Playin’ at the Patch
9th September 2008
I wanted to see Jen O., and Jen wanted to see me, but Jen has a newborn and didn’t want to tidy her house, and I wanted the kids occupied so I could fish for second-newborn survival tips, so a few weeks ago we decided to meet up at a play centre and stuff said newborn into a sack so we could talk.
(Look! Newborn in a sack! Also, Jen. Only a few weeks postpartum, and don’t you want to smack her because it looked like she was never pregnant?)
We went to Pumpkin Patch Play Centre in Bowmanville, a place we’ve both wanted to visit for ages. Lucy and Eirinn, you can see, had a blast.
The centre is geared towards the 0-5 set, with a fluffy section for immobile and crawling babies, plus jumpers and swings. There’s also a convenient couch in the midst of the fluff section, perfect for parents to lounge while babies, well, lounge, too.
I loved the neat selection of dress-up clothes, hats and accessories sure to keep older kids entertained. Lucy and Eirinn poked through the pile, but their
real interest was with the awesomeness that is the giant plastic pirate ship and treehouse gym things. Up and down and up and down the slide, crawling in and out of the port holes and ramps.
The girls also loved the magnetic chalkboard at the back. And took great and rather…disturbing pleasure in chucking dolls in and out of the ball pit. Loved that the ball pit has a teeny slide, and isn’t too deep to make it intimidating for smaller kids.
There were lots of other play pieces, including a kitchen with food, shopping cart, lawnmower and tons of stuffed animals and dolls.
It’s not a huge place, however. I think it’d feel really crowded with any more than a dozen kids (plus parents) running around.
Pumpkin Patch Play also has a kitchen, great change table room, kid-friendly bathroom and potty, and snacks for purchase. A great place for kids and parents alike to blow
off some steam.
Check them out here. Babies under 6 months are free, and there are lots of family and multi-visit payment options.
Possibly related posts:
I may be skinny, but I look like death.
well on the bright side, after my second I dropped about 40 pounds in 3 weeks (remember 20 of it is baby + baby-goo), the other 20 dropped as a result of having two children. 1 newborn and one who was not a newborn but disliked the newborn. So with no sleep and looking after two kids, the weight just came right off. I was a size 10/12 pre-pregnancy and a 8 post. I used to be able to sit on the couch eating bon-bons and not gain an ounce …
Then Caity started sleeping through the night.
Then the bon-bons started sticking to my thighs ..
Yeah .. so 18 months later, I’m on weight watchers …
Looks like fun. I wish we had a place like that closer to us.
[...] Jen and I went Playin’ at the Patch, the girls got their hands on these…odd plastic bucket [...]
[...] can see Jen with Avery strapped into one here. She loved how it gave her two hands to wrangle [...]