Jumping around at Flying Squirrel

By now you probably know there's a new trampoline park in town - the Flying Squirrel, located in Gloucester right across the street from Costco. It's a giant place, and they claim to be the world's largest indoor trampoline fun park. I've never been to a trampoline place with the kids before, so we decided to check it out last week as an end of summer activity.

If you've never been to a trampoline park before, it's basically a large space with wall-to-wall trampolines of all shapes and sizes. Flying Squirrel also has a snack bar, tables/chairs, games, foam jumping pit, a rope swing, basketball and dodgeball games, and a small fenced-off toddler area.

Cost

You pay by the hour ($20/hour) and "toddlers" (children under 6) pay $10 if you go at certain times of the day. They also have "neon lights" glow-in-the-dark jumping on Friday evenings (9-12pm) for $25.

It's pricey, but we arrived at 10:45, which meant that we paid for 11am - 12pm but got to jump for the extra 15 minutes (they charge by the hour every half hour, so you may get some bonus time depending on when you arrive.) 

I didn't think one hour would be enough time, but my two girls were TIRED by the end. I certainly felt like we got our money's worth!

Ages

There were people of ALL ages there, from teeny little toddlers to moms and dads jumping around. I chose not to pay to jump, as the pelvic floor is just not what it used to be ;) Plus, I wanted to check things out before I decided to join in on the fun.

There were couches and chairs everywhere for parents to sit, as well as the tables/chairs in the snack area where we could eat the snacks we had packed.

My girls are 4 and 7. My 7 year-old was good to go pretty much everywhere, but my 4 year-old mainly stuck to the smaller trampolines and the huge foam pit. The games of dodgeball, basketball, slack line and battle beams were a bit out of her league. I'm glad I only paid $10 for her, as I feel that a place like this is better for older children. That said, there's a small toddler area where the wee ones can bounce around without any danger of being knocked over by bigger kids - it was just a bit TOO small for a 4 (almost 5) year-old.

Safety

Everyone is "required" to watch the safety video before they start jumping. It plays on loop while you wait in line to pay, so you're naturally drawn to watching (even though technically you could just ignore it). It gives advice for proper/safe jumping, as well as rules and regulations. 

There are staff located throughout the facility, and I noticed several times they approached jumpers to ask them to avoid certain areas or to stop an unsafe activity. However, they all seemed really friendly about it, and I even saw one employee suggesting an alternative (safe) way to do a fun flip.

That being said, both my kids got hurt. I think this is pretty typical of trampolines (I don't own one, but I've heard of SO many kids spraining ankles, breaking bones etc.) My daughter jumped into the foam pit at one point and then twisted her ankle because she landed at a weird angle. It seems fine, although she's still complaining about pain one week later!

My younger daughter tried to balance on the slack line, and fell right on top of it. I guess it knocked the wind out of her a bit and hurt her chest. Needless to say, both kids were done jumping before time was up because of their injuries. They rated the experience as fun, but said they didn't like getting hurt.

Worth it?

All in all I'd say a trip to Flying Squirrel is totally worth it. Next time I think I'd try some jumping too!

However, I may wait another year until my little ones are just a tiny bit older and more capable of navigating all the fun activities. 

A day at Calypso with the kids

We had only been to Calypso once since it opened, and that was two years ago. Ever since, the kids have been asking to go again because they loved it so much. For a million reasons, we never made it a priority. I promised them we would go this summer and so on my very last free weekend before school starts back up, we got there - and it was fantastic!

What we loved

We aren't really a speed demon family and we have outgrown the little kid section of the park, so we stuck to a few attractions that provided endless entertainment for all five of us.

* Jungle Run lazy river - this tame lazy river almost never has a wait and my kids could have happily just gone around and around without every stopping for hours at a time. This probably shouldn't be surprising based on the fact that they would spend hours in tiny hotel lazy rivers, but they really enjoyed this and it was one of our faves of the day.

* Kongo lazy river - this is the more exciting "lazy" river and we waited the longest. The line-up got too long for us by the end of the day. It's super fun and worth waiting for at least once or twice while you're there, though! You float atop a tube and get to see all kinds of fun Kongo scenes and get pulled around through faster and slower parts, wavy parts, spraying parts, etc. I cheated and went through the inner tube so my feet could be on the ground and I could control how likely I was to end up with a bucket of water on my head (not my favourite!)

* Wave pool - the wave pool is amazing, but also intense. I won't let my kids go in alone and I won't let them go in without life jackets. It's got REALLY big waves and there are hundreds of people in there. I do feel it's well monitored with at least 10 lifeguards watching closely, but I still wouldn't let my kids in this pool unattended. With parents and lifejackets though, the kids LOVED the wave pool and getting thrown around by the waves. 

* Family twisters - there are four small slides that are very anti-adrenaline and younger kid friendly. My kids are too big for the kiddy area but these slides are just the right place for a bit of sliding without worrying about their stomachs dropping out from under them on the bigger slides. The lines are relatively short and we can just sit at the bottom while they go up and around many many times.

Pro tip

Reserve a table in the shade when you get there. We got there when they opened and had no problems finding a table. A couple of hours later I saw quite a few open tables, but by early afternoon they were hard to come by.

It seemed to be pretty standard procedure to leave your stuff at a table and have it unattended for the day. We were happy to have a table to come back to to for eating and drying off, or just to take breaks and cool down from the really hot sun.

Many people in the park had coolers (you can go back out to the car and grab it when it's time to eat) and bringing your own food makes the day more cost effective. (Seeing all the coolers in the park made me think we should have a post about how to pack a cooler for a family day out too - that kind of stuff always overwhelms me so I skip it and spend a fortune on food ;) 

Word of warning

You cannot wear shirts on the slides at Calypso - including swim shirts. It's not very prominent on their web site or very well explained. It meant my daughter, who I put in a swim shirt to protect her from all-day intense sun, couldn't ride any of the bigger slides. For many of the boys (and some girls too, though my daughter didn't feel comfortable doing this) they can just take the swim shirt off for the slide. Instead my daughter had to skip some of the slides she really wanted to go on because we brought the wrong swimsuit.

The cost

These prices have been updated for 2023 and you can find more information on the Calypso website.

Small pricing: $49.99 for anyone under 52”

Tall pricing: $59.99 for anyone over 52 “

You can save $5 per ticket by buying online.

Parking costs: $15 (credit or debit only, no cash. You can also prepay online)

Lockers cost: $15 for a small locker and $25 for a large locker

Season passes are a great deal if you think you can make it to the park multiple times in the summer though.

The kids deemed this the most fun thing we'd done all summer, so I call that a major win. We'll definitely be back next summer!

10 Back to School Hacks for Parents

The start of the school year means the return of a regular routine as well as a busier schedule with the addition of homework, extra-curricular activities, and sports. September, especially, can be overwhelming and stressful for many families, including my own, but I have found some back to school hacks that have helped make the transition from summer to school a little bit easier.

1) Prepare breakfast the night before

My daughter does not last on cold cereal alone, so when possible I try to prepare a hearty breakfast beforehand. Whether it is cooking an extra large batch of pancakes on the weekend and freezing them, baking muffins, preparing berries and fruit that can be easily thrown on top of yogurt with granola, or preparing a pot of overnight oatmeal in my slow cooker, knowing I have a plan and have prepared a hearty breakfast saves time and fills bellies with a lot less stress. Websites, such as this one, offer many nutritious and easy-to-make breakfast recipes that can be prepared the night before.

2) Keep sticky notes handy 

School days are busy days and I am constantly saying to myself (or whoever is around to hear me), “Oh, I must remember….” And as soon as I say it, I forget it. Put sticky notes and a pen in your kitchen, on your nightstand, in the family room and anywhere else you’re known to have a brilliant moment that you know will vanish as quick as it came if you don’t write it down. Your memory (or lack there of) will thank you later.

3) If you don’t have a wall calendar – get one!

I don’t know how families survive without an old-fashioned wall calendar. Everyone in my family contributes to our wall calendar with birthday party dates, weekly activity times and anything else that everyone in the family should know about. We have ours hanging on our pantry door – a place everyone goes into and will see.

4) Keep your schedule top of mind

Take a picture of your weekly calendar and set it as your locked picture on your smart phone. It’s a fast and simple way to know what time you have to pick up who where, and a quick way to know what’s going on that week should someone ask you if you’re free.

5) Empty and fill backpacks as soon as you see them

Make looking for notes from the school a priority as soon as everyone gets in the door – either have a central bin and ask the kids to make sure permission slips and school forms that must be signed and returned are put in there on a daily basis or have a daily dumping of the school bag. Then sign the forms and have your kids put them in their bags right away. As this becomes part of your after school/work routine, you may notice less and less forms go missing (unless they get eaten by the school bus on the way home, which often happens in this house). ;) 

6) Google Translate is your friend

My daughter is in French Immersion and although I speak a little French, I cannot speak it well enough to help my daughter with some of her homework. So, I use Google Translate a lot – on my laptop and on my iPhone. So, if you don’t speak or read French (or English or any other language) well enough to keep up with your kids, get the Google Translate app on your phone – you can take pictures of documents and it will translate them for you. Time saver extraordinaire!

7) Schedule date nights (way) in advance

Book a night a month solely for date nights – no matter what. It doesn’t have to be a weekend either. If Tuesdays are better for you than Saturdays, then make Tuesday your date night! The same should also be done for self-care appointments such as massages, beer nights and girls night out – it’s important to step away from the every day and have fun away from the kids, regardless of how busy life is.

8) Batch cook or get an Instant Pot (or both)

Similar to planning and preparing breakfasts in advance, batch cook suppers so you have home cooked meals in the freezer that can easily be thawed and cooked when you need them. Meal preparation places, such as Supperworks make meal planning simple and can ensure you have nutritious meals every day of the week.

Similarly, the addition of an Instant Pot can save you valuable time on weekdays. We have one and I love that it can cook a whole chicken in 45 minutes and hearty soups in 30 minutes. It's my favourite kitchen appliance.

9) Don’t be afraid to set limits and stay within them

It can be easy to say yes to everything and then feel overwhelmed by all the commitments. If you can’t fit parent council meetings into your schedule or can’t make it to a book club meeting during busier times, don’t feel guilty about it. Be honest with yourself and those around you about what you can and cannot do. No one can do it all – and no one is, despite what you may think.

10) Remember Netflix is waiting for you

My favourite day of the week is Friday. It’s an evening of wine and Netflix with my husband. So remember, quiet moments will come and go throughout the school year, and they are there waiting for you despite the chaos and stress that comes along with the return of another school year.

What are some of your back to school hacks?