Climb Night at Bridges

Warren had a class field trip to Bridges a few weeks ago. He loved it and suggested that we have the boys' birthday party at the climbing wall. I just happened to be working on a birthday party story for Memphis Parent, so I gave Bridges a call to get the scoop. I quickly found out that renting the facility was way beyond my financial abilities, but the director suggested having a party at one of the monthly climb nights that are open to the public. The climb nights just started last month and mark the first recreational use of the wall. (It's usually for team building exercises.) There are volunteer belayers and eleven people can climb the wall at a time. It sounded like a great idea to me, so I scheduled the boys' birthday party for Friday night.


Warren made cupcakes, buffalo chicken dip, veggie platters, and fruit salad. I bought balloons, colored plates, goodie bags, and pizza. We decorated a nearby classroom, and invited 30 of our best buddies to join us.

Satchel and his two buddies--Jack and Theo--climbed up the wall like it was a piece of cake. Satch got scared of heights just shy of the top, but enjoyed going up again and again. It was fun watching which parents were excited about climbing and which ones were content to watch. It was also awesome to see which kids were the most determined to get to the top.

I had planned to climb but Warren informed me that it was actually hard and spooked me. I was fine watching, as was Jiro. I was really surprised Jiro didn't want to try--even when I offered to go with him. He had fun running around with a few of the other kids who also viewed the climbing wall as giant and scary, so I guess it was ok, but in the end I felt like it was Satchel's dream party and Jiro's nightmare not-party.

After several hours, Shannon convinced me to give the wall a try. Nervous and exhausted and with much fanfare, I finally did. It was definitely hard! WOW! I almost made it to the top, but got too tired. Now, of course, I'm going to have to go back and try again when I don't have an audience!

Overall I think the party was a success. Satchel said it was the best ever.

I'll make it up to Jiro on Wednesday, his actual birthday. (He told me last night he wanted to go to Tsunami on his birthday and drink Diet Dr. Pepper!)