Have you seen our party room lately? Or, more to the point, have you seen what others have done to our party room lately? I am blown away by the creativity that parents bring to what is essentially - and intentionally - a blank canvas. We enjoy seeing the originality of ideas most of which are in response to your child's special interests. My son had a school bus themed birthday when he turned 2. The kid was obsessed with all kinds of buses and would rattle off, "city bus. Tour bus. Double decker bus. School bus," from his car seat. Now, as a teenager, he is embarrassed when his dad and I remind him of his love affair with buses, but every now and then he will humor me by pointing out, "decker bus, mommy!" I swoon.

Here are a few photos of recent parties that were awesome! 

Thanks to all who came out for our Santa event yesterday! It was wonderful to get to spend time with your families and we look forward to making this an annual event for kids of all ages. MoBu Kids primarily serves the littles, but the older siblings had as much or MORE fun than their younger brothers and sisters. The cookie decoration station was a hit! 

Brandee D. Photography will be emailing you your photos by Tuesday afternoon. Here are my candid outtakes of the afternoon:

The past six weeks have flown by! I can't believe Thanksgiving is already over and December is upon us. As much as I love the holiday season, I have a bone to pick with it. There are too many demands packed into one month. Parties, events, school pageants, shopping, cooking, being nice to relatives, finding the perfect pics for cards - then having them made - THEN having to mail them! Sheesh. I need a nap just thinking about it.

In an effort to make things a little bit easier for you, we have scheduled Parent's Day Out (formerly Mom's Day out, but dads need a break, too) one day a week in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Kids ages 2.5 and older can spend three hours being entertained by our amazing staff while you run errands, meet a friend for coffee, or have the aforementioned nap. We also have drop off opportunities during Parents' Night Out and our winter camps. 

Finally, go easy on yourself. A few years ago, I started asking my family at the start of the season what was their ONE thing that they wanted to do during the holiday season. For the MoBu Dad, it's easy: he wants his mother's bourbon balls. As long as I whip up a batch, he doesn't care what else we do/don't do over the season. For my kids, it varies. Some years, they to make 5 different kinds of Christmas cookies, other years they want to go all out with decorating the house. What floors me is that their requests are almost always doing an activity at home with the family. For me, my one thing is Christmas cards. The rest of the family doesn't care, but I like the tradition of sending and receiving cards. What's your one thing?

We wish you the best of this holiday season, whatever or however you celebrate!

Great news! We had some beta testers come in and tell us what they liked (pirate ship!) and what we needed to fix (shocking lack of unicorns), and now we are ready to tip toe into the world of daily openings. For the next week, we will be open daily for Open Play. Bring in your old play passes and punch cards, otherwise it is $13 per child for a day of play. Socks are required, but if you forget we have socks in all sizes for $2 per pair.

Hours are as follows:

Friday, 9/14 - 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
Saturday, 9/15 - 9:30 am - 3:00 pm
Sunday, 9/16 - 11:00 am - 3:00  pm
Monday, 9/17 - 9:30 am - 5:00 pm
Tuesday, 9/18 - 9:30 am - 5:00 pm
Wednesday, 9/19 - 9:30 am - 5:00 pm
Thursday, 9/20 - 9:30 am - 5:00 pm
Friday, 9/21 - 9:30 am - 5:00 pm
Saturday, 9/22 -Our Grand Opening! 10:00 am - 2:00 pm. 
Sunday, 9/23 - 9:30 am - 5:00 pm

These times are subject to change, based on deliveries, staff training, and other factors outside of our control. We will update our Open Play calendar and Facebook page as things change. Please be patient with us as we train new staff, learn a new software system, and deal with glitches involved with moving in general.

See you soon!
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MoBu Kids is starting to look like MoBu Kids! Things are getting put together and organized. Ms. Roxana was in organizing art supplies and getting things ship shape. 
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We cannot get our internet installed! Ack! We need our phones and computers to work and our building apparently needs either an upgrade or someone who remembers how to install the old pre-fios system into our building. It's always something.

​We can't wait to host your party at MoBu Kids and plan to start in October! In response to your requests, we are moving to an online reservation system and hope to have it up and running next week (dependent on internet service, of course.) We are not yet taking reservations, but will once this new system is in place. Check Facebook and our blog for word.

We still don't have a date for our official opening, but are hoping for soft openings beginning next week. 

Dear Friends, I'm sharing this with you because everyone keeps asking when will we FINALLY open? WHEN?? Well, there's been a setback because OF COURSE there would be one.

Tuesday was moving day for MoBu Kids. We were so excited to clean out the storage unit, start organizing the equipment, say hi to some friends we haven't seen in awhile, and get things ready for you, our customers.
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A few days before the move, The MoBu Spouse came by to admire the new space.

​We debated the merits of where to place certain items and he jokingly told me that we were going to need to downsize because we had too much stuff for this smaller space. I laughed and said we would rotate chairs in and out.

And then...

On Tuesday, the movers noticed that some things were damp and getting progressively wetter the further into the storage unit they got. Crud. The sprinklers leaked into our interior climate controlled storage unit and onto our things. So many things.

Our reception furniture. Ruined.
Foam climbers, slides, blocks, steps. Ruined.
Dolls, stuffed animals, costumes. Ruined.
Books. This was the worst for me. Boxes and boxes of books had to be thrown away. I remembered reading those books to your kids. I remembered reading those books to MY kids. 
Arts and crafts supplies, office supplies, 

The picture below is the big stuff that had to go, but overall a small portion of what actually went. 
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​Instead of organizing and detailing the new space, I have been going through each box and bin and painfully deciding what can be salvaged and what must be tossed. Every item needs to be wiped down with a bleach solution.

So where are we now? Exterior signs are ordered, the phone will be reconnected this week (same number!), and I hope to have a soft opening next week (squee!!). Once I get us back online, we will start processing birthday parties for October and beyond. 

I thank you all for your patience and understanding. 

Hi friends!

We are looking for some new faces to work along side our returning staff. We are seeking hardworking, organized, and self-motivated part time staff for our busy indoor playground.

 Applicants should be detail oriented, dependable, outgoing, have excellent phone and customer service skills, and be able to pass a criminal background check.The ideal candidates will be able to ensure children are learning and having fun. If you are a self-starter full of creativity and ideas you will fit in perfectly. Having a positive and upbeat attitude is a must!

We are hiring all positions and all hours.

• We are open M-F from 9am - 7pm, and weekends from 8am - 6pm.
• Compensation begins at $13 per hour, with monthly bonuses based on revenue targets. 

MoBu Kids is an independently owned children’s facility in Falls Church, Virginia, offering classes, camps, birthday parties, and parent’s night out. Please send resume and cover letter detailing experience with children, customer service, and hours desired to info@mobukids.com. 

** Please NO PHONE CALLS OR VISITS! ** (Our contractors wouldn't know how to react.)

Have you checked out our new logo? We used our down time to think long and hard about "MoBu Kids" - what is and what we want it to be.  Those of you who were around 10 years ago when Monkey Business first opened (anyone? anyone?) may remember the original name. Unfortunately, it needed to be changed due to a pesky trademark dispute. It was shortened to "MoBu Kids" - get it? "Mo"nkey "Bu"siness.

But the question remains, what is MoBu Kids? What does it mean? We didn't want to change the name - a name that kids and families in Falls Church have grown to love. Perhaps if we were after world domination we could alter it slightly to "Mobile Kids" and send forth toddlers to rise up and conquer the indoor playground world. The MoBu Spouse suggested "Mo'Bile Kids" with an image of a baby spitting up, because c'mon. We've all been there.

​It was time to call in professionals.

We reached out through our Her Corner network for suggestions and hooked up with Erika at Spring Insight. Erika and her team worked with us to get to the heart of MoBu Kids. We are an indoor playground. We are not a gymnastics studio. We want kids to dream. Be creative. Build castles and spaceships. Go camping. Drive trucks. Be a pirate.

They sent us this:
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Nailed it.

Except, of course, that it was too busy and too big and altogether too much for a logo. But it was *us*. They got us. Eventually that turned into this:​

So there you have it. New location, new logo, new start. Same safe, fun, creative environment. We cannot wait for you to come play with us.

It's been many long months since we last had an update to share. What's been happening?

• We settled on a floor plan that maximizes usable space. You'll notice that the new space is smaller than the previous location, however the play area is roughly the same size. 
• We found the perfect contractor to make our dreams a reality.
• The City of Falls Church approved our construction permit.
• We have a new logo (just unveiled here!) that captures the spirit of MoBu Kids.
• We are now undertaking the tedious process of choosing paint and carpet colors. And, of course, ordering our super cushy padding that gives MoBu its bounce.

Fingers crossed, we will be open for classes in September and for birthday parties soon after. 

We have missed you and can't wait to see you soon!