Gym X-Treme

Channel your inner Mary Lou Retton at open gymnastics facility

Gym X-Treme is making the world of gymnastics more accessible and less intimidating for many central Ohioans who’ve never had an opportunity to walk across a 4-inch-wide balance beam, swing on a set of uneven bars or tumble across a bouncy floor mat.

By opening its two facilities in Lewis Center and Canal Winchester to the public during designated “open gym” hours, children and adults can sample these apparatuses and others under the watchful eye of a gymnastics coach.

I visited Gym X-Treme in Lewis Center with my 5-year-old daughter, Rosie, during a birthday party. Rosie and her friends had the whole gym to themselves for two hours.

I was content to watch the children play through a picture window in an observation room, until the coach invited us moms into the gym to try out the equipment, too.

At age 43, I’ve seen my share of summer Olympic Games on TV, from watching Nadia Comaneci score her first “perfect 10” in 1976 to Kerri Strug being carried by coach Bela Karolyi to receive her gold medal in 1996.

I wasn’t the only mom who seemed thrilled by this opportunity. I bounced on the mini trampoline, cartwheeled across the floor mat and jumped from a vault into a pit of colorful, spongy cubes. I also hung on the uneven bars and walked the entire length of a raised balance beam, jumping off for a dismount. It was awesome!

As exciting it was for me, I could tell the children were having even more fun.

For those who feel so inclined to take lessons, Gym X-Treme offers instruction in competitive gymnastics.

Open gym times are Fridays, 8-10 p.m. All ages are welcome and those ages 8 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Cost is $10. “Mommy and Me” gym time is noon-1:30 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday. Cost is $5 ($4 for additional siblings), for children age 15 months to 6 years. All participants must sign a release form before participating.

The Lewis Center facility is located at 7708 Green Meadows Dr., and the Canal Winchester gym is at 6810 Thrush Dr.

For more information, visit www.gymx-treme.com.

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Firefly Play Cafe
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Firefly Play Cafe

Community vibe keeps customers coming back to Clintonville cafe

Since opening in 2010, the original of the play cafes in central Ohio has made itself at home in the Columbus neighborhood of Beechwold.

Firefly Play Cafe, at 4822 N. High St., has become a welcoming gathering spot for children to play and adults to socialize in the environmentally conscious community.

The 2,500-square-foot cafe is sparsely decorated, resembling a warehouse or a big basement, with exposed ductwork and a concrete floor topped with mismatched remnant rugs. There are colorful splashes of lime green and tangerine on the walls, where paintings by local artists also hang. Toys lie scattered about – rubber balls, magnetic tiles, wooden scooters and hula hoops.

The cafe is geared for kids ages 2 to 6. They can jump in the bounce house, climb and slide on a wooden play set and romp around in the open space as adults catch up with friends or sip on locally roasted coffee or freshly brewed tea.

The cafe also serves light snacks, juices and sandwiches by the Columbus-based business Fresh Box Catering, which supports local, homeless families.

I visited the cafe with my two young children on a Tuesday night, when hours are extended until 8 p.m., and a local musician entertains the crowd. I sipped on “Scarlet and Grey” tea, a delicate blend of Earl Grey and dried red roses, while taking in the atmosphere from a corner seat.

It’s an unpretentious place. This welcoming vibe was accentuated by the laid-back guitarist, who encouraged children to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” at lowered microphone stands or join the jam on tambourines and small guitars.

The cafe also offers regular art activities and story time. Visit Firefly Play Cafe on Facebook for information about upcoming programming.

When closing time rolled around, I was surprised to see that all the toys had been neatly put away by all those using them, as if the cafe was their own house.

Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; 9 a.m.-8 p.m., Tuesday; and 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Saturday.

Admission is $4 for children ages 1 to 23 months; and $6 for those ages 1 to 11. Children younger than 1 year and those older than 12 are admitted free. Guests with children are asked to sign a waiver, which is available for review online.

For more information, visit www.fireflyplaycafe.com or call 614-230-2375.

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Piccadilly Play Cafe

Respite for parents, rumpus room for kids in Bexley

Play cafes are popping up like posies around central Ohio, offering rumpus room for restless children and a degree of respite for tuckered parents.

Included among the pack is Piccadilly Modern Play and Creative Cafe, which opened last year at 2501 E. Main St., Bexley.

I visited the colorful cafe while attending a superhero-themed birthday party with my 3-year-old son, Max. He and his friends decorated fabric capes, ate cupcakes and clambered around a wooden play set that had a ladder and slide.

Meanwhile, we parents chatted in comfortable chairs, drinking herbal tea and munching on crackers and hummus. It was the perfect place for a play date. I felt no nagging urge to clean as I watched the children strew toys by the bucket.

“Our goal is to make your life easier,” owner Allyson Morena said as she dished out pizza to party guests. Piccadilly is the latest venture for Morena and her husband, Stuart Hunter, who have two young boys. They also own three roll: bicycle shops in central Ohio.

Piccadilly is in a transformed office space and offers coffee and healthy snacks on one side and a play area on the other. There’s a big, spongy floor mat that’s meant for babies. There’s a train set surrounded by cubbies full of puzzles and toys for toddlers. There’s the wooden play set with underneath coves for preschoolers to play house and hide-and-go-seek. There’s a stadium-style seating area for viewing movies, and a rear room for creating crafts and hosting birthday parties.

Other services include babysitting and daily innovative classes for babies to preteens, such as how to cook by color.

Hours are 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Monday, Wednesday and Friday; 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m., Thursday; and 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Saturday. The space is closed for private parties on Saturday afternoons and Sundays.

Admission is free for those younger than 6 months and age 13 and older. Day passes for children cost $10 for the first child and $5 for each additional child. Ages 6 to 12 months cost $5.

For more information, visit www.piccadillydally.com.

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Chiller

Introduce youngsters to ice skating during discounted noon sessions

Growing up on a farm in northeastern Ohio, I cherished the ice-skating moments that came and went with the changing seasons.

The perfect weather conditions turned our placid pond into a sheet of glass, where I’d glide all day alongside the barren, winter woods. The safety of the ice was gauged by my father, who’d measure its thickness while fetching water for our horse.

There was no cost or time limit to skate, and no blaring music, save for the songs in my head.

Introducing my 5-year-old daughter, Rosie, to the joys of ice skating doesn’t come as naturally, now living in the big city of Columbus. However, her options are far more plentiful than my own experiences as a child in Medina, Ohio. On any given day, there’s a safe place for her to skate within a short distance of our home.

One inexpensive way to introduce children to the skillful sport of ice skating is during an offbeat session at one of four OhioHealth Chiller public ice-skating facilities in Columbus, Dublin and Lewis Center.

Chiller Ice Rinks offers reduced-rate skating sessions at noon on weekdays. Admission is $4 from 11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m., Monday through Friday. Skate rental is $3. Longer sessions on weekends are twice as much for adults, but remain the same price for children ages four and younger.

I recently took Rosie to a noon skate at Chiller Easton, 3600 Chiller Lane, Columbus. My daughter took ice-skating lessons there at age four, but preferred the brief, freestyle sessions with “Mommy” that followed her grueling lessons.

The hourlong session was just the ticket to renew her interest. The Top-40 music pumping from the loudspeakers, and the sight of experienced athletes freely skating at center rink, propelled Rosie to release her death grip on the wall and drift beside mom.

Rosie’s childhood memories of ice skating will certainly be different than my own, but hopefully enough to glide her toward this healthy hobby in the future.

For more information about skating sessions, costs, hours and locations, visit www.thechiller.com.

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Book Loft

Lose yourself in labyrinth of literature

In an age of electronic books and easy ordering of the written word over the Internet, it’s nice to break away from literary progress by wandering through a good, old-fashioned bookstore.

The Book Loft in the Columbus neighborhood of German Village spans a city block and contains 32 of rooms of literature, organized by topic, including a room full of hand-selected children’s books. It’s billed as one of the largest independent bookstores in the nation, stocking more than 100,000 titles.

My family and I visited the store at 631 S. Third Street while showing my sister-in-law, Mary Jean, around historic German Village. Mary Jean lives in San Francisco, home of the iconic City Lights Bookstore, once a hangout of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Mary Jean, a travel writer and budding novelist, was impressed by the unique selection and interesting, connecting buildings, which were once general stores, a saloon and a nickelodeon cinema.

Sometimes it takes an out-of-towner to remind us of the gems we have in central Ohio. Mary Jean enjoyed exploring the labyrinth of book-filled rooms, while my 5-year-old daughter delighted in following yellow arrows on the ground toward the children’s section. We browsed kiosks of Little Golden Books and shelves of newer titles. But, alas, Rosie settled on an activity book with nifty erasers shaped like desserts.

German Village has long been one of Columbus’ main visitor attractions, and for many tourists and locals, the Book Loft is the village’s main chapter.

For more information, visit www.bookloft.com.

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Sweet & Sassy

Embrace inner diva at glittery salon

Sweet and Sassy is a colorful salon and spa at Polaris Fashion Place in Columbus, where princess-loving preschoolers and precocious preteens go to get pampered. The franchise is established throughout the United States, but the Polaris store is the only location in Ohio.

I recently took my 5-year-old daughter there to get a breezy haircut and a nail polish application. But little did I know how much fun she’d have getting all dolled up and how much I’d appreciate our “girl time” afterward, eating lunch in a booth for two at the nearby Cheesecake Factory and splashing in the mall’s outdoor fountain.

The salon’s services include haircuts and styles for girls and boys, manicures, pedicures and ear piercing. Its retail space offers cheeky merchandise such as peace sign-covered backpacks, big-eyed stuffed animals and bottles of chocolate shampoo. Customers also can concoct their own lip-glosses and glittery lotions.

Rosie got a “Sassy Cut,” which included a fruit-scented shampooing, haircut and a modified French braid that wrapped around her head and ended in a tasseled tail. I was pleased to see the stylist, dressed sleekly in pink and black, engaged in a conversation with Rosie and not me, her doting mom. “You’re going to love it,” she told Rosie, beaming.

I stepped aside to allow Rosie some privacy.

I watched a half dozen giggling girls enter the salon for a birthday party in an area labeled “Glam Central.” They put on sequined dresses and sat in tall chairs before a wall-length mirror. Their hair was arranged in an array of up-dos, and stylists applied makeup to their fresh faces. As a finale, they sashayed down a makeshift catwalk to loud music.

“I want to go on stage,” delighted Rosie, as her stylist sprayed cupcake-scented hairspray on her new braid.

After a quick application of purple nail polish, Rosie pranced on stage like the star of the show. Purple polish and cupcake hairspray? What’s not to like?

Sweet and Sassy is located at Polaris Fashion Place at 1540 Polaris Parkway. For more information, visit sweetandsassy.com.

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Magic Mountain

Miniature-golf outing with kids proves fun, but tests parents’ patience

The promotional text on Magic Mountain’s website aptly sums up my family experience playing miniature golf at the Polaris-area fun center: “Each exciting hole will lead you on an adventure of skill and test your patience, too.”

My husband, Mike, and I recently decided to make use of a gift certificate by taking our two young children to Magic Mountain’s pay-as-you-go rides and attractions. Located in the Polaris area, at 8350 Lyra Drive, Magic Mountain offers go-karts, arcade, bumper boats, laser tag, climbing playground and two, 18-hole miniature golf courses.

Five-year-old Rosie was most interested in riding a go-kart with her daddy, while 3-year-old Max wanted to crawl through the above-ground tunnels in the play area.

Neither wanted to play miniature golf. That was my idea. After all, I thought, it would be a fun bonding experience for my golfer husband and our children, whom Mike hopes will one day take up his favorite sport.

My plan started out great, with Rosie selecting a pink golf ball and Max selecting his favorite color, orange. Then things went sour. Rosie immediately dropped her ball down the last hole of the game, sending it back inside the fun center and me back to the front counter to plead for another pink ball. Meanwhile, Max threw his ball over the fence into a nearby hotel’s parking lot.

Mike and I tried to play a serious game as Rosie and Max explored the interesting features at each hole including little bridges, rocky streams and a gushing waterfall at the peak of the course’s “magic” mountain.

Ultimately, we determined Max and Rosie were a little immature for miniature golf. They, however, enjoyed the outing.

Rosie had way more fun on the Magic Track Go-Karts. Rosie measured just over the required 42 inches needed to be a passenger with a driving adult over age 21. Together they rode for five minutes around a looping track, under and over a bridge. Max and I stood at the sidelines, watching as they smiled the whole way.

Max enjoyed playing Skee-ball in the arcade, where he didn’t have to meet a height requirement. (The KidsGym Playground requires participants to measure at least 58-inches tall.)

Other smart kids, like Max, will like the arcade, too, as Magic Mountain gives free arcade tokens to youngsters who get good grades. Every “A” on a report card earns four tokens.

For more information visit magicmountainfuncenter.com.

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Build-A-Bear Workshop

Impromptu outing at Easton turns into toy-making adventure

A recent, impromptu family outing to the mall surprisingly turned into a splendid, all-American adventure.

Our outing began on a rainy Saturday afternoon, a day somewhere between our two children’s spring birthdays. We wanted to do something special for Rosie and Max as a way to jointly celebrate their births.

A fitting activity, we thought, was to give “life” to a new toy for each child at the Build-A-Bear Workshop at Easton Town Center in Columbus. The store is one of two in central Ohio and among hundreds located worldwide. The retailer, headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., allows customers to customize their own stuffed animals. Its motto is “Where best friends are made.”

Rosie and Max started the process by selecting un-stuffed animals from barrels. Rosie, almost 5 years old, went straight for a purple bear that’s fur is decorated with colorful peace signs. She’d been eying it for a while. Three-year-old Max took longer deciding but ultimately settled on a light-brown bear with curly fur that slightly resembles himself.

Rosie and Max hugged their lifeless toy skins as they waited in line to stuff them with the white fluff that swirled around in a machine like cotton candy. A kind worker helped them pump the fluff into their bears, allowing them to step on the machine’s pedal. They also selected and kissed little red hearts that were stuck inside the bears before they were stitched up.

Rosie and Max then made birth certificates and chose outfits for their new friends, “Brownie” and “Billa.” Brownie got an Ohio State getup and Billa got a billowy pink dress and rain gear.

Each bear with accessories cost about $50.

All the bear building made us hungry. We popped across the mall’s hallway into the California Pizza Kitchen. The casual restaurant chain specializes in thin, crispy pizza, such as artichoke and spinach. It also offers a fine kids menu. The Curly Mac ‘N’ Cheese, $5.50, is far-better fare than most mac-and-cheese options we’ve found at other restaurants.

Mike and I sipped glasses of wine as we watched the kids enjoy their lunch with their new bear friends.

Eager not to end the fun, we finished our outing with ice cream at Graeter’s, a regional chain founded in Cincinnati, Ohio. The store is located at Easton near the entrance to the movie theater. We ordered a banana split, which disappeared quickly with four of us diving in.

It was the perfect ending to a family outing that garnered our children two new friends.

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