Hi, and welcome to the forum!!

What type of pool you get is entirely up to you, but I can tell you what WE did....

When we built our pool, my girls were 2 and 4. We built a vinyl liner, IG, 18 x 38 hopper shaped with 4 ft shallow end, 8 1/2 foot deep end. We have a slide and diving board. Our kids are now 10 and 12, and our back yard is the place to be for all the kids down the street during the summer--5 of them total that don't live here but spend most of their day in the pool, plus any school friends my girls happen to have over, so my average bather load on any given day is 5 or 6 kids, plus our German Shepherd. The size of our pool has been fine, never really had any desire for anything bigger, although if we had gone smaller, it would have been too small at times. If you have a diving board and/or slide, you have to make sure there's enough depth in the deeper end to keep from hitting heads on the pool bottom, and I wouldn't go any more shallow than 8 1/2 feet, but it's been plenty deep for us. If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely keep the diving board and the slide--they've been indespensable for keeping kids from getting bored from swimming every day. I guess the only thing I would change is I would have added a SWCG into the package when we built it. I know a lot more about pool keeping now than I did then, but I would recommend the SWCG for two reasons: 1)in our climate (I'm in Northwest Louisiana, don't know what part of Texas you're in, but I think we'll have similar climates) a SWCG would keep a more even, consistent chlorine level in the pool, reducing the possibility of getting an algae outbreak because the sun or bather load consumed more chlorine than you thought, and 2) With kids, anything you can do to save time and money is a sure bet--and having an SWCG will save you time on your pool maintenance.

Again, what works for your family is entirely up to you, but that's the experience we've had so far. Never regretted putting it in, and one so far my kids are nowhere near outgrowing what we have. Plus, the girls and their friends are always here, where I can keep an eye on them and not wonder what they're up to. Just be prepared for your food bill to go up during the summertime!!