Of an Afternoon Out

Hypothesis confirmed: Philip is much better to be trusted with making plans than I. Apparently his mental event planner is not as clogged with the routine movie-night-on-the-couch or day-at-the-park as mine.

So it was that when I wasn't feeling the spend-our-Saturday-sitting-around-aimlessly vibe this morning, I called upon my resident idea man. And he did not fail me.

The suggestion? A visit to Shawnee's Incredible Inflatables for their weekly open jump.

Micaiah had not seen a moon bounce since a birthday party last spring - at which point our little eighteen-month-old was slightly more than apprehensive about the concept and spent the entire party from the safety of the rainbow-colored rubberized floor watching excitedly while other children bounced the hour away.

Now having grown into a mature two-year-old, we thought she might be ready to give it another go. And we were ready to shell out the requisite $6 to find out. Considering she spent the ten minutes in the car declaring, "I want jump!", we were optimistic.

Five minutes later, upon learning children two and under jump free (and adults are always free, too) our optimism was accompanied by cheapskate chills - an afternoon out of the house for a whopping $0? Almost unheard of in Shawnee unless you're a fan of malls or parks (and as a frugal family on a wintry day, we weren't).

And the verdict? She LOVED it.

After an hour she was pink in the face and carried the sweet scent of childish sweat. And her supervising mother who had the privilege of re-living the younger years was happily worn out from jumping, crawling, climbing and sliding alongside our tiresome toddler. And the adult part of me was filled to brimming with watching my husband as he stared into the face of his son, softly sleeping in his arms.

An hour out of the house well-spent.

Oh, and that money we saved was well-spent as well on lunch at Abuelita's, our favorite, where we worked heartily on earning back the plethora of calories lost to the inflatable obstacle course.