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Have you ever been trying to clean the house and just can’t because you have your groinal spawn chasing after your every move? “Ta-Da’ing,” every single possible toy you just picked up back on the floor. Digging in every reachable drawer, pulling out every dish you just put away. Screaming at the top of their little lungs just because a block stared at them sideways.

I don’t know about you, but that’s my daily experience anytime I attempt to do something Suzy Homemaker based. It’s like she’s a bloodhound, ready to pounce – alerting the put-away toys to the presence of the prey. The prey being me, and I can’t get away from it.

So it was decided, it was time to get some sort of play tent for her and we didn’t have a huge budget. I scrolled through Google for a few days looking at tents that I know I could recreate for a fraction of their listed cost, but the reality was, it was me doing the craft – so how sturdy would it actually be?

My husband asked me that question a few times before I started looking at Google in a different manner. Trying to find the perfect girl’s play tent for less than $50, which is super hard if you search as I do, which isn’t well at all, you don’t really find your aesthetic.

So I walked away. I knew I wanted something fabric-based and the teepee tents were absolutely to die for, but not for the price I was finding them at. So then I gave in and searched Amazon.com and found this little hidden gem. Well, it isn’t hidden perse but it doesn’t really look that visually appealing let alone toddler livable, especially not for my Wreck-It-Ralph toddler.

The Twinkle Star Princess Girl’s Play Tent

Honestly, I was super turned off by it at first because it looked cheap. And from previous experience, if it looked cheap, it meant it would be destroyed within one week by my toddler.

But I gave it a chance because it was rated at least four stars on Amazon, which is the bare minimum I will take in regards to sightless buying. So after a few days of fighting with myself, I decided to give it a try, and let me tell you something. It has been the best purchase of $30 in regards to my little girl.

We chose free 2-day shipping as offered with our Amazon Prime and sure as day, it actually arrived on time. The box was surprisingly small. I expected it to be larger than the size of a shoebox honestly, but I’m not complaining.

Once we opened the shipping box, the actual package wasn’t much smaller. So I excitedly opened that box and the play tent came in what I would call a carrying case. It was very neatly packaged and well put together, and I was pretty impressed. However, the true test would be how long it would survive my hellion spawn.

We took everything out of the cute little travel case. It came with three different size pole groups (there were extras included in the event of a pole breaking), the cover, star lights, and some cute little flamingo/pineapple banner. It was pretty easy to assemble, even though the instructions were slightly confusing.

Once fully assembled the tent is large enough to fit my 11-year-old son, my husband and my toddler with minimal space cramping. It’s also tall enough to still have space above my husband’s 6’1″ self sitting crisscross. It’s also high enough for her to stand and hop in without hitting her head.

The biggest takeaway, make sure you put this together in the room you want it in as it’s wider than your doorways.

My only actual complaint would be the star lights. Those were a pain in the behind to untangle. However, they do run on both batteries and a USB cord for constant power. So if you set it up outside, the batteries will keep the lights running. Inside, we have ours connected to a USB charging brick so it’s on all the time.

The lights are super bright too. So bright in fact that we turned off her night light because the tent is brighter than her little IKEA house wall light. However, she loves the tent. She will sit in it for hours and just sing, “star,” over and over again while touching every single one. They don’t get hot, so they’re okay to touch.

She even drags her blanket out of her bed to the play tent to sleep in it when she refuses to go to bed. All that’s left is to get a mat, which I can DIY like a professional Martha Stewart and some stuffed animals. But I mean…Christmas is coming up soon, so her room will be decked out.

But if you’re in the market for a girls play tent, I highly recommend giving this Twinkle Star Princess Play Tent a go. It’s super solid for 30$ and your little one won’t be disappointed.