Holy Party Inflatables, Batman!

This past weekend we celebrated my son Graham’s 4th birthday party. We had the fiesta in our backyard and were joined by 20 of his closest friends with parents in tow. The theme of the party was Batman (sorry Diego, you are so last year!) The festivities got under way promptly at 12 noon and the kids started streaming into our backyard shortly thereafter.

Aside from the usual pizza and cake, we did a few things to make the party extra special for Graham. First off, we rented a ‘Dragon Castle’ – a huge party inflatable requiring two power cords and plenty of airspace. It had a main bouncing area, and then a second room with an obstacle course type pathway that led around a narrow hallway to a soft ladder that then led to a long bouncing slide. I can definitely see how that would be a dream come true for a 4 year old to have that in his backyard. It was a long way from my own birthday parties which from what I remember normally took place in the back of Arby’s.

The highlight of the party for Graham took place about 90 minutes in. With all the preparations made in advance, I hit play on the iPod and the Batman theme (original TV series of course) began to blast. All the kids looked on in a frenzied anticipation when in strolled no other than the cape crusader aka Batman aka Bruce Wayne aka my neighbor Mike (who graciously volunteered to dress up – I owe you big time, Mike). You should have seen the look in Graham’s eyes as Batman walked over to him, reached down, and shook his hand. It was an exciting moment in the young life of a 4 year old. Of course, Graham had a few specific questions to go over with Batman – namely how did Batman get to the party, i.e. where did he park? Where’s Batgirl? Where’s Green Lantern? Batman did his best to answer the questions, mingle with the kids for about 15 minutes, take some pictures, and then made a no less dramatic exit from the party.

The party concluded at about 3pm with all the kids exhausted from a 3 hour combination sugar high/adrenal rush. I must say the party inflatable and the batman costume were great additions the party. Neither required any work on my part except to give a credit card number. The Batman costume was rented from Taylor Rental - thanks to my mother in law Chris for taking care of that . The party inflatable was rented from a company in Connecticut called New England Bounce About and couldn’t have been easier. The guys came in the morning to set it up, and then came the next morning to take it away. There was nothing to it. It definitely kept the kids entertained for hours, and most importantly (as any parent knows) it tires them out nicely and sets them up for hopefully a solid night sleep.

Apparently there are a WHOLE host of different types and themes of party inflatables, and in fact GigMasters has just recently begun to test it as a new category on our website. I can personally attest to the fact that they are definitely 'the life of the party!'