Birthday and Boy in a Tote

We had a fun kids event the other day. A friend's daughter was turning 4 and they had a big birthday party at a DĚTSKÝ KOUTEK (an indoor play area) downtown.
A DĚTSKÝ KOUTEK is like short-term daycare. They are in lots of malls here and this one was in the same building as a spa and Marks & Spencer store. The idea is that you drop your kids off and then go shopping. They have a few people to keep an eye on your kids and usually lots of toys and slides, etc. They charge a very low hourly rate of approx $4 an hour or so. I think the idea is you will shop longer and happier if your kids are not with you bugging you to get going. Not to mention, the bonus of your kids asking to go to the mall to play.
This particular place was rather large and had a large slide with ball pit, a climbing wall, and a slot car track...though it had obviously not been used with slot cars in some time. Logan did not seem to mind and had fun pushing cars around the track. There was also a small tree house at the top of the slide for the children to play in. It was a very nice set-up and had many small toys and games as well. Everyone was kept very entertained.
About 18 kids showed up for this party and it was pretty much (slightly) controlled mayhem :) This was great as the kids were having a wonderful time with only a few bumps from minor collisions...mostly at the bottom of the slide.
Logan thought the slide was great. It was maybe 10 feet high with a bump in the middle and it emptied into a small ball pit. He marched right up the stairs to the top of the slide, turned, sat, and down he came. He bumped his head a couple of times on the bump in the slide and then was deposited into the ball pit. He was wide eyed laying there as I retrieved him and he had the look of not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Apparently it had been too much for him to handle and it turned to crying. However, it was only a slight scare as in 20 seconds he was squirming to get down. He went right back to the top of the slide but would go to the edge and turn away repeatedly. Between that and playing on the race track he seemed very happy. After about 20 minutes he made another attempt - this time being slowed by another parent about half way down the slide. It went better... there were still a couple of tears shed but was nowhere near as bad as the first time. On his last attempt, later in the day when most kids had left, I slowed him and he laughed as he landed into he ball pit. He loved the ball pit most of all and climbed in several times during the party - throwing balls everywhere before I had to retrieve him to keep him from getting hit by a sliding child.
Alex had a great time on the slide and did very well on the climbing wall. She had never been able to quite figure these out before. The one they had did not go all that high so I think that helped with the scare factor and there was a large padded mat under the wall. She called to me when she had climbed all the way to the op on her own and then just jumped down onto the mat. She had a great time doing this right up til when we had to leave.
They had a great cake and lots of food as well for the kids and adults. We were there for like two and a half hours and the kids actually looked tired when we left.
They even went down for a nap at home which was good because our friends from the US were arriving and we were having a small party with Prague friends at the flat that night to welcome them.
So, you may be asking, what about the other topic listed above? Well...
In this Blog entry picture collection are some great shots of Logan after he climbed into a Rubbermaid tote that stows the kid's ball collection. He would climb in with the balls and then would throw them all out and wait for someone to refill it on top of him. He loved it! I also tried dragging the tote around on the rug with him sitting in it which he enjoyed too...making train sounds as he went along.