We don't have kids in our close neighborhood for my kids to play with regularly. And lately Spencer and Tessa have been fighting more and more together. I realize I need to make more of an effort for Spencer to play with other boys his age and for Tessa to play with other girls her age. So I'm trying. Last week I was able to arrange 2 playdates for Spencer. One with his best friend from kindergarten and one with his best friend in first grade. And I arranged for 2 with Tessa. Every Monday a high school friend of mine and I are switching houses to let our girls play together--they're almost exactly 1 year apart in age. I also picked my neice up to have her come over and play. She is only 2 months younger than Tessa and Tessa's most favorite playmate. Plus my sister just barely had a new baby (who is so dang cute and sweet by the way) so I thought maybe it would help her out if I entertained her little one for a few hours. Tessa and A get along sooooo well--they really seem to be on the same brain-wave most of the time. I love watching the two of them play together. So for this week Spencer went to his best from kindergarten's house after school one day. His first after-school playdate. Because it was already 4 by the time I got him there his friend's dad invited him to stay for dinner. Another first. Thankfully it all went well and his dad told me Spencer was a real good eater. Yes, he definitely is that. Unlike his sisters... I also arranged a playdate for him with another boy in his first grade class for today after school. Tessa got her regular Monday playdate and another one this morning with a girl in our outer neighborhood whose mom had a doctor appointment.
Anyhow, because of Spencer's playdate today I knew I would have to do something different for Friday fun day. I had bought another Planet Play deal on City Deals and thankfully Planet Play is one of the places still honoring City Deals. I figured today would be a good time to use that. I picked Spencer up at 4 (it was short day at school) and brought him home. Then I helped the kids pick up the toy room, TV room, front room, and their bedrooms. Spencer whined, complained, and cried about it but Tessa was amazingly cooperative (because she knew we were going to Planet Play as soon as we cleaned up).
I blogged about Planet Play back in June and put some pictures up back then. Because I knew I already had posted pictures combined with the fact that Tessa was wearing navy sweat pants under her pink dress and had been doing gymnastics in the house making her double french braids look like she had been electrocuted, I intentionally left my camera home tonight.
Tonight was much busier than the last time we went to Planet Play. There were some sports groups and plenty of families. Although I typically don't like crowds, that meant the pizza was being replenished quicker and was therefore fresher and tastier. Still not somewhere I would go only for the food, but the food was actually not bad. Small salad bar, lots of different pizzas, baked potatoes, pasta, fresh apple slices, dessert, and drinks for $9 adult and $7 kids and kids 3 and under are free. Reasonable. However, the prices for their games and rides are not reasonable. Hence the City Deals. We got 4 buffets and $50 of game cards. I really don't remember what I paid for this deal but it was somewhere between $30-$40. Now that I think is a good deal to feed and entertain the whole family. (Definitely not worth the $86 it was valued at)
The kids loved choosing their own food and actually getting soda, although they each only drank about 2 swallows of it, and getting dessert! After eating we headed to play. Tessa was too short for the bumper cars so Brodie went with Spencer. They had sooo much fun. The "bumper cars" are really more like little hover crafts. They were spinning around in circles and gliding around occasionally bumping each other. Then they went to the pretend race cars and Spencer rode with Brodie around there. Meanwhile I took the girls to the little climbing/sliding area that I like better than Jungle Jim's because it's easier to navigate and they have a little section for toddlers like Clara (which she LOVED). They also rode the little carousel like the one at Chuck E Cheese and rode a little one person race car ride that slowly goes around in a circle.
Then we started playing some of the arcade games. I do like that the tickets accumulate on the cards rather than having to keep track of paper tickets. Eventually Spencer and Brodie caught up with us and then Brodie took Tessa on the race car ride while I helped Spencer and Clara play games. It didn't take too long for the $50 of game cards to disappear. Thanks to a couple of the $2 games we added some tickets to the cards to make up for all the playing we did with them so we accumulated 700 tickets. I do like the prize selection here better than Chuck E Cheese, Classic, and Jungle Jim's. Spencer got a 40" plush snake, toy handcuffs, a couple popper things, and a black bracelet. Tessa got a pink 40" plush snake, 2 pencil topper stamps, and a little yellow duck. Clara got a little princess bag (she LOVES purses), a little duck, and a couple bracelets. The kids were ecstatic about their new prizes. And I don't even see myself throwing any of them away in the next few days.
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