The first time I knew that Totnastics was the place for A’s 2nd birthday party was at her friend’s party there.  A, as outgoing as she is, is normally very tentative and cautious around large groups of people.  At all of her classes like Gymboree & dance & music, she has always just sat back and observed a little before getting into the action.  When she walked into her friend’s party though, there was no waiting period.  There were a lot of kids there and even more adults, I would estimate about 25-30 kids plus their parents.  A didn’t even blink.  She ran for the trampoline and got right on!  Then she headed for the foam block pit and jumped right in!  She really had a great time.  Then at cousin S’s party, she acted the same way.  Mind made up.  I’d call & get the date set for her party ASAP.

I called their Bellmore location, put down a deposit & went in to sign the contract.  When I called I told them this was for my daughter’s 2nd birthday.  When I went in, A was with me and she’s clearly a 2 year old!  The place is full service.  You sign up, give them the guest list & they take care of everything else.  I chose to do my own evites instead of their invitations so I could keep track of RSVPs there.  They told me all along that they’d be calling the Monday prior to the party to get head counts & pizza orders.  They did call to confirm & then that night I got a few more missed calls from them.  After A’s bath the phone rang again and when I answered it was a nice girl from Totnastics.  She said there was a mix up & they somehow didn’t note that A was turning 2 and booked her in the “big kid” part of the gym which was not exactly 2 year old friendly.  My choices were to A) change the time of the party, or B) change the location to their Oceanside place.  I had never been to the Oceanside location but they assured me that it was the same activities.  I thought it was better to change venue since everyone coming had already made their plans for their day.  They were nice and offered to call everyone for me, but I chose to take care of this and confirm with everyone myself.  The owner agreed to compensate us for the mix up by throwing in a few things that usually cost extra, for free.  We felt this was fair.

In the end of the day, only 1 family went to Bellmore, and they said their GPS sent them there even though they plugged in the new address!  Silly GPS.  At the end of the day, I think the Oceanside location was really a better fit for us since it is a bit smaller and we didn’t have a very large group of kids…so it was a lot more manageable.  A had a blast.  Her friends, & family … everyone was there to celebrate A & it was so adorable to watch them bounce.  Even more fun was when the girls and I were able to bounce without the kids!

Lots of photos…

We got there a little early & Grandma jumped up on the trampoline with A!

Our friends got in on the bouncing too!

A's best friend is usually the shy one...she didn't stop going for a second! Plus she looked adorable 🙂

A is always so happy to see Cousin S!

It's her party and she'll cry if she wants to!

Uncle C getting in a little bike ride!

DF's perfect landing from the high bar....

They couldn't get A to let go of the rings!! They resorted to tickling her!

little girls & Grandma

Big girls turn!

A's favorite part of her party (Aside from the cake - which she started asking for about 20 minutes into the playing part of the party!) She got to FLY!

Thanks everyone for playing, bouncing, jumping, swinging & all the other fun stuff we did with Miss A for her birthday!  Tomorrow I’ll show pictures of the eating…that was A’s other favorite part!