SuperGames

Get kids up and moving at indoor play center

Children in central Ohio don’t have to wait until a summer festival or a backyard birthday party to enjoy playing in a giant, inflatable structure.

No matter the season, kids can climb, slide and jump on an assortment of bouncy apparatuses at SuperGames in Worthington. During designated “open-play” times, the 20,000-square-foot facility opens its doors to the public for several hours on select days, allowing youngsters free range of a half dozen inflatables and interactive games such as air hockey and laser tag.

“It’s the largest indoor play space in Columbus,” said Kyle Paugh, indoor program coordinator at SuperGames. “It helps kids to reorganize their brains to playing with groups of kids instead of interacting on social media or an electronic device. It’s amazing to see kids connect here.”

The family-owned business, founded in 1994, supplies bounce houses and like structures for parties and festivals, including the Dublin Irish Festival. SuperGames maintains 70 inflatables that are rotated in the Worthington play space.

I visited with my children during a recent open-play time. My children shed their layered clothes as they worked up a sweat speeding through obstacle courses and sliding down slippery slides.

Parents are expected to supervise their children during play, which will certainly keep you on your toes.

SuperGames is located at 535 Lakeview Plaza Blvd., Worthington, Ohio 43085.

Cost is $9 for the first child and $6 for each additional child. Guardians must sign waivers for children. You can speed up the process by completing the form in advance.

Check the website (supergames.org) for open play times. Weekends are typically reserved for private events.

For more information, visit supergames.org or call 614-846-8946.

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Peapod Play Cafe

Coffee shop with indoor play space just right for Gahanna, New Albany

Peapod Play Cafe recently opened its doors in northeast Columbus, joining a string of indoor play spaces in central Ohio offering fun for youngsters and a coffee-shop atmosphere for parents.

Peapod, at 4874 Thompson Rd., fills a void, says owner Chien Shu Cho, who opened her spacious, modern gathering place in November.

“There are no indoor playgrounds in the area to serve New Albany and Gahanna,” said Shu Cho, during a soft opening in late October. “Moms here need a place for their kids to play, especially in the winter.”

What makes Peapod different?

Shu Cho, originally from Taiwan, offers an assortment of unique toys and play items, mostly from her home country. There’s a sturdy, plastic bowl that several children can sit inside and rock. There are also four-wheeled riders that children pedal while standing up.

“Toys are important,” Shu Cho said. “I want to offer something that kids never see and want to play with.”

Shu Cho and her husband, Tengyin Hu, built a wooden playhouse and an ice-cream truck for the cafe and even created ice-cream treats out of fabric.

The duo are graphic designers by trade. Shu Cho moved to Columbus 17 years ago to attend the Columbus College of Art and Design. After being laid off from a design job one year ago, she said she felt the need to reinvent herself.

Having two young children, the couple was drawn to the play cafe business and saw an opportunity in northeast Columbus.

Their cafe is geared toward an age range of children beginning to walk through 7-year-olds. Other play items include rubber balls, train sets and a metallic wall for sticking magnetic letters. There’s also a lot of carpeted space for children to romp around.

For the parents there is a separated space with seating and free Wi-Fi. Coffee and healthy snacks also are for sale.

How does it work?

Just show up, sign a waiver, pay and allow your kids to play and yourself some “me” time.

Cost is $10 per child. Price decreases with additional children ($6 for second child, then $4 each additional child). The cost for crawlers is $4.

Half-priced admission is available during the last hour of playtime.

Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed from 1-2 p.m.), Monday through Friday; and 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Saturday.

The space also is available for parties during after hours.

For more information, visit www.peapodplaycafe.com.

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Westerville Community Center

Westerville Community Center

Year-round, indoor playground

Catch this idea about the Westerville Community Center, put it in your pocket and save it for a rainy day.

The Westerville Community Center, at 350 N. Cleveland Ave. in Westerville, is a great place to take young children when our Ohio weather isn’t cooperating. Daily passes allow use of the indoor offerings including a gym, climbing wall, pool and playground.

Westerville Parks and Recreation operates the 96,000-square-foot facility, which opened to residents and outsiders, like me, in November 2001.

Like many moms around central Ohio, I discovered the center while attending a birthday party. The pool and climbing wall are available for party rentals.

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The indoor pool is called the Watering Hole and includes a shallow area with fountains and a slide. There’s also a lazy river and swirling slide for tube rides. Daily resident rates for a child to swim in the pool is $7.50 and $2 charge to observe.

The concrete wall, called the Zenith Climbing Wall, measures 27 feet. It’s designed for beginners and experts alike. Daily rates for a non-resident child is $5.25. Children must weigh 40 pounds.

A great way to check out the facility is to visit the indoor playground, which is free. Children aged two and younger are admitted for free to all activities.

For more information, visit www.westerville.org.

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Dave & Buster’s

Watch football while kids play games of skill for prizes

While thinking of a place to watch an Ohio State football game with our young children, my husband and I decided to visit Dave & Buster’s at Polaris Fashion Place, 1554 Polaris Parkway. The restaurant seemed like a good fit for the four of us. It offered a sports bar with big-screen TVs for dad and a bustling arcade with more than 200 games for mom and the kids.

I figured, though, that we wouldn’t be the first ones in this football-crazed city to come up with the idea, especially on a rain-soaked Saturday. But, likely because the Buckeyes were playing in Columbus, the place was far from packed.

There are two Dave & Buster’s locations in central Ohio and more than 60 across the United States. The chain was founded in 1982 in Dallas by two friends, not surprisingly, named Dave and Buster. Earlier in their careers the two owned side-by-side businesses that attracted the same clientele. Buster ran a casual eatery, and Dave ran an arcade. Why not include both experiences under one roof, they thought.

The restaurant contains three areas: a dining room, sports bar and game room. We ate lunch first while watching the Buckeyes take on the Florida A&M Rattlers. Some of the wall-mounted, flat-screen screen TVs were as wide as 180 inches.

The menu is described as “fun gourmet,” which boils down to traditional American dishes with some twists, such as a side of sweet-potato fries instead of French fries. The kids menu offers some interesting choices, too, such as linguine, Caesar salad and doughnut holes for dessert.

Our kids, though, could hardly keep still during lunch thinking about the flashing and buzzing games in the room around the corner.

We paid for our lunch and ordered Power Cards, one $10 card for each child that totaled $24 with a charge-up fee. Cards can be kept and used again later.

The usage went fast – about 15 minutes of play per each card. The best deals were the ones that spit out tickets that could be used to redeem prizes in the Winner’s Circle. These included several Skeeball-like games and another game with piles of shiny gold coins that you tried to shove over the edge to win tickets.

In no time I was putting $10 more on each card to appease my ticket-hungry children, who were now collecting coils of them in plastic buckets, casino style.

We turned in all their tickets to be weighed, and they totaled about 750 points. The prize room was filled with kid-drooling prizes such as remote-controlled cars and Hello Kitty and Angry Bird toys. Top-shelf items included XBOX games, iPads and an electric guitar with amplifier. “Who earns enough points to claim these?” I thought.

Our loot included two strawberry suckers with laser lights, two neon-colored bracelets and a package of gummy bears. We also got to enjoy OSU’s 76-0 victory over the Rattlers, allowing us to head home full and satisfied.

For more information, visit www.daveandbusters.com.

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American Girl

Beloved doll makes Ohio debut in Columbus

Gone are the days when my 6-year-old daughter would be satisfied to simply browse the American Girl catalog and dream of having frivolous accessories for her doll, Rebecca. Back then the nearest American Girl store was in Chicago, along the city’s famed Magnificent Mile – many miles from home and many miles from our reality.

But that was then.

In June, the first American Girl store in Ohio opened at Columbus’ Easton Town Center. Opening day drew hundreds of doll-toting youngsters and their parents to the shopping mecca for a first glimpse at what many, like my daughter, had only seen in print.

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At more than 11,000 square feet, the Ohio store is small by American Girl standards. (The one in Chicago is a whopping 52,000 square feet!) But our store’s astounding selection of outfits, pets and furniture for these 18-inch divas is imaginably just as overwhelming.

Customers will find original and current American Girl dolls from the company that was founded in 1986, along with Bitty Baby and Bitty Twins. They’ll also find lots of books and matching clothes for dolls and their owners.

The dolls can be custom built by selecting their skin, hair and eye color. Their hair can come short, long, curly or straight. Heck, she can even have freckles, if you’d like. Anything you want for $110 apiece.

I enjoyed seeing so many little girls interacting with their dolls, some taking theirs to the Doll Hair Salon, where stylists propped them in miniature chairs and worked ever so seriously on their hairdos.

After primping, humans and dolls can enjoy a bite to eat at the in-store American Girl Bistro. The menu includes fruit kabobs, tea sandwiches and quesadillas, along with the kid-menu favorites such as pizza, macaroni and cheese, chicken tenders and grilled cheese. There’s also a banana split big enough for six people.

The American Girl store offers plenty of reasons to make a return visit, including crafts, scavenger hunts and story times. Youngsters can even have a birthday party in the Bistro and eat cake and ice cream with their dolls.

For more information, visit www.americangirl.com/stores/location_col.php.

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Fork & Screen

Consume meal and movie in 2 hours at Easton

Taking youngsters out to dinner and a movie can be an exhaustive and expensive endeavor.

One way to do both in about two hours is at a dinner theater, where you can consume a restaurant-style meal and a movie at the same time.

My family of four tried out this concept at Easton Town Center’s Fork & Screen dine-in theater, which opened at the Columbus shopping mecca in 2012.

We found the experience to be a good destination for families wanting to do something special together. The evening was no less expensive than having dinner and seeing a movie separately, though. Expect to pay upward of $100 for a family of four. That’s without dessert or adult beverages.

Easton’s AMC theater offers 30 auditoriums, 17 of which are reserved for dining experiences. There are two options: Cinema Suites is for the 21 and over crowd, offering upscale dining and personal recliners. Fork & Screen serves casual meals to guests seated at leather rocking chairs with swing-out tables. Both options offer seat-side service at the push of a button.

I ordered our tickets online for a same-day showing of “Monsters University.” The PG-rated, 3D-animated movie seemed like a visual feast for our children’s eyes and a good pairing for a feast for their bellies, too. When ordering online, you also can select your seats, as you would ordering tickets for a concert. I chose the remaining adjacent seats in the second row. All seats appeared to offer a good view of the movie screen.

We arrived early to place our carb-filled orders of pizza, grilled cheese and quesadillas. I found our servers to be friendly and unobtrusive. (To save time, you can review the menu online beforehand.)

We seated our 4- and 6-year-olds between us, to prevent them from wandering astray during the movie. This theater offers lots more personal space than regular theaters. I had to get up and take a couple of steps to pass a drink to my husband. There also seemed to be more previews for upcoming movies than at regular showings.

My son, Max, especially liked his personal space with its own little light, food tray and self-service button. Our kids behaved exceptionally well, being preoccupied by the movie and their intimate surroundings. They did get cold, however, so we covered their legs with their own little cloth napkins.

For more information, visit dinein.amctheatres.com/locations/easton30.

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Swing at Recreations Outlet

Recreations Outlet

Handling goods OK at playground supply store

Normally if I see a for-sale item in a store with a hefty price tag attached to it, I steer my oftentimes destructive children away from it. The mantra “You break it, you buy it” echoes in my mind.

But at Recreations Outlet in Powell children are encouraged to touch the merchandise. The supplier of outdoor play sets allows children to gleefully bounce, swing, slide and climb on everything in its showroom as adults watch from the sidelines, some alluringly moved to purchase what they see their children enjoying.

Founded in 1990, Recreations Outlet has three locations in Ohio. Two of them offer indoor play areas for children ages 10 and under to test the goods for $5 each for two hours.

The spacious playroom in Powell, located inside a red barn at 484 W. Olentangy St., includes trampolines, basketball hoops, soccer nets and wooden play sets with slides, swings, climbable ropes and scalable sides. There’s also lots of room to run on the cushioned floor.

It’s a great place for kids to play indoors when the weather’s not so great outdoors.

Cost is $6 per child to play for two hours Monday-Friday during regular business hours; and $8 per child on Saturday and Sunday. Or families can pay just $2 for two hours of play during “Charitable Play,” 9-11 a.m., Tuesday-Thursday. Each month proceeds are donated to a designated charity.

Adults are requested to sign a waiver that says Recreations Outlet isn’t responsible for injuries.

For more information, visit recreationsoutlet.com.

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Columbus Fire Museum
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Central Ohio Fire Museum

Slide down brass pole at downtown historic landmark

With the ability to ride in noisy trucks and spray water hoses at fires, it’s no wonder that so many children are fascinated by firefighters.

Youngsters in central Ohio have the perfect opportunity and place to meet the real men and women behind the profession at the Central Ohio Fire Museum & Learning Center at 260 N. 4th St. in downtown Columbus.

Located inside an old fire station, the museum shares the history of firefighting in Columbus through artifacts and a collection of shiny, red trucks. It’s a place where visitors can learn about fire safety while their kids slide down a fire pole and play inside a fire engine.

“You can learn the history of our local fire service going from the bucket brigade to hand-drawn equipment to horse-drawn steamers and motorized equipment,” said Richard Byrd, one of four part-time staffers at the museum.

Built in 1908, Engine House No. 16 is on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was retired as a fire station in the 1980s and restored in 1990 with money raised by local firefighters and community sponsors. It opened as a museum in 2002.

“The building is the last house in Columbus originally built for horses,” Byrd said. “It had 10 horse stalls. Three horses pulled the steamer, three pulled the hook and ladder, three pulled the hose, and one pulled the coal wagon that had extra coal for the steamer.”

Visitors can see several of the original stalls, still marked with hoof prints on the doors. About 4,000 people annually visit the museum, mostly children on field trips who come to learn about fire safety.

I recently made the trip with my 4-year-old son, Max, during a birthday party. Max and his friends learned about fire safety from Bill Hall, a retired fireman, and his soon-to-be son in law, “Fireman Mike.”

They watched Fireman Mike suit up in his work gear, slipping on fireproof pants and a jacket, steel-toed boots and gloves. Hall explained that a fireman’s helmet works like an umbrella, allowing water to roll off its rim and away from a firefighter’s body.

Fireman Mike put on a protective mask connected to a tank with 30 minutes worth of oxygen. “He sounds like Darth Vader,” said Max upon hearing Fireman Mike breathe.

Max and I toured the museum, which is predominantly colored red, white, black and gold. We saw a wooden fire truck with a shiny brass bell that’s hooked up to a life-size plastic horse. We also saw cast-iron toys and historic fire hose nozzles.

Max, though, liked the play area the best. He put on a red jacket, helmet and boots, then slid down a mini brass fire pole. He joined the other children inside the front end of a real fire engine, where they turned the steering wheel, flipped on lights and unraveled a fire hose.

I browsed the gift shop and found a firefighter suit perfect for Max.

Future plans are to restore the second floor, formerly used as a hayloft, to increase displays.

Hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

Cost is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and $4 for children.

For more information, visit www.centralohiofiremuseum.com or call 614-464-4099.

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