Growth Spurts

Where to begin? Growth Spurts is amazing. The space is well cared for, thoughtfully designed, and allows you to see your child at all times. The programming offered throughout the week is super fun — character visits, cooking classes, music and more! We have hosted a few birthday parties there and it is always so well run. The owner, Emily, is delightful and clearly passionate about offering a fun, imaginative, friendly place for kids to play.

Wonderful environment to bring children. Very safe and they offer snack for the kids/​adults. Great job Emily. Keep up the great work here.

Love, love, LOVE Growth Spurts! I went today with my mom and tots class to Growth Spurts and everyone had such a great time! The person working (I think her name was Emily) went above and beyond to make sure that our class was well taken care of and had a good time. They even provided snacks and juice boxes for the little ones. The facility was clean and well kept and all of the toys were age appropriate. I highly recommend this place to anyone with a little one under the age of 3. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they open a location on Highland Park!

Love this place! We had my son’s birthday party here when he turned 2 and it was so much fun. Emily and her staff are so sweet and helpful. We have also been to Growth Spurts to play many times and my son loves going there. Its perfect for little ones.

We love growth spurts! Our kids have a blast and the owner is so sweet and very accommodating. We haven’t been to one of the special events yet, just used the play space. But it’s always clean and the owner makes you feel so comfortable and at home.

My 2yo and 4yo love coming to this play space! We even had the opportunity to meet Anna & Elsa… my little one was so excited! Very clean and fun! Great place to have a play date or a nanny meet up!

We had my son’s second birthday party at Growth Spurts, and everyone loved it! It’s amazing for a facility to be so clean after having kids run around in it all day long. Not only does the staff make sure all the toys are in place, but they also make sure your party is set up perfectly and that the guests are having a good time. This place is beyond wonderful!
My party guests thought it was funny for me to book my son’s party at Growth Spurts before even visiting it, but the reviews just made it sound that good, and it was! All the kids, aged 2 to 12, had fun and never got bored. The best part, when it was time to leave the birthday boy did not want to go, and kept exclaiming «I’m still playing!»
Highly, highly recommend this place for your next party!

We had our son’s 2^nd birthday party here recently and it was great! The place is clean, the kids had a blast, and the staff was extremely helpful and accommodating.
Although we were concerned about the size of the place (it’s not huge), it easily held our group of 12 kids and 30 adults.
Also, it was less expensive than just about every other option in the city and suburbs.
I would highly recommend this place!

I’ve visited many playspaces in my 2+ years with children and this one wins the cleanliest award. They have hand sanitizers set up in every corner and they ask that every toy that’s put in your child’s mouth is placed in the «to be cleaned» bucket. When my daughter asked where they kept the princess dresses the owner mentioned that a few of them were at the cleaners, which made me wonder how often all the other costumes she’s tried on elsewhere have been cleaned. Probably not very often. Ick. But kudos to Growth Spurts for attempting to keep the germs away from our kids!
I left my smallest munchkin at home during my visit because I’ve found most playspaces to be too rowdy and pointless for babies. However, he would have been just as happy here as his 2 year old sister. There’s lots of age appropriate toys for him play with and it’s a very calm atmosphere; there were only about 6 – 8 well behaved children here today. He also would have been free of charge since they don’t charge for kids/​siblings until they are crawling.
My 2 year old had a blast climbing on the jungle gym, coloring, dressing as tinkerbell and «cooking» in the playhouse. However, her favorite activity was pretending to mail letters to grandma and grandpa in the pretend mailbox. Growth Spurts is all about creativity and imagination. There are less toys and clutter than the other playspaces we’ve visited. At first I got worried that my daughter was going to get bored after 30 or so minutes here, but there seemed to be plenty of things to entertain her for 2 hours.
Planning to stay for lunch? Bring something for your kids to eat because the café just has snacks. My daughter was thrilled with her lunch of string cheese & bunny grahams, but I wished I had brought something more nutritional along (not that she would have ate it with snacks around).
The owner was fabulous. She was super approachable and very involved. When she noticed my daughter and her friend were coloring she brought over some stickers for them to use on their art projects. She seems to take great care of the space and is great with children as well. I liked her and Growth Spurts so much that I even suggested she take over the playspace that’s near my house and rumored to be closing next month.
We’ll be back… next time with both children!

Perfect! I had a birthday party here, and it was a bit difficult to coordinate stopping in as I live out of town. The staff was very accommodating and let us come in early on a weekend to see the space. The owner and one of the staff were so helpful in answering my many, many questions and the day of– so smoothly organized and really took care of everything. I had more food/​décor than the average party and they were so helpful getting it all set up. I love that it was an open space with room for adults to sit and mingle while the kids played. All the kids loved the toys, which were thoughtfully arranged and new things set out for discovery as the party went on. We had coffee and tea service and the staff poured drinks with great attention so no one felt they were waiting for anything. They were beyond gracious as hosts and above all expectations we had. We had ranges of one year olds to five year olds and they all had something to do. HIghly, highly recommend.

We like Growth Spurts a lot. The toys are all really interesting, it’s a nice space, and the women who run it are very nice. My one year old really enjoys playing there, and I’m always happy to spend time there with her. She especially loves the wooden climbing structure. Great choices of toys all around!
My one complaint is that there are sometimes older boys there who can get very aggressive and wild and behave in ways that are dangerous to the younger children. Some mothers seem to think they don’t need to monitor/​watch their children and literally sit with their backs turned and talk on the phone or to another mom while their children push down babies, throw wooden blocks at them from the top of the jungle gym, etc. Not fun. This is obviously not the fault of the owners, but it would be helpful if they would keep a better eye on what’s going on in the play space and help control some of these kids. I’m never sure what kid goes to what mom (because the guilty moms are always ignoring their kids and not interacting with them at all…) so it can be hard to know how to proceed. Some support from the owners/​managers regarding this would be appreciated.
Other than that, we love this playspace and will continue to go for sure!

This place deserves 6 stars-​it is an amazing play space. The toys encourage imaginative play and foster gross and fine motor development (they have a really cool climbing structure). It is also meticulously clean.
We had my twins one year birthday party here and I intend to have every party here from now on. All of our guests had a great time and there is so much for the kids to do. it was easy for me – no set up or clean up, VERY reasonably priced and Ellen came up with a fabulous art project for the kids.
Love love love.

I had never been here before but I found this place while looking for somewhere to hold my daughter’s 3^rd birthday party. We had a wonderful time! It’s not a huge space but there was plenty for the kids to do– several of them starting throwing tantrums when the party was over (after an hour and a half) because they wanted to play longer! Even my 7 year old nephews had a fun time on the climbing areas. You can bring all of your own food, drinks, coffee, etc. for the party so the parents were able to relax, mingle, and eat while not having to be eagle-​eyed that their kid is going to get hurt or bullied by an older child like at some of the «party places’ we have been to.
Ellen is very nice and very accommodating. She helped us set up, started coffee, put on music, and then basically let us have the run of the place until it was time to have cake and wind the party down. It was really easy to communicate with her as well to set up the party.
All in all, a really good time.

I don’t like this place. It’s supposed to be for the 5 and under set but there are a TON of choking hazards for children under 3. Its kind of stressful to keep the younger ones safe here. FYI — its not a safe place for kids with food allergies. They serve food with the top 8 allergens in the same area where kids play.

Growth Spurts is amazing — I was turned onto this place through The Parent Circle and love the fact that it’s right by the Linden train station. My son loves taking the train here and everything about Growth Spurts is wonderful!
Of course, my son fell in love with their train table but I like the café idea that has organic food and drinks for both the parents and children.
There are also blocks, various games and toys, a painting area and crafts to a great indoor house and a sand table.
I ended up purchasing a ten visit pass since it allowed for a bit of a discount and can’t wait for our next visit!

I love this place! We have been for a drop in play and it was great fun for my 3 year old.
We decided to have his four year old birthday party there with 14 of his friends, all 5 and under. It was the PERFECT space for the party. The kids had a total blast. They loved the climbing gyms, the play doh, the play house, the trains, the art table, and the mail box! The party was an hour and a half and they could have stayed longer. It was GREAT!
We also loved it because it has space for the parents to hang out and socialize. We brought food and drinks for the parents and we all just hung out chatting and having fun too! It was two parties in one and was just perfect!
Ellen did a great job helping, setting up and cleaning for us. It made the party so enjoyable — I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great spot for birthdays!

Growth Spurts is an amazing home away from home… My almost 3 year old daughter and I hung out yesterday with my girlfriend and her daughter. Our kids walked into the bright shiny CLEAN space and we were welcomed by Ellen, fellow mommy and Growth Spurts owner. Our kids enjoyed the natural wooden toys, musical instruments, play dough area. We also made a halloween art project. We played along with our girls but we also found a cozy corner to sit in and chat and catch up. After a couple hours of playing, we enjoyed the café and had coffee, pirates booty, graham crackers and juice! As we are slowly creeping into the darkness of fall and winter, I am so looking forward to making Growth Spurts our new home away from home. The energy and vibe there was great and look forward to bringing other friends and their kids as well. They rent the space for private parties… such a great idea. Loved it!

Awesome spot! I took my crawling/​trying-​to-​walk 11 month old here and she had a blast. The space is very bright and cheerful with tons of stuff for my daughter to see, do, play with, crawl over, around and under.
We’ll definitely be back!

Love this place. Went with a couple of other mommy friends and our kids for the first time recently. Wasn’t sure my 6 year old would get into it, but there was plenty for him to play with, tho I’d say it caters to the 5 and under crowd primarily.
Blocks, painting station (with smocks), various bins of a TON of different things, from shells to giant spiders. :-) Plus a sand table and an adorable little house and of course, a train table.
It isn’t enormous like some of the playspaces but honestly, with two kids to keep track of, those bigger ones sometimes are tough to navigate. I like this size — plenty for the kids to do for a couple of hours and I can chat with friends or do a little work nearby without having to chase the kids or «find» them all of the time.
Coffee and juice boxes and some light snacks available onsite, with comfy seating for parents. Easy parking in the ‘hood, some great places to go to lunch nearby.
I’ll be back!