A Tale of Two Parties

About 12 hours after my last post I am sitting down to make this one. Whew! What a long day. The kids just went to bed and will probably sleep for the next 3 days...

We left the house around noon and headed into South Philly to go to Tunnels of Fun, and after taking the wrong exit off of I95 and quickly buzzing by Terminals A thru F at Philadelphia International Airport, we successfully landed at Tunnels of Fun on 20th Street in South Philly. This place has moved to the top of my list of places to take the kids. It is very similar to Keller's Gym and Jumpers but on a MUCH smaller scale and for MUCH smaller children. There is an age limit of 7 years old at TOF. It is about the size of a house, not a warehouse like some of these other places. They only have several small jungle gym set-ups and a single party room in the back (with seats for adults, too) but it is definitely enough. Also - the set-up is condusive to watching high order multiples while simultaneously allowing them to run free. But enough about the place... the party itself was awesome! The kids loved the balls, especially Anna, which was great because she usually hates these types of places. Before we knew it it was 3pm and it was time to load up and head over to Oasis for Dominica's party at 4pm... but wait... we made a mistake - that party doesn't start until 5:30pm! We have one and a half hours to kill and not enough time to go home and make it worth while... What should we do?!

Go to The Mall.

Yup - we gluttons were extra gluttonous today. Black Friday weekend and we about to brave the mall with all 5 kids. We knew Santa would be there (and the kids happened to be dressed nicely for the parties) and hopefully we could find some great sales as well... a win win situation.



The kids were great, by the way. They got to see Santa and stayed in their stollers the entire time (except for when they sat on the Big Man's lap. After Tunnels of Fun, I think they were happy to take a load off for awhile.

Onto Oasis. If Tunnels of Fun is nice little getaway for you and your toddler, Oasis is the freakin' mothership. This place makes Disney World look small. It is located in a HUGE warehouse with more slides, jungle gyms, and tunnels than Rhode Island has roads. This place is sent from God if you are a kid... not so much if you are the parent of 4 three year-olds and a five year old and your job is keeping track of them all. It as a really fun party but this place was work. It was geared for all ages - meaning they had stuff for little kids all the way up to big kids. (Like one of the kid's dad's who came to the party and was introduced to Geana and I as, "That's my husband over there - playing Pac Man." No lie - he was playing Pac Man for the rest of the time - 3 hours. Play time for kids... still playing Pac Man. Dinner time... still playing Pac Man. Singing Happy Birthday... still playing Pac Man. Eating cake time... still playing Pac Man. Dude - it's a kid's party - play with your freakin' kid! You only have ONE you lazy shmuck! Father's like that make me sick. Dads like that are who gives us hard workin' Dads a bad name!) Anyway - it was a good time!

We got home, put the kids up, blogged, and now I'm turning in. For you see - tomorrow is Justin's birthday party in Princeton at 11:30am @ the local YMCA. No rest for the weary 'round these parts. This weekend I will have:

Celebrated birthdays at 3 separate parties.
Ate 1 Thanksgiving Dinner
Attended a parade
Set-up my TV in the basement
Did a bunch of laundry
and...
watched ZERO football games... good thing the Steelers play Monday Night.

Whew! Good night, all.