The Ball Factory

Last week, I took my boys to the coolest play place. It's called The Ball Factory, and the boys had an amazing time. I can use this place as a reward for almost anything, it's so much fun.

Check out Henry dancing on this cool "fish tank."

Almost all of my pictures from that day ended up blurry. I'm not sure why. 

So, why, you ask, is it called The Ball Factory? Check out this room right here. . .

Picture a room with shooters facing one another, foam balls flying past your face, and little kids shrieking with joy as they bombard one another with flying missiles.

Besides the ball room, there's also an area for little kids (under 4), which Henry checked out for awhile. The best part of this place is that there's only one way out, so even if you temporarily lose track of your kids (it's hard not to if you have more than one), there's only one way in and out and it's easy to find them.

Can you see Henry climbing on the squishy furniture? He loved it! He also loved the "Bug-Eyed" Yogurt with marshmallows for eyes.

I can remember, as a child, playing outside or in the basement for hours on end with only occasional checks with my parents. I actually think this kind of unstructured playtime is critical for kids, but I often have to curtail it (and supervise) because of the excessive amount of mess and/or danger my sons can find in five minutes flat. There were no such worries here--I could play with my boys for a bit, one at a time, and then go sit and get some work done.

Henry liked this area with the pedal tractors a whole lot. 

Grandma Toni and I were able to work on information for her cruise, and I was able to grade lots of papers for my graduate school students, all while the boys had the time of their lives.

I couldn't get any non-blurry pictures of Henry here, because he was excited and wiggling.

The boys ate a yummy lunch of yogurt and a giant fruit cup, then ran off to climb and play some more.

Nick loved this place so much he didn't want to take off his wristband. I told him he'd have to get a new wristband anyway when we went again, but he didn't believe me and left it on just in case.