Bounce Around

We found a great place for a rainy day... Bounce Around in the Clifton Park Center mall. It's in a large-ish storefront right in the mall. They have a big Bounce Activity Center for little kids, about 4 or 5 huge Inflatables for older kids, a nice amount of token for ticket games, small token rides and a prize redemption counter. I believe they had a few snacks and beverages available - cheeze doodles and the like. They are open 7 days a week, host birthday parties and also rent and sell the Bounce Houses.
One difficult thing, though, when you're have younger or shy kids was their the policy that adults can't go in the Inflatables with the kids. Also, make sure everyone has socks.
The mall is typically quite quiet. I got in a few errands - there is a DMV and Time Warner Cable office in the mall - we had our lunch in the food court and I got a little window shopping done.
There's a coupon online that you can print for a weekday Buy One, Get One admission.

$7.00 for a single hour

$8.75 for 2 hours

$10.75 for a full day

Bounce Around
Clifton Park Center
518.668.0102

Free movies for the summer!

The arrival of Summer means Regal Cinemas Free Family Film Festival 2010.
Lots of fun, FREE, and a great way to spend a weekday morning in the summer! Starting June 29th, selected G or PG movies - not exactly new releases, but newish - start at 10:00am every Tuesday and Wednesday. Tickets are first-come, first-served, are limited to theater capacity and are only available at the theater's box office on the day of the show. Regal has offered this free summer fun since 1991.
Free Activity + Theater Full of Other Kids = Movie Theater Experience - Stress of Quieting Potentially Noisy Toddlers.
The participating theaters in our area are the Crossgates Stadium 18 and the Clifton Park Center 8.

Regal Free Family Film Festival

Syracuse - Carousel Mall

We had an hour or two to kill before dinner and found our way over to the Carousel Mall. HUGE place, same kinda mall stores, but a really great carousel. You buy wooden tokens for $1 each and pop them in a little slot when it's your turn. They didn't charge for adults accompanying small kids and they didn't charge for the sleeping 1-year-old strapped to my chest! Such a nice way to spend time... we wound up riding so much, we skipped our dinner plans and hit Johnny Rockets instead...

Syracuse - Museum of Science & Technology

Great way to spend a day here in Syracuse!! Lots to do for all age groups. They have a 3-story play area with air cannons, slides and tunnels, a K'nex station, a hands-on fossil dig... although most of things were geared toward older kids, there were plenty of things for the little guys. The 1-year-old slept through the IMAX and the planetarium, but the 3-year-old was enthralled by both. Free admission thanks to our local MOST membership!

Get there early with little ones because it gets pretty wild in the play area when the bigger kids arrive. Also, parking will be easier. There is a very small cafe seating area with a microwave and only a few vending machines that are astronomically expensive. More than $2.50! For a bottled drink! Insane!

MOST

The Rudy A. Ciccotti Center

Holy Cow!! Did we hit the jackpot in the battle against the Winter Blahs!

Did you know that there was an indoor water park right in Albany? The Rudy A. Cicccotti Family Recreation Center is right off of the middle of Wolf Road. And, it's only a short walk to the Crossings. While it is a membership-based facility, they do offer day passes for $10 per person. The passes allow you to use the entire facility (basketball courts, jogging track, fitness equipment, pool, spa, exercise classes - if you are so inclined) and they are good for the entire day, so you can leave for lunch (or eat your packed lunch in the lobby) and go back for some more.

The Water Features were amazing! It starts off extremely shallow for the little waders and ends up a few feet deep in the leisure swim section. There's a Lazy River, a huge water slide, a bunch of assorted sprinklers ('sprinklers' doesn't really do it justice), dump buckets and a pretty big activity center with a smaller water slide. The Features are turned on at Noon on weekends and when school is out and at 4:15 on weekdays. However, they will turn them on between 11 AM and 12 PM on weekdays, if someone requests it. It can get pretty busy on the weekends, so the earlier time frame suits us better. You can play in the area regardless of the Features being on.

There are lockers available (bring your own lock) and family changing rooms. They have a few drink and snack vending machines and one of the vacuum-suction vending machines that my toddlers find so amusing (frozen pizza, hot dogs, hot pockets, ice cream sandwiches, popsicles, etc). And, they offer swim lessons for non-members ($75 per session).

Ciccotti Center Hours ............... Aquatic Center Hours ............... Water Features

Mon-Fri: 5am-9pm .............. Mon-Fri: 5:50am-8pm .............. Mon-Fri: 4:15pm-7:50pm

Sat-Sun: 7am-7pm .............. Sat-Sun: 7:30am-6pm ............... Sat-Sun: 12pm-5:50pm

Rudy A Ciccotti Family Recreation Center

30 Aviation Road, Albany, NY 12205

518.867.8920

Colonie Center Vending Machines

I just noticed that the vending machines at Colonie Center are stocked with a ton of healthier and organic selections. Health Valley granola bars, Pirate Booty, Cascadian Farms chocolate chip granola bars, Late July sandwich cookies, Smart Puffs, Terra vegetable chips... mmm... can't wait for snack time...

I'm not big on malls or shopping in general, but let's see...

good snacks if I'm in a pinch

a toddler play area

Barnes & Noble Kid's section, train table and story time (with in-store Starbucks)

Darn $5 and $7 toddler-bait firetruck carts

The Soup Man

a pet store

a family restroom & changing area

a snazzy newish movie theater

a very amusing Automatic Popcorn Machine for $1 (by the elevator)

...and I love multi-tasking, so any place with an attached post office is fine with me...

heck, I could make a day of this...

TreePaad

The main attraction (and well worth the trip on its own) is called Fort Ballocity. It's a "three-story, interactive, soft foam ball play arena and indoor playground featuring thousands of foam balls. Kids (and adults) become "action champions", cooperating as a team to move the foam balls through the system." Whatever...remember the show Double Dare? If you took away the horrible mess, this is it! There's an open area where you load balls into machines that blow them to the upper levels where people can load and fire them from simple air cannons. There are big foam rollers to squeeze through, tube slides, twisty stairways, tunnels of swinging punching bags, and on and on and on!

There are tons of other 'a la carte' activities like the Spider Zone, laser tag, rock climbing, Jump-Shot (trampoline + basketball), and a typical tokens for tickets arcade. They have a separate Toddler Zone for kids under age 4, but the 1-year-old got really bored and wanted to join the 3-year-old. Fine with me...can't be in two places at once anyway. When I went to the desk 'upgrade' his admission, the staff waived the difference!

We went during a weekday and almost had the place to ourselves so the kids had a blast. But, I imagine it gets pretty crazy when schools are out and they'd tend to get overrun.

Unfortunately, they don't allow outside food. They do have a fairly reasonable snack bar... burgers, hot dogs, soup, mozzarella sticks, etc.

TreePaad Fun Center
2381 Route 9 - Malta, NY 12118
518-289-5475 | 518-289-5478

Wednesday - Thursday 10am-7pm
Friday - Saturday 10am-9pm
Sunday 10am - 7pm

Bowling

I can't believe that they have bowling shoes as small as they do! What a neato way to spend a rainy day. We barely finished a single game, but had so much fun. Add in some crispy, greasy fries and chicken fingers from the snackbar and a Guiness for daddy... sign us up for a toddler-bowling-league!

Call the bowling alley ahead of time to find out:

1. Do they have non-league lanes available?

2. Do they have bumpers for the lanes?

3. Do they have ramps for kids to use?

We went to:

Spare Time Lanes

375 Troy-Schenectady Road

Latham, NY 12110

The Children's Museum at Saratoga

"Museum" may be a little misleading. This place has a great balance of fun and learning. Not in the least bit stuffy or inaccessible.

There are two levels of rooms to explore, each playfully devoted to different concepts. There's a bank where kids sort, count and learn about money, a play grocery store, post office and restaurant - perfect for those little mimics to get their hands on!

Fire equipment to try on, a dress-up theater, a treehouse, a room to learn about bones, your health & your body, a schoolhouse, a construction site full of blocks and building materials... and on and on...

$6 per person, children under 1 are free.
(Be advised: Strollers are not allowed)
The Children's Museum at Saratoga

The Albany Art Room

This was such a great idea! It makes me regret moving away from downtown Albany just a little bit.

The Albany Art Room is a big open studio that's prepared for any art project you and your toddler may want to do. And even if you don't have something specific in mind or want to try something new, the people are friendly and helpful and there are tons of ongoing projects to check out.

The boys stamped and painted and played with clay and painted and painted and made noisemakers to their heart's content.

And, boy, am I glad the mess wasn't in my house!

In addition to the open studio time, they do an afterschool program, toddler time, classes, private lessons and a summer program. Also, there's a selection of really neat gifties for sale -- unique stuffed toys, bowls made of vinyl albums, etc.

$7 per hour includes your materials during open studio
AND they have a parking lot (a bonus in downtown).
Albany Art Room

NYS Museum Carousel

On the upper level of the NYS Museum there is a great early 1900s carousel that operates every 10-15 minutes or so. There is also a Subway sub shop and seating area that makes for a perfect place to have a snack or lunch in between rides. And apparently on Thursdays at noon, a group of State employees gather to play music... guitar, fiddles, flutes, piano... and they bring extra small percussion instruments for any interested participant!

New York State Museum

Tumbling Tykes

This is a great place to spend a morning or afternoon. It's got a big open area full of things to climb on, crawl through and jump in. There's even a little area in the back for the under-18-month crowd. Perfect for good old unstructured fun.

They also have various classes, a drop-off program, nursery school, summer camp, birthday parties and a monthly "Parents' Night Out."

Tumbling Tykes
Open play is $7/visit, $70/10 visits and they have a yearly membership available.

Soccer Tots at Afrim's Sports

Indoor soccer is great to burn some toddler energy during the winter months.

You do have to sign up for a class and pay an annual membership to do this on a regular basis. But Afrim's does let you try out a class before you do.

There are lots of different levels of play-- starting at 18 months! 18 months! Fun little games and "drills." Coach Troy was great with the toddlers.

Afrim's Sports