Gabriel and Julian "Pump It Up"

Today our Sunday outing was to Duncan's 4th birthday party, at a place called "Pump it Up." It's a place with huge rooms with several inflatables -- slides, obstacle courses and gigantic jump houses. There must have been 30 kids invited, so it was a perfect place for a big party. The party started out in one room with various slides and jumphouses, then moved to another room with yet more, then into a banquet room for pizza and cake.

I half-expected Gabriel to get stuck in the inflatable obstacle courses, as he did in a similar thing last fall at a fair. He's really not that good at climbing up the "ladders" in those things, but this time, he did fine. He almost didn't stop laughing or running, he had such a great time tackling all the equipment.

Julian, typically, would have nothing whatsoever to do with the jump houses or obstacle course, not with me, and certainly not on his own. But, the second room had a ball play area, with nets to hold the balls and a backboard with various holes to throw the balls into. This was much more his speed, and he had a great time kicking and chasing the balls.

I did get Julian to go down one big slide, but only when I carried him up the ladder (urf) and then held him while we zoomed down. Those slides go FAST, and the stops at the bottom are not designed for adults, who barrel right over them onto their butts! Fortunately, Julian laughed the whole way. I went down with Gabriel a few times too, he loved doing that with me ("come ON, Mom!").

I love seeing them zoom around happily, what a perfect party!