Millie's Little Closet expands with indoor play structure

Millie's Little Closet in downtown High River has expanded, really expanded.

They've now added an indoor play structure right next door on 3 Ave. SW right close to Maggie's Diner.

It was pretty busy on Family Day Monday.

After many weeks of planning and renovating they were able to expand next door and open the new space up to the public during the Family Day weekend.

Local owner Ashley Jondreau and husband Mike were putting the finishing touches on Friday with their three young children testing out the play structure to ensure it would be fun for everyone. 

Ashley's son and friend having fun on the big play structure.

Then they opened up the new play space with a grand opening on Saturday Feb. 17 at 9 a.m.

Owner Ashley Jondreau of Millie's Little Closet has now expanded next door and opened up Millie's Indoor Playground.

Ashley said being a young mom of three littles and talking with other local moms she knew the demand was here for an indoor play space.

"To get out and do something with consistent hours and a place for them to gather that's inside with our Canadian weather, anytime for play, you don't have to pre-book, and you can just come between 9 and 6 daily, except for Christmas."

There are 2 separate play structures kids can play on. And the play structures themselves were custom ordered to their specific designs, but they had to put it all together themselves including Ashley's husband and a friend with some added input from their kids.

"One for zero to two, it has a ramp, little stairs and a slide. My one-year-old has it totally mastered and she's safe on it. And then we have another larger structure that is for the two to eight-year-olds, it is rated for up to twelve-year-olds so if those older kids they are welcome to come with your youngers as well. And it's got some monkey bars, fireman's pole, a bucket and rope, two slides, some ramps and then lots of little crawling-peaky tunnels underneath. And we also have a little rocker and a playhouse that has a marketplace and some play food and stuff like that for kids to play house or whatever else they want to do with that. Let their imagination go. It was really important we didn't really have a lot of rules here as long as kids are being safe."

And with Family Day here and teacher's convention this upcoming week it offers a new option for parents.

"We're not a daycare facility so parents do have to be present, but we do have Wi-Fi so you can bring your laptop and you can work while your kids play. So, you can sit in the cafe, bring your own coffee, bring your own snacks and you can watch your kids play. We have seating for 30 parents and up to 50 kids can play at a time."

There are also two magnet walls for kids to play on with bins full of the popular see-through magnets.

They also have a huge mural across the west wall with 'You can do great things' written across it.  It actually came from a Calgary artist from the Home and Garden show.

And if you're wondering about the name of the store and playground, it's named after Ashley and Mike's firstborn, daughter Amelia aka Millie. 6-year-old Millie's favourite part of the structure are the monkey bars while 4-year-old son Roger loves the fireman's pole.