One of the great joys of having kids is that they motivate us parents to explore the nooks and crannies of the world and to visit places that we probably would not otherwise think to visit. One such place is a furniture store in Massachusetts. Of course, I WOULD visit a furniture store even if I didn’t have kids, and now that I do have kids, I would usually prefer to visit the furniture store without them…but this store is an exception…because I don’t go there to look at the furniture! Now that I have you non-Massachusetts folks thoroughly confused, let me explain.
Jordan’s furniture is a large, obviously profitable furniture store in MA. However, they go way above and beyond any other furniture store I have ever seen. In the back of the store is an IMAX theatre that plays new releases and has “butt-kickers” in the seats (they jolt you during dramatic scenes)!! I know!!! So, my sweetie and I first took a jaunt over to this furniture store to see a movie together! Little did we know, that’s not even the main attraction (at least for the 4 foot and under crowd).
When you walk in the store entrance, you walk into “bean town”, aptly named because everything you see is made out of jelly beans. The table tops, walkways, flowers, ducks, bridge (that you can actually walk across), etc. are all made out of jelly beans. Beans are everywhere! When your gaze is able to move beyond the jelly beans, you will also find a Fuddruckers restaurant, a trapeze area where you can pay to go on the trapeze (!!), Richardson’s ice cream (Yummmmm!!!! And huge amounts of ice cream!!!) and of course, the liquid fireworks (for free!).
When I first saw the liquid fireworks display, it was right in the middle of a show — which start every half hour and last for about 10 minutes. This display was the entire width of the room and water fountains were at full blast across the entire stage. Various colored lights in the bottom of the stage and music all added to the feel of … ‘fireworks’ made out of water. Plus, the water fountains were obviously set up on timers to flow with the music. Fountains would increase and decrease, sway the water from side to side, shoot bursts of water into the air…all simultaneously and to the mood of the music. Mesmerizing is the only word I can come up with to describe this. If you have ever seen the water show at the Bellagio in Las Vegas (or like me have only ever seen it on tv), this display reminds me of that…except with multi-colored water and lots of fun music in the background.
Obviously, once Scott and I had enjoyed our ice-cream and returned home, we knew that we had to bring our kids back to “the furniture store” because they would FLIP-OUT! And my, oh my, we were not disappointed! We had not told them where we were going or why, so Abby was convinced once she entered the door that we were actually there to see the ‘beautiful’ flowers made out of candy!! She gushed and exclaimed over ALL of them! It was actually very difficult to convince her to look beyond the beans to the water display!
Once the ‘fireworks’ began (about 5 minutes after we arrived) Abby’s hands clasped her cheeks as she exclaimed several times: “Mama, it’s SO BEAUTIFUL!” Jonah was so excited that it was impossible to keep him seated near his ice cream…so we gave up and allowed him to dance with great animation in front of the display. Both kids were constantly moving — trying to contain a little of their enthusiasm, but failing miserably. 
When it was over, we had to stay for a second show! Too fun!! Then, last week while I was meeting with a couple friends for a casual bible study that we do together, Scott took the kids back to the furniture store. That was when Jonah made the statement that “This is the second best day of my life” (2nd only to the Boston Fireworks Display…the boy loves fireworks!).
Maybe next time, we’ll call this a “science” fieldtrip!!
