For our daughters’ 5th birthday, my wife Lisa and I decided to invite the girls’ class to a birthday party at Jump City in Ann Arbor. Being the typical husband, I admittedly contributed very little to the whole operation and basically was responsible for carrying stuff to and from the car. So, as far as the planning that went on beforehand, I have no idea.
We arrived at Jump City 10 minutes before our time slot would begin, and were met by the friendly sales staff. We were assigned a party assistant (we’ll call her “Sarah”) who quickly helped bring in the awesome birthday cakes, party favors, beverages, and other party items. Sarah placed those items in a party room, and instructed us to take our shoes off and have some fun in the jump area.
This is where the excitement begins. Billing themselves as the “premier inflatable party zone” is pretty accurate. If you haven’t ever been to one of these places they basically place a number of large, billowy, balloon-like structures of varying sizes and shapes in a large room. Having only had concrete tunnels to play with in my own childhood, I can appreciate how much fun it must be to be able to dive around a playground without ending up with gravel filled scrapes and purple and black bruises as a result.
These “giant inflatables” pose a challenge to every child who enters. That challenge is simple; climb me, bounce on me, slide down my slides, and, of course, jump on me. It was a challenge the kids gladly and excitedly accepted. Immediately, the kids started running around the place and didn’t stop until our time slot was finished 75 minutes later.
What was especially nice about Jump City was that they only allowed our party attendees and their parents to be in the party zone. I’ve heard of other Jump party places having a centralized inflatable room where kids from a number of parties (of varying ages) can gather. But at Jump City, we only had to worry about our group and, therefore, didn’t have to concern ourselves with parents we didn’t know, or older kids being too rough with younger ones.
After our time in the party zone ended, we were escorted to a smaller party room off to the side for pizza and cake.
Again, Sarah was there to help. She passed out pizza (purchased as part of our party package), cut the cake, and made sure that everyone was happy. After the kids and parents finished eating, we handed out our Tangled themed party favors, said goodbye to our friends, and headed home.
We had a great time at Jump City and would gladly go back for another birthday party or get-together. The facilities were a lot of fun and allowing our birthday party to have exclusive use of the party zone was great. The service was friendly and helpful. Overall, we couldn’t have asked for a better birthday for our girls.
