Leaping Lizards!

Today I decided to try a mom's group. They were having a meeting at Leaping Lizards, which is a large storefront in a strip mall filled with a bunch of large inflatables. And they don't charge for adults or under 2s, which is important to me because we can't stay at these kinds of things for much more than an hour so in general it has to be less than $10 for me to feel we could possibly get our money's worth.

It went pretty well. Joshua had a great time and loved climbing on the inflatables and didn't seem at all intimidated by the big kids. Clara wanted to try it, but she was really too little. She and Hannah had fun in the toddler area.

However, I unfortunately stayed about ten minutes longer than I really should have so we left to Joshua and Clara crying, which is always embarrassing and also hard. They just got way too worn out. I also realized that I probably can't really do this mom's group. We are really at the point where we can go places and have it be a positive experience, which is great and an exciting change since last time I had kids that were all this old, I was 9 months pregnant so I didn't want to go anywhere and the time before that was two years ago. So we can really do things, which is fun. But it really does take all my energy and focus to make that happen. I have to be completely engaged with them. I can't just sit on the couch with the other moms who have a one-year-old and a five-year-old and chat about whatever and sip my water. So maybe that's something I'll reconsider in a year or two or possibly find a group that does playgroups in people's homes so the kids are more confined and I can supervise them with less effort. But despite the trip not really ending that well, this was a really great outing for Joshua and overall something I would consider again at some point, especially once school starts if they still have open play during the day.