I can't believe I haven't updated this in a week. So much has happened. We had our soft opening on Sunday, January 29 and we invited about 40 people and about 100 showed up! It was great. Everyone had a great time.

Today was our official opening and it went very well. We were slow for a lot of the day and we tried to hold down the panic feeling, but then at around 3;30 lots of people showed up. Which brings us to the problem of our hours. Currently we are open Monday to Friday 9:00 to 4:30. I know we need to be open later, but we need to hire some people first. Or teach our kids how to get from daycare to the cafe on their own. :-) We will work it out. And we'll be open on the weekends as soon as we can be. Promise!

There has been so much great buzz about the cafe. Yesterday this article was published: http://www.thegridto.com/life/food-drink/playful-grounds/  I particularly love all the comments at the end. Oy.

Today we were also interviewed by Blog T.O.  Tomorrow is Toronto Life. Also, I think we're going to be made into a comic strip. More on that later. I can't believe all the people calling up wanted to interview us! Also, today I received anonymous flowers. Nice. Creepy but nice. They were signed 'From Your Ardent Admirer'.

Today the best thing happened that made me so happy to have this cafe. A mom came in with a 5 week old. She's a first time mom and talked about how long it took her to leave the house and how this is her first real outing. I told her all about the College Montrose Children's Place (my personal salvation) and then I carried her coffee over to a table at the back beside two other women with 3 week old babies. They're on round 2 so they're not so overwhelmed. The three of them talked for 2 hours. I was so happy to be able to facilitate that!

That's all I can type for now. My eyes are shutting of their own accord. Before and after pictures of the cafe really really soon.

So we are really close now. Most of our coffee related food stuff has been ordered. We have our licenses. The kitchen is almost finished. We still have a list as long as your arm of stuff we need to buy and we are still looking for more kids books, high chairs and booster seats. I never thought I would be this excited about a toilet seat that has a built in toddler seat. Ah, the things I think about. We have been doing a bunch of shopping (finally the fun part!).

Here we are totally overloading Davina's car.

And pictured below is our first totally tuckered out customer. He came. He played. He passed out. Right on the carpet. For those who don't know this is Davina's son Avon. He's pretty adorable.

As far as our opening date goes I will say that we are TENTATIVELY open to the public on Monday, January 30. I will post again in a couple of days to confirm the opening date, describe the menu, list our hours and days of operation etc.....

So close I can taste it!

Once upon a time there was a girl named Tera. She spent her early adult life having a great deal of fun. She studied and trained. She worked hard and she played hard. She went to nightclubs, spent lots of money on taxis, stayed out all night and ate out all the time. You get the picture. She hooked up with a great guy named Duff (yes, like the beer on the Simpsons), and together they had lots more fun. They traveled to lots of interesting places and lived in Asia for awhile. Then they came home and Tera realized that she was not a spring chicken anymore and it was time for offspring. Enter Kai the complete and utter love of her life. She grew up thinking that all that fun that she had in her 20`s and, um, 30`s was really just for young people; that mothers are no longer interested in that kind of fun. But when she became a mother herself she realized that was, well... utter crap.

On the way to the drop in centre, a place for children and their parents, she found herself walking past cafés and looking longingly through the window at the people enjoying a latte, a sandwich, a glass of wine. She wondered if there were no place she could go that was a place for parents and their children? An adult place. A sophisticated place. The kind of place she went to before she crossed over from being a woman to being a mother. Then she realized that there is no place like that.

So she opened one. Playful Grounds is for us, the parents. It`s not kiddified. It`s a place to relax and enjoy your coffee, your meal, your drink. The difference is that it has everything you need to occupy your child while you enjoy yourself.

Here are a few of the things we`ve implemented so far to make your life easier:

• Bathrooms on the main floor
• little stools in each bathroom stall and a tall stool at each sink
• change table in a large bathroom
• lots of high chairs and booster seats
• spare bibs for use (`cause I always forgot Kai`s)
  
• sippy cups and bowls with suction
  
• dairy and non-dairy kids drinks
  
• small water cups for small hands
• main menu and mini menu with healthy food (available to anyone regardless of age)
• a play area with a kitchenette, train table, puzzles, toys and books for kids and parents
• ample stroller parking inside and out
• a rack of $1 items, the kind of things you run out of all the time such as diapers, baby mum-mums, bananas, etc...
• the list goes on and on.....

The goal is to provide a relaxing ambiance where you can chill out, network with others, have a coffee or a glass of wine or whatever you need to just feel like a person again because this is not a kiddie cafe. We spend all of our time going to places for the kids. This is a place for us but one which accommodates the wee ones in every way.

We will be open before months end. Stay tuned for more!

First off I have to seriously thank all the people who have been helping us get the cafe up and running. We've had people helping paint, ripping up floors, providing supplies (everything from the smallest toy to a laptop!) and offering suggestions. And of course to our husbands who are helping out physically and dealing with us as we try to keep a hundred things in the forefront of our minds at any given time. I say the collective us because Davina and I share one brain now. Thanks everyone, I'm not sure where we would be without your help!

So many people are e-mailing asking what they can do to help, so I decided to give it some actual thought. Here's what we need:

1. Highchairs and booster seats. If you have them and don't want them, we'll take them. Either give us a call or an e-mail and we'll arrange to be at the cafe when you come by or we'll arrange pick-up.

2. Toys. Anything that can go in a dishwasher or be easily cleaned. Cleanliness is next to ---liness.  Or whatever.

3. Books. Kiddie books and parenting books. Books are the bomb.

Anything that is donated that we can't use we will take to a shelter or some organization that makes good use of kiddie stuff.

We also need a few large appliances. If anyone out there works in the restaurant industry and has a line on restaurant equipment - used and cheap - we'd love to hear about it!

Lastly, we need ideas. We have so much planned for the cafe itself, but more suggestions are great.

Is anyone interested in having perhaps a company work party at the cafe some evening when we are closed to the public? Does anyone work for or know an event planner? We need to pick up our cash flow now that we are close to opening and most of our money has gone out while none has come in. This harkens back to an entry a while back about losing one of our loans for a big chunk of money we were sort of counting on. I'm just putting it out there. You never know if you don't ask!  More updates soon!

Wow, you don't know what you're missing by not seeing us doing all this work!

Davina and I crumpled on the ground laughing hysterically, in tears, because we are trying to fit giant pieces of drywall into the back of her car and can't for the life of us figure out how they came out of there;  Backing up into freshly painted walls; Getting sprayed with boiling water as we try to sort out the espresso machine; Comparing what seems like an infinite number of paint chips which I swear to God are all just plain white; Realizing that a door and door frame has an impossible number of surfaces and that no matter how many you paint there will be some that you missed; perched precariously painting on a ladder and having giant blobs of paint fall in your eye; and sharing beer and pizza with great friends getting your very own cafe ready to open.  These are good times indeed.

We have been getting so much really great feedback and suggestions. We had over 700 hits on this site yesterday, probably due at least in part to Mike Layton linking to it on Twitter! I'm happy to report that most of what people are suggesting we were already planning.

The only thing that isn't really a possibility was a request for a ball pit. We just don't have that kind of space. I think you'll be happy to know that we are not charging for the play area. But that means that we aren't dedicating too much floor space to it either.

Our goal is to create an adult atmosphere where moms, dads and all caregivers feel comfortable and relaxed. So much of our lives are spent living in kiddie environments. It's like the adult environment has become unavailable to us because we have children. We walk down the street and look at the people enjoying a relaxing cup of coffee or a glass of wine and remember longingly when we used to do that. That's what we are offering. In short this is a space for us, not a space for the kids. But there will be enough to occupy the children so that you can actually enjoy your visit. Plus all of the things that you need when you're out with kids. All the little conveniences not offered by regular adult cafes are here.

In the meantime, keep those suggestions coming. And I promise to try to get some pictures up in a day or two!

Well, we've had the cafe for a week now. There's not too much to report but I thought maybe some pictures would help to do our fatigue justice. We have been sorting, cleaning and priming the walls in preparation for a colour scheme not yet chosen. Lots of people came out yesterday and we pretty much primed the entire 1500 square foot space in one day. Just a bit left to do in the bathroom (I won't get the image of my brother's head practically in the urinal as he painted around it out of my head evar!).

We have been having lots of meetings with coffee roasters (you'll be happy to know my barista skills are coming along), marketing people, health inspectors, etc...  Today we are going to apply for our restaurant license and to have the liquor license transferred!

Also, we are now in the market for donations. If you have old high chairs, booster seats and toys (that can go in the dishwasher) and you want to pass them along, we'll take them! Also books. Kids books or books for parents would be great. Just send us an e-mail or drop by the cafe if you're in the area.

And now, some pictures.

Here is an extremely flattering photo of me behind the bar. I've never looked better, don't you think?

This is from the front looking towards the back.

At approximately 2:30 yesterday afternoon we signed the last of what had to be ten thousand documents and became the proud owners of Playful Grounds! It will be located at 605 College Street which was formerly 'I Feel Like Crepe'. It's on the south side just west of Clinton. It is spitting distance from the main branch of the College Montrose Children's Place. It's close the the library, Metro, Trinity Bellwoods and is in the heart of moms with strollers everywhere.

Pictured above is myself and Davina drinking the bubbly in our new cafe! Feel free to drop by and say hello as we'll be living there from here on in. Seriously. Today we will be starting to sort and throw out and generally get things ready. Planning for an opening some time in January. I can't believe it, it's finally ours!!!

Wow, this is really happening!

Today we had our meeting with the landlord and his leasing agent up at our agent's office. We initialed several times per page on 3 copies of the lease we had previously signed. We handed over a bank draft for first and last. We made out 10 cheques for monthly rent plus all the other stuff that gets paid to the landlord each month. We had to do the cheques twice 'cause we were so nervous writing them that we kept screwing them up. :-)  We chatted with the landlord about kids, languages and just general stuff. The meeting was only about 1/2 an hour long but sort of felt like forever. And then we left. 

Tomorrow is the big day with the lawyer and the seller and the purchase price and the KEYS!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it's 6:00 am on a Sunday morning and I'm writing this blog instead of sleeping, 'cause my nerves are raw and sleep isn't really an option. We've hit a snag. The closing for the purchase of the business is on Tuesday. All is going fine with that. On Monday we meet with the landlord. All is fine with that. The snag is with our loans.

We have money coming in from a lot of different sources and everything has more or less happened as we planned for - until now.

The last loan is either from the RBC directly or the CSBFL (Canadian Small Business Financing Loan). Which one it actually is has fluctuated a bit in the last few months. One is lump sum loan and the other is metered out in bits and sods based on money we are spending and what we are spending it on. Suffice to say we had come to expect a lump sum and now we're not getting it. This has left us filled with anxiety and needing to come up with scenario after scenario of how we will pay for things.

Don't get me wrong, the cafe is still going to have coffee, alcohol, food and a play area for kids as well as all the other little conveniences that moms need to save their sanity. However, to start with, we won't be able to decorate quite the way we wanted or have quite the varied menu we wanted or begin with some of the bells and whistles we were planning. That's okay. We may have to be open only 6 days a week not 7, and not hire any staff and just do everything ourselves just to save cash flow. We will still have a great cafe that moms, dads, grandparents, nannies and everyone else who spends a good deal of their waking hours with a small child, are going to be clambering to get into. As soon as we build up some cash flow we'll be able to do everything we had planned and more.

Maybe this is how the cosmos gives us a little reality check; reminding us not to go crazy with the money in the bank. We need a mantra;

We Will Have The Money We Need To Open.
We Will Run A Great Business.
We Will Be Successful.

That's all for now.

How can so much hinge on just an e-mail? No fanfare, no handshake, not even a piece of paper. Just an e-mail that says "My client agrees to sign the lease".

I'll back up a touch to yesterday. Turns out it's not just my low tolerance for stupid, this deal really has been problematic from the start. Some of the people involved have been pretty apathetic which has made the work for the rest of us that much more difficult. Suffice to say yesterday was filled with many frantic calls between me, our lawyer and our agent during which we unleashed our frustration with the situation on each other, just a little bit. Davina, through no fault of her own, was unavailable although it's possible she broke several laws trying to stay in touch from an airplane!

What we were waiting for was a signed lease. As soon as the other side signed the lease, then we could waive the conditions on the purchase of the business and we would have a firm deal so the lawyer could start the paperwork. Too many chefs in the kitchen led to the most annoying game of broken telephone that I've ever participated in. Sometime while trying to feed Kai and get his skates on and get his helmet on (cut my hand doing up the stupid snaps), I got a call from Gary saying it was done. An e-mail was sent from the lawyer for the landlord saying that the landlord will be signing the lease. And that e-mail is binding. I sort of said 'cool - I have to go!' 'cause I was bleeding and Kai was fussing and it was one of those moments where I needed four hands. When I got off the phone I thought, 'Wait a minute - that's it? We have a cafe? Wow!'

So now we just wait. I asked our lawyer if I can blog about the location and he said no. Not yet. December 20th. Closing day. So for now the exact location is still a secret.

Today we have a meeting at the bank to get more money. A meeting with a sign company (I can't wait to see our sign up there!) and a meeting with a coffee roaster who also does barista training. Then I'm meeting with old friends from high school, one of whom is a personal trainer and would love to come into the cafe and do a free training session for moms and babies, so it's a busy day! Wish us luck!