Birthday Bash at BounceU

As against the "never-on-time" reputation we hold, we were 10 minutes early for Jay's party on Saturday (Sep 19, 2009) at Bounce U. After all we were the hosts:) We were shown to a waiting room which was packed with a few candy machines and games. Except for a couple of 2 year olds no one else even eyed the games. They were all eagerly waiting for the bigger fun. When most of our guests had signed in, they played us the video of what to expect. The 5 minute film was mind-blowing. It caught everyone's attention tremendously. Even Jay, who cannot sit through any TV program other than Barney was glued on to his seat without any distractions. I was totally taken aback....but honestly, all that they showed looked possible to me in an outdoor setting until I stepped into the bouncing rooms.

As a first timer at BounceU, I had no clue on what the rooms actually looked like. I was certain that this was yet another what-you-see-is-not-what-you-get thingy. By then the kids had already started hooting and screaming with excitement. I was just keeping my fingers crossed that the kids don’t get disappointed. At 6:10pm sharp the hosts let us inside the first room to bounce. My heart was racing not knowing what was impending. I was dumbstruck with what I encountered. The bouncing paraphernalia and attractions in the room were no different to what they had shown us outside the room.

Jay being the centre of attraction walked into the room first escorted by me. All I remember is we entering together. That’s it. Before I could look down to give him instructions, he was gone. Jay had already squeezed himself through one of the huge blowups and started bouncing. The entire 1 hr and 15 minutes that we were given to bounce I hardly caught a glance of him. He was busy bouncing with his friends, running around from one blow up to another, experimenting the slides with his teachers.

I decided to exploit this golden opportunity to the fullest extent. I am calling this golden because I have never had a birthday party experience without running behind Jay. All I would be entitled with in the birthday parties is "Jay monitoring" when Dad would either conveniently stay home busy with his laptop or settle down in a cozy corner in the party catching up with his friends. Our party was one of the path breakers where every soccer mom had the rarest lucky chance to remain unbothered for a major part of the fun. Of course we were back to square one when it came to dinner but then kids eating/feeding and Moms are a deadly combination. We choose to remain inseparable. I had delegated the photography to Dad and bounced to my hearts content!!

There were four blowups in one large room. There was an obstacle course which most of the older kids loved, a slide, a boxing ring with balls, a couple of basketball hoops and another larger bounce house which turned out to be exclusive for Jay, his school friends and teachers. It was a great workout for all the kids and the moms who joined the bouncing fun. None of the dads even attempted to move their muscles. Some of them were busy baby sitting the younger ones who could only get to the pony blow ups, few of them absconded from the scene playing the perfect chauffer role and the others were busy chatting!!!

We had a full house - 25 kids excluding Jay. After the bouncing, all of us were directed to a party room where Jay blew off the 3 candles on his cake with the Birthday song in chorus in the background and we assisted him in cutting his Elmo Cake. Nearly everyone of the kids wanted to go in for a second round of bouncing but it was time to say good-bye. Jay even tried to crash a party which started an hr later than ours. We had to literally carry him to the car as he was least interested in leaving the venue.

It was a very reviving and relaxing party where I did not have to physically take care of any of the logistics. A 20 minute phone call with the Bounce U coordinators did all the magic. Sunday was Jay's BounceU hangover day - every time we stepped out he assumed it was to Bounce U and when Dad turned the car in a different direction he was whining big time. He had already started planning for his next birthday party - needless to say he wants it at the earliest in BounceU:).

All in all, everyone had a great time. I just learnt that we can organize Play dates also at BounceU - hoping to do one soon for Jay and catch up on some good fun for thy self too!!