Grand Opening - Play Cafe

Play Cafe had it's grand opening week in August and everyone got free admission, so we decided to schedule a play date so everyone could check it out.Of course, first thing first, all the babies headed right to the ball pit. Up the stairs and diving right in, Chloe right after Holly like follow the leader. It is neat that all the balls are the same color.

Then next thing Jack follows the girls in too. Holly is very used to playing in the ball pit so had no fear, once she jumped in the other's were eager to explore and follow.

Inside the ball pit was secret underwater treasure, but you had to dig deep to find them, sparkle and green they did stand out, but it was easy for them to get buried too.Holly loved the ball pit so much that she was practically just lounging around in an ocean, might be her most favorite thing next to actually being in the water. It is great sensory input.Sachi wasn't a super fan of the ball pit. The girls eventually coaxed her in, but she was being really shy all afternoon. It was a new place for her, so it took a bit for her to get used to it.
Eventually everyone climbed out and began to explore the rest of play cafe. Though I think these stairs are a menace. Both Jack and Holly fell down them during the play date. They were both ok and recovered, but they are a little narrow and there is no padding at the base of them for a soft landing.When she fell they gave me some ice, and a free icey for Holly to eat to cheer her up. She put it on her head more then the bag of ice, but she didn't really need it, she didn't even get a bump.The girls took a snack break ofter the fall, Chloe got an icey too and they both had a few snacks and Holly ate some cheese and bananas.After that they both decided to go shopping, they loved pushing the carts around. Even though there were two, they each wanted the one the other was pushing.Here is my little cutie walking around like she owns the place. I love that little outfit. Holly was having a lot of fun at the cafe exploring.In the little cafe area Chloe and Holly found some lockers and of course pulled everything out of them.Here is little Jaden he is just learning to walk, his mom Kimberly recently joined the group but lives in San Leandro, so she doesn't get many opportunities to attend all our meet-ups. This one was scheduled late afternoon, so the timing was right.Holly wanted to steal this cart too, but I redirected her, as he needed it much more then she did. It was amazing watching him just learning to push it around and give him mobility.So she settled on just taking out some of the groceries that were in the cart and stacking them back in the kitchen cabinets.Eventually she lost interest and decided to play with Jake. We don't get to see him and his mom Delly very often because they like near Fremont, but she was able to make it up for this event.Jake is just about 6 weeks younger then Holly if I recall correctly. They had fun with dress up. First they were putting the hats on and then Jake had this cape.My little goof ball didn't want to wear a full costume, but she was happy to run around with a toy in her mouth and making silly faces.When Holly was exploring the baby toy area she found this baby Elmo and cookie monster. Normally she wouldn't think twice about them, but when you hit a button they rocked and sang and moved around.She was fascinated. But soon she was getting herself back into "trouble" and her and Jake went to explore the lockers and cabinets.But I was able to distract her with her favorite puzzle. It is the latch one. Joel wants to make her one like this with parts from Home Depot, it could be fun to have an original.Here is Sachi and her mom Tashi. She was being shy and hanging on her mom's leg most of the afternoon but we managed to get a few smiles out of her.Eventually we coaxed Sachi back into the ball pit, she seemed to enjoy it and liked watching the other kids play, she soaked it all in.

Little Jaden was feeling left out and couldn't play on his own in the ocean so his Mommy decided to jump in with him so he wouldn't miss out on the action.

It was getting to be towards the end of the evening, so all of us mom's decided it would be fun to jump into the ball pit with the kids, it was neat to not be a grown up for a few minutes and hang out. We had a wonderful time.