A Little Piece of Heaven…

September 30, 2009

I have a geographic problem: I live in Connecticut, and my favorite place for my adorables to play is in Chelsea, Michigan (and now Lake Zurich, IL! More on that in a minute), more than 12 hours from my home.

Welcome to The Treehouse. It’s a huge, super-CLEAN facility to wipe your adorables out.

Here’s another look…

It has a separate play area for the littlest adorables.

Okay, now that we’ve established that the adorables are safe and having the time of their lives, let’s move on to what, in my eyes, makes this place really, really special.

treehouse_comfy-chairs

1. Big, comfy chairs to curl up with a book, magazine, projects, etc.

2. WIRELESS internet. So bring that laptop and get your Good Stuff on. (Sorry, couldn’t resist).

3. Excellent food. Seriously.

Here’s my favorite. It’s the “Number One”: smoked turkey, homemade guacamole, monterey jack cheese, tomato, thousand island on grilled sourdough. Deee-lightful.

This is the Pu-Pu Platter I order for the adorables. Note to all restaurants: this is pretty much the perfect meal for kids. Don’t you agree?

4. Abundant snack options. Inside this little refrigerator are baggies of carrots, grapes, apples, string cheese, cupcakes, cups of berries, etc.

Pirate booty abounds.

5. Lots of little touches: hand sanitizer and Costco wipes everywhere, as in, you can look in any direction and see them immediately. The bathrooms are oversized, super-clean and well-stocked with lots of amenities. Also one of the workers behind the counter came out and offered to refill my Diet Coke, and I’m telling you, it was LOVE.

The Treehouse was created by Michelle Balaka, a mom of 2 who was tired of plastic chairs, concession-type food (pizza, nachos, hot dogs), and icky bathrooms at the usual places to take the adorables. So she created her facility from scratch, literally. She and her husband built it mostly themselves and her labor of love is apparent. Little touches everywhere make it so obvious that a mom is in charge.

My dream is to meet my playgroup there (for lunch, obviously) a couple days a week. The adorables can play, and we moms can talk and catch up. Best part – noone has to clean up after the tornado of multiple adorables.

Though hopefully, we would not see the results of this sign…

And now for you Chicago residents: Michelle just opened a second Treehouse in Lake Zurich, IL. It’s even bigger than the original.

Lake Zurich 013

More room, larger play structure…

Lake Zurich 010 (2)

More comfy couches to relax…

Lake Zurich 009 (2)

And the same great food to keep you coming back!

Find more information about the Treehouse in Chelsea.
See the new Lake Zurich Treehouse.
You will be WOW’ed. More locations are planned…

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Category: Activities
Tags: Play structures, The Treehouse |

10 Comments »

marla
on September 30, 2009 10:14 am
It sure beats MacDonalds!!!
Christine
on September 30, 2009 12:11 pm
The big comfy couches are definitely the best thing about this! Also, love seeing some truly awesome food available. Nothing worse than only having hot dogs and pizza in the selection.
Katie Fisher
on September 30, 2009 7:53 pm
I have to take the kids there. Thanks for the tip on this Heidi!
Heidi Farmer
on September 30, 2009 8:24 pm
You will LOVE it! It’s so worth the drive for you. I just wish I could meet you there. Perfect for you to relax with the new baby!
Jenny
on October 2, 2009 10:22 am
I wish one would be built in Lawrence KS! I would spend every weekend there!! I love the snack and food options they have!
Kim Murray
on October 2, 2009 6:32 pm
I took my kids there recently after we took a tour of the Chelsea Teddy Bear Company. Chelsea is about an hour drive for us so while visiting the Teddy Bear company was a cool trip, it didn’t last long enough to justify the hour drive. So, we spent a couple of hours at the Treehouse after our tour. Great place!
Julene
on October 19, 2009 7:56 pm
Those of us who are lucky to live in Chelsea, LOVE the Treehouse!!!! 🙂
DexMom
on October 19, 2009 9:48 pm
Best place ever to throw a birthday party. The room upstairs is awesome with large leather couches, flat screen tv’s for the football game, pool table, bathroom, and the best part is that the older adults and grandpa’s don’t mind coming because they are not downstairs where all the kids are. No screaming, crazy running, hysterical laughter. (Not that that is a bad thing, but you get my drift!)
Heidi Farmer
on October 19, 2009 10:09 pm
You are so lucky! I meant to mention in the post that my perfect day is lunch at the Treehouse (the #1 sandwich), a stroll up and down that great street of shops (perhaps a new pair of boots??) and then dinner at the Common Grill = Best Day EVER!
bridget
on January 17, 2010 1:19 am
Just wondering where the future locations will be ?? Just moved from Arlington Heights,IL last year to Florida…..wondering if they plan on expanding down here!! And when we visit Chicago this summer we will visit!!