It's gonna be jumpin'

 Ah, the joys of an entire warehouse filled with enormous inflatable playhouses.  You can bounce, you can jump, you can run, you can climb, you can spin, you can slide.

Oh yes, and I suppose Lily had fun too.

Last week I finally took Lily to this bounce house playground down the street from us.  Although it took her some time to get over her fear of the noisy generators and the giant balloon houses she was certain would collapse at any moment at trap her inside, she had a blast.  We were there for hours, runnning from one brightly-colored house to another in a giddy, zany quest to beat the world record for the most bounces in a single afternoon.

By the time I dragged an exhausted and exhilarated Lily from this wonderland of excitement, we were both sweaty and deliciously spent from our day of fun.

I'll admit that I was  bit nervous about this activity.  Lily was just *so* excited.  I was worried that it wouldn't be all she was hoping for and my little girl would be disappointed.  My worries escalated when we walked into the room and she shrank into my side, eyes engulfing her little face, and started shaking.

But then we found the toddler play area and I breathed a sigh of relief.  It was just a small inflatable, not an enclosed house, and Lily got to cut her teeth, so to speak, on the whole bounce house experience.  Gradually, she got used to the idea and soon she was bouncing like a pro.

It was a great place to take her.  Everything was clean and in order.  They had sanitizing wipes outside each bounce house, and they even had a sectioned off area filled with toys in case kids grew tired of bouncing.  There was a snack bar with - get this - healthy snacks.  No candy bars or cans of soda here.  No sir.  This snack bar was filled with apples, oranges, bananas, juice and water.

Happy kids, happy moms and affordable prices.  It was the perfect, cheap activity to exhaust the bug into passing out two hours before her normal bedtime (and sleeping 30 minutes later than usual the next morning). 

I was worried about overstimulating, thinking it would be too much for her.  But seriously, what's not to love about this place?  I don't plan on going everyday, but I could handle once a week.