions are 100% ours and no form of monetary compensation was received for this Rave Review.
