AKA the most popular play place in all of the North Sound!!! The lovely owner Lizz (a fellow mommy of twin girls!) has only been in business for a little over a year and to say she has done well would be an understatement! She has people saying many good things about her and her business. You can find them on Yelp (4.5 out of 5 stars), Red Tricycle, Parent Map, and more! She has also won the 2013 Red Tricycle Seattle award for Most Awesome Indoor Playspace, runner up for Most Awesome Family Restaurant and Cafe and Most Awesome Kid-Friendly Coffee shop. She was in the Top 5 Best Kids Menu in 2013's King 5 TV/Evening Magazine's Best of Western Washington awards and a top finalist for Kids Birthday Party spots and Mom-Run Business!! That is a successful 1st year! This post will be long one because this place offers A LOT of stuff!
Lizz was kind enough to allow me and my 3 little ones to come in this morning and play (for free!). After a tour of the large space (8500 sq feet!) the kids couldn't take it any more and practically jumped the wall to get in to the play area!! But let's start at the very beginning...parking!
If you want to get a close spot you will likely be out of luck...it's located in a strip mall across from the Goodwill in Lynnwood (very easy to find). There is parking around the back though and she has future plans of opening up the back door space so you don't have to walk all the way around the front!
We had to sign a waver which only took about 20 seconds, thankfully since the kids were anxious to get playing! Before you get to the play area you pass the cafe.
They are a licensed cafe with an extensive menu of food and drinks. I was relieved to hear that they strive to be a place where kids with nut allergies can be safe! They have a VERY strict NO NUTS policy!! That also means you can't bring in any of your own food. Drink containers can come in with enclosed lids. Now...either you are going to love that or hate it! And I understand, BUT your admission is good for all day, which means you could leave and come back as much as you want! So if you don't want to eat in, go home for lunch, or pack a lunch and eat at a local park (truthfully though, there is no way I could've gotten my kids to leave the building, just a heads up on that:).
They also have many menu options for gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian and vegan options and generally try to serve only wholesome and healthy breakfasts, lunches, snacks and a few desserts. They strive to avoid products with high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, preservatives, trans fats, high pesticide levels and some of their food is brought in from local purveyors, they use fresh, local ingredients when possible and they make some food from scratch like their mac n cheese! They even serve a babyccino: a drink made with frothy steamed milk and foam (not too hot), a little vanilla syrup and topped with chocolate, cinnamon or marshmallows for little ones for $1.50 (8 oz)! How cute is that?!
Full disclosure....I ordered a scone, juice box and snack combo (fruit, cheese, carrots and Annie's bunny crackers) and it cost me $8.21. I got the scone and juice and went to sit down and wait for the snack combo. My kids downed the scone and juice within 5 minutes and we were still waiting for our other food. It was close to 15 minutes before it came! I was struggling to keep my kids sitting because they wanted to go and play. I was a little surprised it took so long since there was no one in line when we went up and only a couple other families around us with numbers on their table waiting for food and we weren't ordering anything hot. Also, the carrot sticks were not raw, they were soft (which would be perfect for babies), but not my toddler/preschoolers.
Next to the cafe is the preschool. The classes are pretty full, but she said there are a few spots still open! If you are interested check them out! They also offer on occasion enrichment classes and parenting workshops.
There is a large open dining area with booths, picnic tables, etc
You can see the play area to the right. It is enclosed entirely with doors that only open from the outside. Your kids are trapped, but they must be watched at all times and since the age group for this place is 0-6 there are a lot of little ones that you'll want to be watching or watching out for! Past the dining area and to the left is the changing area and restrooms.
As you can see, there are a lot of great details in this set up! It truly is a place for little ones!
In the back they also have a small classroom for dance classes. Today was the first day of an 8 week series, so there were a lot of cute kids running around in pink! I couldn't find a link on their website for this, so you may want to email if you are interested. I have to say, during play time the instructor came out to the 'stage' and did an impromptu 5 minute dance class with any interested kids and it was SO CUTE!!
They offer a good sized room for parties and you must check out their facebook page and look through photos of the gorgeously decorated bashes!!
One of the first things Lizz told me was that she used Pinterest to help her decorate the place. A self proclaimed pinner?! Ummmm ya, she really is awesome! And I am now following her here. They also use those rooms for PEPS groups, Stroller Strides and summer camps.
And now finally the moment we have all been waiting for...the play space!!
This play space is all about imaginative play! I describe it as a condensed version of Imagine Children's Museum. This play space is by far the best I have seen if you have kids under 18 months! The white fenced area is only for them but outside of it there is still lots for them to do. There is really something for everyone though. They have a bouncy house, play kitchen (with tons of food!), a stage with lots of dress up, a fire truck/station, trains, a ball pit, a road with plenty of ride on toys to drive, a reading corner, citiblocks, puzzles, and more, with some seating for adults too.
Generally it was a lot of fun and my kids had a GREAT time! There were a lot of kids under 2 and only a few kids that looked to be over 4 or 5. My twins loved the ball pit, fire truck and dress up and my 2 year old spent almost the entire time in the play kitchen! I only have a few little things that I felt were off.
1. We were there for at least 2 hours and didn't see any employee come in and do a 'sweep', pick up books, blocks, balls, etc. or enforce any rules that some parents were not enforcing (like some kids that were swinging in the ball pit). Nor was there anyone cleaning highchairs, floors or tables. Many parents were good at doing this, but not all. *(side note: Lizz told me at the beginning that they work very hard in keeping the place clean and sanitized and do so every night, it did look very, very clean in there!)*
2. The fire truck area has stairs on one side that you climb up and at the top there is a pole you can go down. The drop off is a good distance and so if you have little climbers who aren't big enough to slide you must watch this area very closely.
3. There was music playing. Sometimes more loudly than at other times too. This was fine at lunch time as my kids were dancing and enjoying it, but in the play space it was already so loud with all the kids and parents, the music just seemed unnecessary to me...but at least it was good music like Coldplay!
The cost to enter is $8 for one child, $6 for crawler or sibling. They offer discounts for playgroups and play passes as well. I will definitely go back and really look forward to seeing this business grow!
**UPDATE***
The owner Lizz kindly emailed me to let me know that you can get into the building using the back door in the rear parking lot! You just have to head straight to the reception desk to check in. She also has Volunteer Play Area Monitors and the day I was there the mom had called in with a sick child and they didn't have time to find a replacement. So it sounds like usually there is someone 'patrolling' the play area! Lizz is trying to add more staff in general (they are still relatively new, just open a year) and I can confidently add that if you have any issue big or small you could talk to Lizz about it directly and she would do whatever she could to make it better!
