I'm sure many of you already know that my daughter moved back to Michiana about nine months ago now, and that I am a Bib I'm a grandma and this is my grandson, Noah.

Well, we have been trying to find places to bring him because, you know, toddlers, they have a lot of energy.

And she actually, my daughter actually found a place called smileys.

And what did you what what did you think about it when you found it?

Well, I just heard that it was a lot of fun for little kids, so I thought it'd be great to bring Noah and it would be a lot of fun for all of us.

Yes, it would.

And that's what they say.

That it's for all ages.

So are you ready to have some?

Yeah.

You ready to have some fun ready?

All right, all right, let's go.

Here we are at Smiley's.

Jennifer, my daughter, my grandson and I are so excited to be here.

And can I just say it?

It is.

It's not everything you said it would be.

Or we thought it would be.

It is more than what we expected.

It's this place, 51,000ft².

Yeah, we're a little over 51,000ft² of fun for all.

It's wonderful.

And that's something that I didn't realize.

Well, first of all, where was this when my kids were little?

You know, I kind of.

But where was it when I was little?

I would have loved this place.

But what I love is that you do have something here for everyone.

It's for the kids, it's for the parents, and it's for the grandparents.

Absolutely.

We have spaces designed for infants and toddlers to play preschoolers, elementary, high school.

even the parents that say, I'm not going in and end up going in and having as much fun as the kids.

So it really is a blast for all ages.

And they have fun because there's a lot for them to do.

But they also have massage chairs.

Yes.

So while the kids are playing, we can just go sit down and get a massage.

When do you have a chance to do that?

Yes, absolutely.

You can sit up here and hang out, see the kids playing below.

Relax.

Enjoy yourself, bring your laptop or you can have right in the ball pit with the kids, the kids, whatever your style is, I love that.

So let's break it down to the age groups, because you said that you have activities for six and under, what are some of those activities?

So we do every Monday and Friday we do toddler time.

so it's reduced pricing where the parent goes in free and the toddler pays less to play for two hours.

we have toddler spaces, like our race pit, where you dig like a sandbox and we have a smaller ball pit and playground area for the toddlers.

that we keep exclusive to children five and under.

So the big kids are going in there, you know, knocking them over and an area for the big kids to play.

One of my favorites is Dino Land.

Yes, absolutely.

That, we have a T-Rex you can sit on that's interactive.

And then we have the animatronic dino that you can ride around, and you can even purchase a fossil kit and sit down with an employee and chisel away and find your own little dino to build.

What I love about it is of course, there are electronics and there's fun things to do, but it's also a very interactive play.

I mean, the play that is here, it's actually building skills.

And the kids that are that come.

Yes, absolutely.

We really we have the arcade area, of course, because that's popular.

But it's a lot of, you know, unplug and play, climb, jump, swing, fly.

Yes.

All the activities for a lot of family fun, minus the electronics.

Yes.

And you know what else is that?

They're they're getting exercise.

Right.

That's something that a lot of kids don't get anymore because they're so plugged in.

But this is a great place to get them learning and and running around.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

One of my favorite, messages was from a parent.

And they came to one of our sensory days where we have, no music, no arcade.

So it's a quieter time.

And they said they couldn't believe the skills they saw their child doing here that they had never witnessed.

Right.

So so one of those things when a sensory we do sensory every other Sunday morning, Mother's Day will be our next one.

We already have some some tickets sold for that.

We do pre-sale just for sensory days.

So that way if your child has autism or other special needs and it's difficult to wait in line, you can buy your tickets ahead of time, walk in and you're good to go.

and we had last time just about 25 kids in the building.

So really calm, quiet time.

A nice that's a great idea.

And we partnered with Lighthouse Autism Center to set up a sensory room.

So we have a space.

If kiddos are here and it's too much, they can go in that little room shut the door with a parent and just play in there.

And it's a quiet space.

So for anybody that thinks this might be a little too much for their kiddos, we do have an option to make it more accommodating for the diverse needs of kids.

That's fantastic.

Now you also six and under, so six and up.

So some of those so six and a half is free reign of everything.

We have.

So ball pit slides, jungle gym, nerf battles, dino rides, wall games, arcade.

I can't think of something we don't have that you're going to want to do.

I can't even Jennifer I can't.

And again, what I love about this place is when you go into, let's say the nerf, the nerf wall I mean, you've made it so realistic.

It's kind of like you're you're not just giving them the game to play, but they're using their imagination and really getting, immersed in in the play.

Yes.

Our Nerf room were the exclusive Nerf room for this area.

The next closest one, I think, is out in Fort Wayne.

and doing Nerf battles with your kids.

Our kids, we even have a Nerf battle club where kids come in the evening and hang out with friends and do battles, all the gear they can wear and everything to make it, you know, feel like you're really in that battle.

And one thing that is, is really wonderful is that there is no place like this for probably the next place, like, this is an indie.

Yes.

Yeah, we're definitely exclusive.

There are other play places in the area, but we have things they don't have.

They have things we don't have.

So it's a good balance.

We fill the void of some of the things we didn't have around here.

The ball pitch.

We're famous for our ball pits, the Indianapolis one location as well.

people's biggest question with the ball pit is cleanliness.

And we clean.

They take everything out of the ball pits a couple of times a week and clean, and we run all the balls through a ball pit washing machine that's like 6 to 8 hours.

So that's one of the reasons we can have fantastic ball pit spaces because of the owner's commitment to cleanliness as well.

That's very safe and clean.

Now, speaking of the owner, do you know what kind of inspired him to open this place?

he has young children, and he visited family in China, where these kinds of play places were the norm and came back here and realized it was it.

And he wanted that for his kids.

And so the first location is in Indianapolis, which is smaller than this.

This is his mid step.

And he's moving on to franchising in more locations now.

But really just a place for family fun.

That's great.

Well, when you talk to and tell him on behalf of the Michiana area, we say thank you so much for bringing this place.

Now you also do birthday parties.

We do a huge part of our business as parties.

We can do up to 40 parties a day.

We have amazing party host.

What and yes.

Are you.

Are y'all okay?

Parties a day?

Yeah right.

It's a lot.

But it's awesome because a lot of doing parties for your kids is the planning and setting up and trying to make sure the kids are okay, and having fun and interacting with the adults that are there.

And when you come here, you do none of it.

You just play with your kids, right?

We take care of the food.

We take care of the cleanup, the set up.

We manage getting the kids back to the table, getting them out to play.

The party hosts are amazing.

They take care of everything.

So you come in, pay the bill and have fun with your kiddos.

And that's what a party should be.

Yeah, I could see that about the staff that's here.

I mean, if they were interviewing me and I was around all these kids, I'd be like, listen, I but you like, you love your job.

So, yeah, absolutely.

The the noise is just a sign of fun.

The louder they are.

The more fun we know they're having and we have.

My favorite part is just that it's for everybody.

You go some places.

There's something for little kids or big kids.

We've had high schools do field trips here, and those big kids are little kids again.

I mean, they're down the slides, they're squealing the same as the five year old.

And it's just it's awesome.

So I love being here and seeing that.

That's so great.

Now what are the days and hours that you're open?

we are open every day, but Wednesday Wednesdays are deep, clean days.

So we closed down to clean every surface of everything.

So, other than that, we are open.

our weekday hours are 10 to 9, and then we're open until ten on Fridays.

11 on Saturdays.

Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for bringing fun back to life and bringing out the kid in all of us.

I think I need to go and catch up with my grandson, Noah and my what am I saying?

I watch him all the time.

I'm going to go with them across here, let them have fun.

I'm going to go take a massage.

That's awesome.

Sounds good.

Thank you so much.

Yeah.

I go, oh my gosh.

I love this place.