Pump It Up!!! A Special Birthday!

Grant had his third birthday party at Pump It Up! He had been there one other time with his Parent & Me group with Scott. He was pumped up for about two months. That was a glorious incentive that we could use often. We would often say things like, "Do you want a Pump It Up party? Then, you better start pottying in the toilet....Then, you better eat all of your veggies...Then, you better pick up your toys....Then, you better stop crying...." Now, what do we have? Well, we are onto things like, "Do you want to go to preschool?" I know this seems like an unusual incentive, but the boy is excited about SCHOOL!!! Like mother, like son. LOL (hey, Scott liked school, too...so, Grant had no hope but to love it).

Anyway, we planned Grant's birthday for Pump It Up and had a blast. Everyone we invited showed up (except two friends that fell ill). Anyway, we had nearly 30 kids!! Fun was had by all and I think the adults were just as tired as the kids.

It is really neat because they start off with an informational video and move the kids onto the first room. The first room has a big slide and a lot of inflatable play areas. Then, after 40 minutes in the first room, we move to the second room of inflatables (for another 40 minutes). The kids love the bouncing and they let the adults on, too!! The last 40 minutes is in the food room where you serve food (which we had a bunch of fruit, crackers, and snackie foods for toddlers), sing the birthday song and eat cake! We didn't open the gifts until later. I felt a little bad about that, but I knew Grant would have a meltdown. He has a tendancy to get focused on one gift at a time. I knew it would not be fun for him or anyone watching. I did take pictures of him opening his gifts and shared them with each person that gave him a gift, so they could see the excitement he had with their gift. I also, was scared to push him too much since he was sick the day before.

The party lasted for two hours (and actually they let us go over that). It was great and we were exhausted afterwards. Most importantly, Grant was tired and went right to sleep (and we had this in the morning).