We Had So Much Fun At iPlay America

I received ride passes and game cards from iPlay America to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own. Or my kids'. Or my husband's. All the (dreadful) pictures are mine, but you can get a really good look at iPlay America on their 3D tour. 

On Saturday, we should have been going to the welcome picnic at our local lake. Except that Saturday's weather was not the kind of weather for picnics, swimming or even being outside. I love my home state - and we have some lovely days - but it seems like New Jersey's weather is getting worse and worse. Which is why whoever created iPlay America and placed it within a half an hour of many shore points is a genius. Now when it rains during your beach vacation, you can just go to the indoor boardwalk at iPlay America.

We got a tour when we arrived. Here is the very kind Eric showing the family one of the cooler arcade games. It's set up like a giant square, with two sections that are like the boardwalk and two sections like the city. The giant arcade sets in the center. 

It kind of reminded me of a family-friendly casino; all bright and exciting and with no connection to the outside world. 

I think this is how you bribe your kids to leave. 

We spent a lot of time in the arcade area. There were games for every skill level and every preference. All the kids played several rounds of skee-ball and Hot Guy found plenty of complicated shooter type games. 

This is what we did while waiting for each kid to have a turn at the Go-Karts (they all had to go with an adult). The fishing game was pretty easy. 

But they had a good time doing it. 

And there were prizes after each turn. 

The Go-Karts developed quite a line as the afternoon wore on (when we go again, we will go at 10am when they open, because it got much more crowded in general around 3). The kids loved their rides around the track. 

One of the first things we did was laser tag. Well, Hot Guy, Ironflower and Lovebug did laser tag - Hugmonkey freaked out as everyone was putting on their vests so he and I left. Lovebug was apprehensive (he doesn't like the dark), but he fell in love with it. Hot Guy says they have a great system and area for it. Next the family daredevils did the kiteflyer, which they described as very fun. 

There were lots of air hockey tables in the central arcade area. We LOVE air hockey. 

And there was a huge climbing structure for kids over 32 inches tall and less than 100 pounds. 6 credits gets kids unlimited play time there. It was Hugmonkey's favorite thing; I kind of enjoyed relaxing and watching them for a few minutes, to be honest. The area near the climbing structure also had a bunch of games geared just for preschoolers - the air hockey table there was the perfect size for Hugmonkey. 

Hugmonkey did not want to do the bumper cars. Hugmonkey might have been a little overwhelmed with the noise. As Hot Guy pointed out, "It's like a carnival without all the carnies." And carnivals - especially when they're indoors - are loud. So that would be my complaint, if you forced me to have one. But I'll take the noise level for the cleanliness of the facilities and the kindness of the employees at iPlay America. 

Lovebug went on the boat ride (similar to the Dumbo ride at Disney) while Ironflower went on the giant swing. Needless to say, I could not get a decent picture of her on the giant swing. But to be fair, this was after we all went on the dragon ride. Which is a spinning ride. Did I mention that I had a horrible head cold going on? Yeah, spinning around and around is not good when your sinuses are already messed up. I was dizzy for the next half hour. 

I did manage to get a photo of a party room, though. My kids would flip out to go to or have a birthday party here. 

One thing I really liked is that instead of collecting all those tickets in the arcade, everything was saved on your card, so you didn't have to worry about losing tickets or whatever. And when you collected your prizes or were finished with your ride cards you could drop them in one of these boxes to be recycled. 

There are lots of places to eat; many are boardwalk style places for treats like funnel cakes and frozen yogurt. But there's also a huge sports bar with really yummy spinach dip and very tasty chocolate cake. It was great to relax there after our busy day. It had pool tables and giant screens for sports; I saw one dad relaxing there with a beer while his older kids went off and did various activities. 

It took us about an hour to get there and it was TOTALLY worth it. I highly recommend it. 

Bite-Sized Nature

One of my happy places is the James A. McFaul Environmental Center in a neighboring town. I've shared pictures of it before, too. But I don't care, because this winter was long and terrible and I wasn't able to go to my happy place for months on end. So you're getting more pictures, because we (finally!) got to go there for a nice family hike last week.

This is on the observation deck, which gives a beautiful view of the pond. 

Usually the peacocks and peahens roam around freely, but this time they were locked up in here. And from the sounds they were making, I don't think they were happy about it. 

These little bridges are my favorite. 

One of the trees on the far side had a nest of owlets. When we walked over there, a bunch of people were watching them through telescopes. They let us have a turn looking; it was so cool. 

Of course there was geocaching. We're still struggling with one that's supposed to be in this area. 

I think what I love about the environmental center is that it's so accessible. There's even a boardwalk with ramps so that people in wheelchairs can explore a bit. And it's like 10 minutes from my house. And you don't have to worry about packing a ton of water or going to the bathroom in the woods because you're never more than 15 minutes walk from the main building. I like nature - I just don't want to be overwhelmed by nature. 

Wandering Wednesday: Back to the Center

The Environmental Center, that is.

For a short hike in between the town poster painting contest and the open house at the fire station. I would share pictures of those events, except that then I would have to blur out the faces of all the people we know who are also in the pictures and that seemed like a lot of effort when I have pictures like this:

This is the kind of stuff we hide far away from our turnpikes and interstates so that more people don't move here.

The kids had a blast. Of course, it helped that there were some geocaches there.

Getting ready to start the search. 

That's a fox in the cage behind them. 

There must be a silly pose. 

But I like the pensive ones better. 

See?

This way my kids can't complain that we're never in the pictures, which is what I say to my parents all the time. 

More searching for clues. 

Hugmonkey was "mining" in the dirt. Thanks, Minecraft. 

Swimming and Other Natural Disasters

On Saturday, I tried to take my kids swimming. It sounds so simple. But, much like keeping a clean house or resisting bagels, things that are simple for other people are kind of challenging for me.

My first challenge was getting Hot Guy up and going. Unless Hot Guy has a pressing reason to be up early, he is a night owl. But we had to go early, because Hot Guy had a pressing reason to be somewhere in the afternoon (this should have been my first clue to delay the whole enterprise, but it was such a perfect pool day). So there might have been some snapping and grumbling.

Then I had to assemble the troops and get bathing suits, sunblock and water shoes on them. Then I had to pack the car with noodles, snacks, towels, sand toys, beach chairs and the new kick board. There might have been some reminders that whiny children don't get to go swimming.

Then we had to drive to our local pool. Now, we are not members of our local pool, which is really a very large pond. It's not cheap and I don't know anyone who goes there, making it unappealing for times when I might consider taking all 3 kids myself (which - spoiler alert! - is never going to happen now.) But as residents, we have been able to buy day passes in the past.

Not, apparently, anymore.

We could not swim in our town's pond without paying a full family membership. So I called my parents, who are members of their town's pool, by virtue of being senior citizens (but for us to join that pool would be even more expensive, FYI). My Dad agreed to meet us at his town pool so that we could be his guests, because after all that build up and preparation we couldn't possible tell the kids that we would be skipping the pool altogether.

By the time we got settled at my parents' town pool, the whole thing had taken almost 2 hours.

We could have driven to the shore and gone to a real beach (that doesn't demand several hundred dollar membership) for that amount of time.

I am reasonably sure that Lovebug and Ironflower had fun once we got there, but I can't be positive because sandbox loving/ wading pool adoring ChunkyMonkey hated the whole experience.

And as soon as Hot Guy went to get himself some food, ChunkyMonkey decided to let me know how much he hated the experience. He was mad that I didn't have snack packs. He was mad that he couldn't eat the crackers he'd thrown in the sand. He was mad that I wouldn't let him head butt me. He was mad that I wouldn't let him hold the open bottle of apple juice. It was like all the tension of the morning exploded out of him in the world's longest, loudest tantrum. Eventually Hot Guy took him to the car while I watched the older kids from the beach chair where I'd collapsed.

Not exactly the fun family day I'd had in mind.