February 7: Gator Tag

My son's birthday is just around the corner, and being that it is his 5th, a milestone in our house, we want to do something special for him this year! For my daughter's 5th, we had her celebration at Tea Party Castle , and her closest friends and cousins were able to attend. We're not trying to "out do" that, but we still want my son's 5th to be memorable, as well as something to which he can invite his friends from school. Given that there is not a "Super Hero Castle" anywhere in town, we had to be a little more creative in our thinking. So, on Sunday, February 7, we made our first visit to the Joe Dumars Fieldhouse (JDF) that's located in our neighborhood. We wanted to get a feel for the environment, as well as talk with one of their party planners about our options. Unfortunately, the party planner to whom we were supposed to speak, was not at work yet, so we did our own tour as a family. We had already researched the potential activities that would be available for a child's party, and we had the opportunity to see some of them firsthand. The biggest concern was Laser Tag, or as it's known at JDF...Gator Tag. See, the fun center at JDF is an area known as "The Bayou"; so you can see how "Gator Tag" got its name. We were not sure how my son would respond to the dark arena and the concept of a bunch of people running around with the sole goal of shooting one another. We thought he might be a little timid, perhaps afraid. Boy, were we wrong. He absolutely loved it! Granted, the facility was not busy on this morning, so this game was just our family of four. But still, he took to it immediately. I have to be honest, this was my first Laser Tag experience and I loved it, as well. In fact, both my wife and daughter told me afterwards that I took it a little too seriously. I guess next time I'll have to leave out the vaults, back flips and shoulder rolls.