If you're looking for an elegant birthday party for your special girl, check out the offerings from Little Ladies Tea Parties. Their vintage tea parties for girls ages 4 to 7 are held in your home, backyard or local park, and include decor, costumes, food, goodies, and even custom invitations and thank-you cards.
Little Ladies Tea Parties was started by North Bay mom Mary Viau who found the local options for girls' parties lacking. These vintage tea parties offer kids a taste of elegance and formality, with linens and china, hand-made costumes, and other treats. The best thing about them is that all you have to do is create the guest list and mail the invitations—they take care of the rest.
Parties start at $350 for seven guests and the birthday girl. Additional guests (up to 12) are $35 each. Parties include invitations, hostess, furniture and decor, costumes, tea and treats, cupcakes, music and dancing, craft time, framed photos of the birthday girl and her guests, a goody bar, set up and clean up, a brief lesson in tea etiquette, and thank you cards.
Many in Marin were excited last summer when the new San Rafael Pacifics minor league baseball team started its first season in Albert Park. They're back for 2013, and this year young sports fans can hold their birthday parties with the Pacifics at Kirby Cove in Albert Park!
Kirby Cove is perfect spot for children's birthdays, and can accommodate anywhere from 10 to 50 participants. Party guests will enjoy activities like Wiffle Ball games, ping pong, a basketball hoop, and more! Pacifics players and team mascot Sir Francis the Drake will also drop in and visit parties to say hello and sign autographs, too!
Game tickets, menu packages, and a variety of party add-on options are available. Albert Park is located near downtown San Rafael at Andersen Drive, Lindaro Street, and Albert Park Lane.
The San Rafael Pacifics minor league baseball team's opening game is on June 11. Check their game schedule here.
If you haven't been to the PlayLand indoor bounce house experience in the MLK Gym in Sausalito, it's definitely worth a visit, especially if it's rainy or cold and you can't play outside. PlayLand is a full-sized gymnasium full of inflatable bounce houses, including a 40-by-20-foot sports arena, a 15-foot slide, a bounce house with basketball hoop, and a toddler bounce zone.
My kids always have a blast playing here—sliding, jumping, bouncing, and playing games in a warm, safe, indoor environment. PlayLand was started by Marin dad Jeremy Williams, who also runs Mt. Tam Adventure Camps. He's often on site with several coaches who make sure that everyone has fun. During our last visit, a coach was making balloon animals for the kids, and there was even a remote controlled flying giant clownfish roaming the room. It's a fun and cool place to play in Marin.
Remember those days at the roller skating rink back when you were a kid? The disco ball, the DJ, and doing that arm thing when they played YMCA by the Village People? (Am I dating myself here?) If you're nostalgic for the days of skating gone by, head up to Cal Skate in Rohnert Park, which hasn't changed all that much since I used to skate here when I was a kid.
We visited Cal Skate a few months ago, and had a blast—my daughter keeps asking me when we can go back. The kids loved the music, the lighting, and the disco ball, as well as skating, of course. They definitely picked roller skating up faster than ice skating, which they also love to do.
Lace up your skates—you can rent them or bring your own, if you have them—and hit the rink. Cal Skate offers special Kids' Skate sessions for families during the week, on Mondays and Thursdays from 9:30 to 11:30 am. These sessions for children ages 2 to 10 cost $6 and include instruction and quad skate rental, and parents can walk out onto the rink to lend a hand. They also offer a family night on Saturday evenigs from 6-8:30 pm and public skating during the week (times vary). Check out their weekly schdule here.
This Saturday, November 10 from noon to 10 pm, Marin on Ice opens at San Rafael's Northgate Mall. Open through January 13, 2013, Marin County's only holiday ice skating rink features 5,000 square feet of real ice and will be open daily for outdoor skating. You no longer have to head up to Santa Rosa or down to San Francisco to get your holiday ice skating fix!
Special sessions at Marin on Ice include Wednesday "Mommy and Me" skating time geared toward young children and their parents, "Family Night" on Tuesday, and "Rock the Rink" on Friday evenings. Skating is $15 per person, which includes skate rental. Private ice cabanas will also be available for rental, and "Skate Buddies" will be on hand to assist beginners.
Marin on Ice also offers birthday parties during public skating hours. The cost is $300 for up to 10 skaters, and two-hour parties include a private ice cabana, skate rental for everyone, chairs, a special birthday announcment on Rink Radio, and a ride for the birthday boy or girl on the rink's mini zamboni. The rink's three ice cabanas can be combined so parties can be for 10, 20, or 30 people. Private rink rentals are also available for your group, organization, or business.
If you want to go ice skating, you have to head to Santa Rosa or San Francisco, right? Wrong! This fall and winter, Marin on Ice comes to San Rafael's Northgate Mall. Open November 10, 2012 through January 13, 2013, Marin County's only holiday ice skating rink features 5,000 square feet of real ice and will be open daily for outdoor skating.
Special sessions at Marin on Ice include Wednesday "Mommy and Me" skating time geared toward young children and their parents, "Family Night" on Tuesday, and "Rock the Rink" on Friday evenings. Skating is $15 per person, which includes skate rental. Private ice cabanas will also be available for rental, and "Skate Buddies" will be on hand to assist beginnners.
Marin on Ice will also offer birthday parties during public skating hours. The cost is $300 for up to 10 skaters, and two-hour parties include a private ice cabana, skate rental for everyone, chairs, a special birthday announcment on Rink Radio, and a ride for the birthday boy or girl on the rink's mini zamboni. The rink's three ice cabanas can be combined so parties can be for 10, 20, or 30 people. Private rink rentals are also available for your group, organization, or business.
The PlayLand indoor bounce house experience in the MLK Gym in Sausalito is always a blast to visit. We recently attended a birthday party there, and everyone, kids of all ages and adults included, had a fantastic time! It's definitely a place to consider when planning your next children's party.
PlayLand is a full-sized gymnasium full of inflatable bounce houses, including a 40-by-20-foot sports arena, a 15-foot slide, a bounce house with basketball hoop, and a toddler bounce zone. PlayLand offers two different party packages: semi private weekday afternoon parties and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoon private parties.
Weekday afternoon parties run for 1 hour and 30 minutes, and are for up to 12 children (you can pay for more). Two time slots are available, 2–3:30 pm and 3:45–5:15 pm. The cost is $150 for Sausalito residents and $160 for non-residents. You'll have exclusive use of a decorated private party room with balloons and table covers, and will share the bounce house facilities with the public. You'll need to provide all food, drink, and tableware, and alcoholic drinks are not allowed.
It's been a while since we've been to TrainTown, the fun and fantastic miniature railroad located in the town of Sonoma, so we decided recently that it was time for a return trip. It's been around since before I was a kid, and it's the kind of place that takes you back to a simpler time.
Sonoma Train Town offers train-related activities that are fun for everyone from toddlers to gradeschool kids (and adults, too), as well as a selection of carnival-style rides. It's also a short drive from pretty much anywhere in Marin, which makes TrainTown a must-visit attraction for North Bay families.
I'd driven by McInnis Park off Smith Ranch Road in San Rafael many times before I realized that—hidden amongst the driving range, nine-hole golf course, clubhouse, and batting cages—there was a miniature golf course there too (it was the a little windmill and castle on the hill that tipped me off). Since then, it's been a favorite place for us to go with the kids for a fun day out.
McInnis Park's miniature golf course is a colorful, 18-hole, artist-designed course with fanciful features including an elephant with moving feet, a snail, a castle, a lighthouse, a waterfall, and a much more. The tiered, lushly landscaped course winds its way up a hill as you play and the views from the top are spectacular.
This Saturday, November 10 from noon to 10 pm, Marin on Ice opens at San Rafael's Northgate Mall. Open through January 13, 2013, Marin County's only holiday ice skating rink features 5,000 square feet of real ice and will be open daily for outdoor skating. You no longer have to head up to Santa Rosa or down to San Francisco to get your holiday ice skating fix!
I'd driven by McInnis Park off Smith Ranch Road in San Rafael many times before I realized that—hidden amongst the driving range, nine-hole golf course, clubhouse, and batting cages—there was a miniature golf course there too (it was the a little windmill and castle on the hill that tipped me off). Since then, it's been a favorite place for us to go with the kids for a fun day out.
