It’s been a week since we actually had Cooper’s 1st Birthday party, but we are still thinking about how great it was. We had it at The Little Gym. These places are all over the place and I had actually only been to one on one other occasion, but I recall it having lots of mats! That is actually the reason I selected it, because I knew that Cooper and his buddies closest in age would either be crawling or just barely walking. And I figured that it would be soft. I had no idea what kind of activities you could do with babies this age, but it turned out, that with Mom and Dad’s help, you can do quite a bit!

The first activity was sitting in a circle and ringing bells, then we did introductions and tricks (of which Cooper had none). Next was walking, skipping and hopping. Which was great for the 3-6 year olds, but was an aerobic workout for the parents and grand-parents of the littlest one. I don’t think that GrandMother (Lynda) realized that when she scooped Cooper up and hit the mat. After several rounds of this, I had to ask her if she needed a break to which she replied a very breathless “yes” and quickly handed Cooper off.

Cooper was not completely onboard with the first half of the activities. He is around lots of screaming kids every day, so maybe it was the adults? Maybe the bright colors? Whatever it was, it took him a while to decide that it was ok to leave Mom and Dad. The next activity was the parachute which he really didn’t like. I held him and we stood in a circle raising the parachute up and down, up and down. Then all the kids (and me) moved to the center of the circle UNDER the parachute while the adults raised it up and down. Now Cooper was NOT crazy about this, but I will tell you who was! Ellie Bright! She is two weeks younger than Cooper but she is definitely more socially developed. By that I mean that she is happy to see everyone and wants everyone to hold her, whereas Cooper is going through a shy period. Little Ellie LOVED the parachute!

But the best was yet to come!! The instructors rolled out a long blue mat with a white stripe and red edges. Judging from the hose hooked up to the large box, I figured out right away that this was a blow up “thing” like a bounce house. But I am not sure everyone else realized that and I KNOW that Danny did not. He and a few other parents sat down with their kids on the mat while the instructors gave direction about jumping and running. I am not sure what Danny thought was coming next, but he was shockingly surprised when it began to inflate underneath him… apparently he was not the only one, though, because several parents moved OFF of the jump track immediately… except Danny. I about fell over laughing when I looked at him and Cooper in the middle of the jump track with pandemonium breaking loose all around them as kids started running and jumping all over the place. It was the coolest thing and all the kids loved it!

We broke after that for snacks and cupcakes. On the menu was baby gold fish, cheerios, fruit puffs, chicken nuggets and cupcakes. I was worried about it, but it turned out to be a great menu for the age group and time of day. Cooper was not crazy about his cupcake, but Mom and Dad thought it was really tasty.

After a few more rounds on the mats while the instructors cleaned up, the party was over. We handed out our dinosaur Goody! Goody! bags and inflatable dinosaurs to the kids as they left. This was really a great party, in our opinions anyway. Danny and I had at least as much (if not more) fun as the kids did. The Little Gym was a great location and I highly recommend it. They run a well oiled machined there and assist with a lot of the setup and take down.

I put some pictures in this blog post, but check out the link to Cooper’s First Birthday for more good pics of the kids. And I will also try to post videos soon.