Two weekends ago we had Thomas’s ninth birthday party.  We recently joined the new Lifetime Fitness here in town, and they have a party package, so we decided to give them a shot.  Although the kids had fun, I’m not sure I’d do this again.  We got the use of an aerobics room to eat pizza and cake, which was fun — the kids ran around and played in the big open spaces and had a good time.  After that they all went out to the pool.

That’s a story in itself:  when Robin had set up the party originally, they had said that the outdoor pool would be open the weekend of the 29th.  The party was the weekend of the 22nd.  So you’d assume we’d be in the indoor pool.  When we got there, everyone was outside and we were informed that there was no choice; the party would have to be outside.  They did scrounge up some sunscreen, since no one had brought any.  Unfortunately, it was not waterproof or water-resistant, so we ended up having to go get our own from the car.

I supervised Katherine most of the time while the other kids all swam around in groups and played.  We had a bit of an issue when we couldn’t remember how many of Thomas’s school friends actually showed up for the party; Robin thought there had been only four, and I only remembered three.  We could only locate three in the pool.  To resolve the issue, we wanted to get the release forms from the party, but the three staff kids (and I do mean kids; they had to be just 15 or 16 years old) had not been thorough about getting the forms signed, so that wasn’t conclusive.  They also hadn’t been paying much attention during the party, being much more concerned with flirting and talking amongst themselves.  Anything we wanted to have done we had to push them into doing, and they spent no time actually playing with or leading activities for the kids despite the fact that their presence was required for the duration of the party.

We left with a pretty negative impression of the Lifetime Fitness party setup; I think next year we’ll go back to the Matt Ross community center or try another set of activities.

On the plus side — as I said, all the kids had fun and we got some great pictures.  Here they are!

Tags: Birthday, Thomas

The Waterslide at Matt Ross Pool

His birthday was actually over a week ago, but we had the party yesterday.  Robin set it up for the Matt Ross Community Center in Overland Park, which turned out to be a great place to have it.  There was a party room with a sink and refrigerator there, their staff set up the decorations and took care of wheeling supplies to and from the room on some large food-service carts, and everyone got to swim in the zero-depth pool and go down the waterslides afterwards.

Unfortunately, few of the kids invited were able to make it to the party; we had two boys from his class, and two of his non-school friends.  But that was enough.  They all hung out together and had a great time chasing and going down the waterslide.

And more unfortunately, I left the community center missing my glasses; I had taken them off while getting Katherine into her swimming suit, and apparently forgot to pick them up again.  Lost and Found hasn’t collected them yet, and if they don’t come across them by tomorrow I’ll be off to Lenscrafter’s again.  I needed my prescription rechecked anyway.

Tags: Birthday, Thomas