Just Add Children
*Originally written 5/28/13*
Last Sunday we went to a birthday party at Just Add Children. Just Add Children is an indoor play place. It was different then what I was expecting. I read their website before we left and for some reason I thought there would be separate rooms for everything but it is just one area, with the exception of the video game room.
When we walked in I had to sign the boys in and then we had to leave our shoes and my purse there in the lobby. Everyone is required to wear socks to go in the play area, no shoes. Once you leave the lobby area (to the right) the video game room is straight in front of you and to the left is the play area. It is closed off by one of those child safety gates that you would put at the top of the stairs or something. It’s much smaller then I thought it was going to be. When you walk in there is an area for babies to play to your right. To the left there is a little log cabin. JT went in there for about a minute but I think it was setup like a nursery. I saw a baby crib and some other baby stuff in there. Next to that the area was setup as a house, mainly just the kitchen area though. In the middle of the room on the left side wall there is a castle that has dress-up clothes, there is stuff for boys and girls. On one side of the castle there was a veterinary play area. Going to the right from the castle there is a trampoline and then a pirate ship and then on the right side wall an inflatable for kids 3 and under. Last we have the back of the room. The left corner had a tool area, a train table, and two air hockey tables on the back wall. In the middle there was the big inflatable and on the back right wall there was a little basketball thing, like the basketball games in arcades. JT was pretty excited because he’s 3 so he could go in.
When we walked in Connor went straight to the trampoline. It had a netting around it so you had to unzip it to get in and it was one child at a time. At first JT was waiting for him but I guess he got tired of waiting and decided to go somewhere else. Connor wasn’t even in there for 5 minutes though. Once he got out, the boys went in the big inflatable.
After that they mostly played on the pirate ship. There is a treasure chest full of pirate vests, shirts, and hats to dress up in. There are also some big fish and for some reason a snake (maybe the snake doesn’t actually belong there).
JT decided to play on one of the baby toys in his pirate outfit. We used to have one of these but it was a zebra. You can also see the log cabin in this picture, the washer and dryer that is part of the house play area, and the gate at the entrance.
After running around the pirate ship and going in the inflatable again it was time for pizza. There are two party rooms and they are to the left as you walk in the building. The party was for a girl so the room was decorated with Disney princesses and Monster High. Once they were done eating the kids could go back to the play area. This time Connor decided to dress up as Spiderman and play air hockey with his brother. There was another little boy that wanted to play and he asked who was going to play with him so I played air hockey with him on the other table until another little boy came along.
After that the boys went in the inflatable again, sometimes JT would go in the little one too. Connor then decided to dress up as Superman and just ran around with some of the other boys that were dressed up. While Connor played with them JT decided to go check out the other areas but he only played in each long enough for me to get a picture…so maybe two minutes.
Once Connor took off his Superman costume the boys played in the Pirate ship again for a little bit and then JT went to the kitchen area. He does like to cook, he helps me a lot in the kitchen. I usually let him decide whether a dish needs more of something and he will add what he thinks it’s missing.
Connor had been wanting to check out the video game room so we went in there next and some kids were playing a dance game on the Wii and the boys were able to sit down and play something also, it may have been Mario, I’m not sure. The video game room has glow in the dark paint which is cool but not many kids can play at a time. There is two games on the wall and then the TV in the middle that has the Wii. They were only able to play for a few minutes though because then it was time for cake and presents. There was only about 15-20 minutes left of the scheduled party time at this point. As soon as the birthday girl was done opening her presents and the boys were done with their cake we left. The boys had a lot of fun here, however, I probably wouldn’t bring them here for open play. I don’t know how many people bring their kids here but it seems too small for open play. It was perfect for the party because there were maybe 10 kids. I wouldn’t want to be here though if there are more then that, it seems like to would just get too crowded with any more kids and parents. So, while we probably won’t ever go back (unless someone else has a party here), the boys had a lot of fun.
