Annie was invited to a birthday party this past weekend at one of those cool all-indoor kid play zones. It had a bounce house in one corner, train sets in another, tons of ride on cars, and a giant two-story clubhouse. The clubhouse had a ball pit, obstacle courses, swinging ropes, two slides, and several ways to climb to the top. It was so huge even adults could play inside. I’m not gonna lie, I wanted to go in it. Kid stuff these days is way cooler than it was when I was young.

At first Annie just wanted to climb the foam shapes.

jumping

Then she ventured over to where a bunch of toy cars were parked, and took each one for a test drive.

princess car

Her friend Meghan came over and persuaded Annie to join her in the ball pit.

meghan and annie in the ball pit

The ball pit was pretty much the greatest thing that had ever happened to Annabel, and she put all her trust into Meghan.

ball pits are awesome

She followed Meghan all over the play zone, which allowed Meghan’s mom Diane and me to drink coffee and talk.

playing with Meghan

Eventually, Meghan wanted to climb to the top of the clubhouse. Meghan called for her mom to climb to the top with her, and off they went. Annie watched them go, then grabbed my hand and said, “C’mon mama, let’s go!” YES! FINALLY we were going to play in the club house! Woo hoo!

We slowly made our way to the top, Annie wanting to do the climb unassisted except for those times when she wanted my help and how dare I not anticipate that! When we finally made it to the top, we discovered Diane and Meghan had waited for us. The girls played a little until Meghan announced it was time to slide. Annie and I watched Diane pull Meghan into her lap, and then they disappeared down the twisty tube slide. I knew there was NO WAY Annie was going to want to do that, so I started to plot our climb back to the bottom.

“Mama! Annie slide!”

“Annie, are you sure, it might be a little scar-”

“ANNIE SLIDE ANNIE SLIDE!!”

“Ooooookay!”

I sat at the top of the slide and lifted Annie into my lap.  I pulled my phone out of my back pocket so I wouldn’t break it. I then realized I could take a video of Annie’s face as we slid so Mike could see it. I hit record  and pushed off to let gravity do its thing.

This is probably one of my favorite videos of Annie ever (other than this one, which makes me laugh every single time). She goes from excitement to fear to TERROR to happiness in about five seconds. (Turn the sound down because I am shouting, “wheeeeee!” like a complete dork.)

When we got to the bottom Annie ran over to where Mike was sitting with Diane’s husband and said excitedly, “Dada! Annie slide, look!!” I then showed the guys the video I took and they cracked up. For the rest of the party, Annie would point to the clubhouse and talk about the slide.

Finally I said, “Annie, do you want to go on the slide again?”

She looked at me and her eyes got wide. She shook her head, then sat down on the floor.

“No mama. Annie sit.