We had a reunion party for some friends yesterday. One of the smartest things we did was rent a bouncer. (If you’re in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota…I highly recommend Magic Bounce for your rental.) We made a big deal about it for our girls. We were bringing the Disney princess castle to our house! It was magical watching them watch it inflate in the backyard. It only took about 5 minutes (but speeded up here for your viewing pleasure).

The bouncer was the single most important party investment we made. It gave the kids hours of fun and meanwhile the adults had time to enjoy conversations without thousands of interruptions. It also gave the adults times to have great fun IN the bouncer. It was big enough for the “big kids”. One person said it clearly: “I feel like a kid!”.

Having rented the bouncer, the only problem I see now is that after our kids have played in one for hours at home we’ve kind of spoiled them. They’ll never be able to go to a carnival and think it’s a big deal to spend 5 minutes in one for a dollar.

I thought bouncing was way more fun than on a trampoline. Everything is soft and safe. You can’t accidentally hit the edge and crack open your skull or get a finger stuck in a spring…and trampolines don’t have slides or basketball hoops! At first glance I was kind of confused by that one…a basketball hoop and net inside the princess castle? I guess Cinderella had to do something to pass the time while waiting for her prince to come.

It’s really easy for guests to find your home when there’s an 18′ princess castle in the yard. You can get all kinds of themes to match your party. Enjoy.

The other day I was in a business meeting. The meeting started on time…but the video projector did not. We tried multiple computers and settings until we finally concluded the thing was broken. We were at a stand still. We were working on some database design tasks and we really needed to all look at the same screen in order to accomplish our meeting objectives.

I looked around the room and saw 6 laptops. Everyone had a screen directly in front of them. I thought (to myself) “What if they could all see what I’m seeing on their screen?” Then the solution dawned on me. Mac OS X Leopard has built in screen sharing (via iChat or direct connection with VNC). I opened my computer for screen sharing and had everyone else in the room connect to my computer so they could view my screen in a window on their laptops.

Now not only could everyone see directly what I was doing on my screen, but we had another major benefit. Each meeting participant could also interactively control the screen whenever desired. This feature actually led to some confusion as multiple people tried to do something at the same time causing the mouse pointer to jump around or keys typing. By the end of the meeting we had established a new meeting norm for “hands off”. Everyone was required to put their hands up in the air “hold up style” and let designated driver do the work when we handed off control.

This is now possibly the preferred method of working. Even if we had the projector working…we could still allow people to connect this way on their laptop. It really made things easier and added some new dynamics to the meeting that made for fun and productivity.

One of the “Child at Heart” themes is experiencing things for the “first time”. A great way to do this is through travel. Travel expert Rick Steve’s calls traveling “heightened living”. Like children, when we experience things for the first time out senses are more alive. We see, hear, smell, feel, and taste things that are new to us.

Often we don’t take the time to explore the world we live in from day to day…like a tourist would if they were here. There are many things we don’t notice and perspectives that we don’t get because we simply don’t take the opportunity to move out of our home and away from the TV. Many times it takes someone visiting us from out of town for us to go and see some of the amazing things we have right in our own backyard.

I plan to provide some suggested itineraries in my blog that will help people explore some new areas. Most of them will be focused on the Twin Cities area…since that’s where I live. In any case, the ideas and principles can be used anywhere you are.

Choosing an activity – One of the things we enjoy doing is taking a map of our area and spreading it out on the table. Note something interesting. All the green stuff indicates parks. All the blue stuff indicates water. Both can provide a wealth of interesting venues for exploration. Pick one at random and then make an outing to go visit. Pack a picnic lunch or pick up some sandwiches on the way and enjoy. Cities can also provide a lot of interesting options. Pick a new mall to explore. You’ll feel like you’re on vacation because it’s simply something that you don’t do that often. We tend to get stuck in our familiar surroundings and always go to the same shopping area that is closest to us.

So this particular day we planned to a little staycation to downtown Minneapolis. We’ve had light rail here for a few years and I’m never ridden it. We also have this landmark that looks like the Washington Monument with windows. It’s called the Foshay tower. So with those two things I’ve never experienced we set out for a fun day. Along the way we ran into some other fun things.

Here’s our itinerary for this fine Saturday:
10 am – Arrive at the Mall of American and park in front of Bloomingdales. It’s free parking at the mall. We took a quick bathroom break for the kids before we set off for the day. Walk down the stairs outside in the parking lot and get to the start of the Hiawatha line light rail. Kids under 6 are free so we purchased 2 adult tickets for $1.75 in the machine and then took the rail to downtown Minneapolis…Nicollet Ave. On the way we passed the old city hall and our daughter thought it was Cinderella’s Castle. Who need’s Disneyworld?

10:45 am – We tool a leisurely stroll down Nicolett Mall. We peeked in Gaviidae Plaza to look up and see the Phoenix water fountain. http://www.gaviidaecommon.com
We then went up one floor to the skyway and walked through Sak’s Fifth Avenue to the fountain in the IDS Crystal Court. From here you can see the restaurant Basil’s that is famous for the intro to “Mary Tyler Moore” show. We grabbed a bag of the greatest oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and a drink at Potbelly Sandwich Works.

11:30 am – We continued our walk through Macy’s and onto the street level. There were lots of photo opportunities. Down near Peeve Plaza and Orchestra Hall in front of Brit’s Pub (a great place for “bangers and mash”, shepherd’s pie or fish and chips) we saw a group of people doing “Morris dancing“…a form of English folk dance. They were having a lot of fun. One of the dancers told me “This type of dancing used to be done by the youth at harvest time in Europe but today it’s mostly old people with beards.” I thought they were mostly young at heart.

12 pm – We backtracked with out destination the Foshay Tower which is now the W Hotel. The national historic register operates the observation deck on the 30th floor (open daily from 12 noon-9 pm). It’s $8 for adults and free for kids.
It was really interesting to get a great view and some good photos from so high up. One kid said “Wow! I can see the whole universe from here! This is the funnest day I’ve ever had.” We learned some really interesting facts about the tower and the history surrounding it. We had a delicious lunch at the Key’s Cafe on the first floor.

2 pm – Taking a relaxing stroll back down Nicollet Mall we ended up at the Minneapolis Public Library. They have a great area for kids there and we took the opportunity to read some books to our girls.

3 pm – We hopped on the light rail again and took it back to the Mall of America. I’ve driven that road alongside the train countless times but it looked completely difference from inside the train. It was a fresh perspective.

We had a fun and exciting day with tons of new experiences. We really lived today.

A few months ago, I saw an inspiring documentary about a singing group called “Young at Heart” based in Northampton, Massachusetts. Members of “Young at Heart” have a minimum age of 73 and they sing contemporary and classic rock and pop songs…many songs you’d not expect people that age to sing. The film follows their lives as the they prepare for a new concert. It’s a film that will move you to really live and make the most of today.

Here’s the movie trailer.

The official movie web site and the chorus official site.