Thanks Grandma and Paka??

My dad always makes light that every Christmas he is as surprised as we are when we open our gifts from him. See, my mom takes care of all the money spending--he just earns it. I do want to mention that in recent years he has taken special care to pick out a few of my gifts. And I've loved them. But he really has nothing to do with picking out his grandkids' gifts.

I think my mom would qualify as a professional shopper. She shops in all the southern states. I'm not sure which state she was in when she picked up this baby. But when she saw it, she knew Emma and Jake just had to have it. And since Jake is at my house most of the time, I was granted with keeper-of-the-bounce-house status. Yea, me.

Since Christmas, I've pondered where I would be able to put this thing. It says "indoor/outdoor." Surely they didn't mean "indoor" my house. But I knew that once I opened that box, I would never get that thing back in it. So I've procrastinated the fun. But last Saturday, I got brave. I figured I needed to know the details of my challenge if I was ever going to solve it.

Did you know that bounce houses come with a storage bag? Me, neither. Cool. And since the fan is large, and separate, I was able to store both items in the plastic "locker" we have outside for our pool (another one of Grandma's brilliant buys.)

Anyway, if you can't tell, the kids loved jumping around. I find it ironic that my mom bought it for Emma and Jake, but the box clearly reads "ages 3 and up". It has a max weight of 180 pounds. So all of my kids joined in the fun! Thanks Grandma (and Paka)!

And just for the record, even after 2 attempts, I was not able to fold the house small enough to fit in the bag. They must have given me one that is too small.

Pat yourself on the back for this one, Paka.