Empire

On a whim, my wife arranged a playdate with Troy, Misha, and Sasha today at Kids Empire. It's an indoor playground similar to the Safari Run place we had gone to for that birthday party. Since it was pretty cold outside today, it was actually a perfect way for the kids to get some exercise. This place was much bigger than Safari Run, and it had a lot more for the kids to do. Within seconds, they were gone, leaving us behind to try to find them in the throng of kids and parents. It was pretty packed and pretty chaotic, but they seemed to have a really good time. 

There was stuff to climb, obstacles to push through or shimmy over, slides to race down, and banded towers to fall down. They even had a motorcycle ride that they kids could do, where they got to drive a little motorcycle around a track under the play equipment. Although, you had to pay extra for this, and they only had two motorcycles going, so there was quite a line. Besides the super-steep slide, where they kids literally plunged down at break-neck speeds, their favorite part was this little slide off to one side. 

You had to have a sled to go down it, and the sled would move over the rollers pretty fast before sliding to a halt at the bottom. Misha and Troy struggled to carry the heavy sleds up the stairs, so I climbed into the apparatus with them. Then, they'd situate themselves, and I'd push the sleds onto the rollers to get them started. Pretty soon, other kids were asking me to help them too (I guess I was mistaken for an employee), so I was stuck at the top of the ride, pushing kids onto the rollers over and over. Even some of the parents asked me to help with their kids, so they didn't have to crawl up there too. I broke up a couple of squabbles as well and generally kept the peace. It was fun.

I'd definitely recommend the place, despite it being pretty crowded. There was a lot for the kids to do to keep them engaged and interested, and it was a great way to get out their excessive energy. You only have to pay for the kids entrance fee, and the adults get in for free. We stayed long enough to roll into lunch, so we decided to go to Razzoo's and get Troy some shrimp. He ended up completely missing his naptime, so we just kept him up and played with him some more at home. He was so exhausted from the day, that he fell asleep in my wife's arms at 7:30 p.m. without even having dinner.