I drove by Itsy Bitsy a couple weeks before they opened, and I'm glad I saw them. I followed them…read moreon Instagram immediately because what they offer is REALLY useful--an indoor play space and co-working space. But they go beyond just the standard indoor playground; they offer care (play care, in their terminology) so your children are well cared for whilst you bring home the bacon. Their "playmakers" (it's whimsical; I love it) engage in fun and meaningful play and I love the idea that I could be nearby when my daughter is here but actually get work done. Because I was following their social media, I saw that Little Giggles Speech Therapy was holding a class called First Signs here, which is what has brought me to Itsy Bitsy for now. Itsy Bitsy's facilities are really nice and very clean. When you enter, you walk into the cafe area. There's a limited menu but for coffee drinkers you'll probably find something here! There are a few tables as well. To the right of the door is the co-working space with several desks ready for you to roll up your sleeves and get to work. On the left side of the building is the children's play space, and I think it's a smart way to design the place--it helps keep the distraction down. I'm not sure what the youngest age limit is for play care here. I met a woman who's purchased a membership here and her son is about seven months old; mine is only about four so she may be too little for the place, still. But I'm going to ask when I'm back next week for the signing class, because this is a great concept and I think it would be incredibly useful to be able to come here on my remote workdays and the rates are very reasonable. This business also offers open play times and you can rent for events, so it will be a place for me to keep in mind for birthday parties--though parking seems to be street only, and though at least some of the side streets around here don't appear to require a permit the parking is still limited. I'm just loving the concept of this business and really hope to use it more fully soon, and to see the community that builds here.

We held our daughter's second birthday party at Itsy Bitsy today and it was fantastic. It's a…read morewonderful space - very clean and organized while at the same time offering so many different activities for a group of kids. It's a bright and cheerful space. It's also very spacious - there's a large play area, a cafe in front where we were able to put food to adults, and a back room for the kids to eat lunch and have cake. The owner was great to work with.

We've been here twice and both times the show was excellent. My 6 year old loved that she could…read moreparticipate in the show by shouting out ideas when prompted by the actors and she even got to go on stage to dance at one point. She thought the whole show was hilarious and absolutely loved it. Even my husband and I laughed several times during the show. A great show to take kids of all ages to!

Try to think of something that can entertain 25 tween and teen girls who are too cool for school…read more Practically impossible, right? I volunteer with an organization that introduces middle and high school-aged girls with diverse backgrounds to educational, recreational and cultural activities across the city, which means we're always looking for ideas that work. Luckily, Storytown proved to be a smashing success! Founded by a Second City and iO grad, Storytown brings improv to kids, but their approach worked well with teens, too. (I was a little nervous.) At our recent event, a Storytown actor led an improv workshop for the girls, taking them through a series of Whose Line Is It Anyway?-style exercises at Stage 773 in Lakeview. Although some of the girls were skeptical at first, everyone in the group was having a ball by the end of the session. I overheard one girl say she wished her school's theatre program did something similar! The Storytown staff was enthusiastic and responsive over email, which was a big plus. Before I booked Storytown, I reached out to a few other organizations who were hard to track down.

I hired Lyfe of the Party to help plan and coordinate my twins first birthday party and it is hands…read moredown the best money I've ever spent! I was determined to actually be able to enjoy the day and the party and that absolutely would not have been possible without Zenobia. The couple of weeks leading up to the party she was all over the coordination of vendors, food, decorations and in my opinion the bang for the buck is definitely on the day of. She arrived to decorate and coordinated with the couple other vendors we had hired. An hour leading up to the party I was sitting on the couch taking a rest while all the kids napped all thanks to Zenobia! She is amazing and we had an amazing party in large part because of her.

Zenobia is amazing! So detail oriented which is exacty what you want in a wedding planner! She made…read morethe day much more enjoyable and took on all the stress that comes with a wedding. Highly recommend!

Cute local vibe, great energy! Had the best time working in this space at a recent workshop!read more

This place is absolutely awesome! We bought out the theater for an evening, and invited our…read moreclients to enjoy their show. Shelby was the organizer, and we just trusted her to make it a great night. She blew us away. They took care of our every need, and put on a show that left our clients happier than we could have imagined. Thank you Bughouse! We will be back for more in 2023!!!

Mr Shegan is AWESOME! His way of handling stressed parent minutes before the big show, his way of…read moreengaging kids VIRTUALLY during the shows, my kid and her friends had a great time celebrating my daughter's birthday virtually. Mr Shegan called the day before to walk me through what would happened, so I appreciated the walk-through and gave me a level of comfort despite the backoffice chaos i experienced the last couple weeks. What's really dampening the supposingly-stress-free experience is the back-office arrangement. Some of the highlights below - So the zoom info was given to me when I booked the party back in May. I called a few times to confirm the zoom info a couple weeks prior to the party to make sure what I had on the invite was still correct. What really caused me a bit anxiety is that when they did "confirm" the zoom info with me over on email, the info sent over contains a couple other kids names and one of their party information. Granted nothing really personal was shared, but this made me wonder how they handles guest information in general. The day of the party, apparently, the guests and I were in a different zoom room from Mr Shegan's, the "registration" page we were sent to had a different party date/time options to pick from, which confused a lot of us. Many parents were texting me just few mins before the party while I was confused myself, and not sure what happened since it was slightly different from what Mr Shegan told me the day before. I think there's a change of personnel post-sales coz I couldn't reach the person who I contacted during the sales to confirm all the logistics. Everytime I contacted KSL, I reached the voicemail, emails were unanswered. Granted they did call you back rather quickly. But that's kinda annoying and added extra layer of stress to a planner like me. And suburb buyers be aware - if you want virtual party, kits pick up time is 9-4 in LP. During sales time, the lady told me that they could arrange weekend pickup given I live in the burbs and DO work regular 9-5. But obviously, this didn't happen. We had to make an arrangement for a quick trip to the city. All in all, the experience was 5+ star DURING the party time, but it was less than desired during the planning phase post-sales. Mr Shegan is def. the saving grace.

My son has spent countless hours at KSL Lincoln Park and has loved every minute. We began when he…read morewas three, and he's now six. We have utilized almost every service they have - weekly classes, winter/out of school camps/ summer camps and even the virtual summer camp! We obviously love this place. Post-COVID, he has participated in virtual and in-person camp. The virtual camp exceeded my expectations. I was afraid I'd have to spend the entire time helping him with experiments etc. Not at all. All the materials were shipped to my house and more detailed instructions (really expectations) emailed a few days prior. Really, I just put all the materials they shipped in a container, made sure the computer was plugged in and left him to it. He LOVED it! The entire week my kiddo maybe interrupted me once for work. Usually it was me sneaking downstairs to see what was happening bc I could hear him laughing or music (there's a 10 min snack break after an hour, one kid gets to pick a song - they dance/snack etc). I had my reservations about the virtual camp, but only have great things to say about it. My kitchen is a mess afterwards, but that happens anyway. In-person has also been good - temperature checks, masks, kids spaced out at tables. Everyone is obviously taken whatever precautions they can. Also, I appreciate everyone's flexibility. We had some last minute scheduling changes, but Keith and his team were beyond helpful and accomodating. KSL has given my son some sense of normalcy the past few months and it's very much appreciated.

DO NOT consider a winter wedding here, and absolutely DO NOT expect transparency or flexibility…read morewith any hiccups in their formula. Also, they apparently blocked my account on Zola -- I can't find them in a search when I'm logged in anymore. Thankfully I was able to leave a review without being logged in, and am also sharing here. TLDR: they can't accommodate winter weddings, despite including those months as available on their website, and they aren't transparent about their inability to do so. They can only provide half a venue, with 40% decreased capacity, but still expect you to pay full price. I was appalled by their poor communication and business practices throughout our experience trying to book them for our January wedding. -- -- The issues started when booking a tour -- their availability is challenging if you work a day job, and we were also limited with my partner's 24/48 shifts for the city. But I rearranged my work to accommodate their schedule. The day of the tour we received a vague cancellation with 3 hours notice, saying they would work with our schedules to get a new tour on the calendar. They very much did NOT work with our schedules, declined several options I requested that would work without us making major concessions on our end, and only offered a small window later than their once-a-week evening slots. We were once again rearranging our schedule to work for theirs after their cancellation. When we finally had the tour, I'll admit it's a gorgeous venue. We were excited about booking there, but concerned about how they'd handle January events. Since their website includes Jan in their off-peak season rates, I figured they had a plan for accommodating cold weather (they have a tent for the yard, but it's insufficient for temps under 30 degrees and that's a heavy gamble for evenings in January). They didn't seem to have any ideas outside using that tent. They do have an upstairs to the venue that reflects the ground floor footprint, so I asked if they would include these in the base rate (they're usually an add-on expense) because we were losing space in the yard. They said they would "compromise" by including just one of the rooms, but would reduce capacity to only 70. We had been straightforward that our guest list was 80-90, and their website advertises up to 120 guests for a buffet or cocktail reception, which was our plan. I understand they don't do a ton of events in the winter, so I thought maybe they just didn't have a well-designed plan for colder months and we could find a way to work one out. But they refused to work with us to expand capacity beyond 70 guests AND made no concessions on price. I have no idea what they would have done had we moved forward and temperatures were too cold for a tent (leave our guests shivering? cut our guest list week-of? at the door?) -- I asked and and they couldn't answer. On top of it all, they made me feel like I was a problem for having these concerns. At the end of the day, I can't believe that a venue would expect clients to pay full price for half a venue and 40% decreased capacity, especially in a season they admit having little to no bookings. They clearly do not want business in their winter months, but will jerk you around for a month pretending they do.

Exceeded our (extremely high) expectations at every step, turn, and touchpoint!…read more We worked with the AMAZING Teddy and Sarah and from the start knew we were in the right place, space and best of hands. First of all, Firehouse is charming as all HECK. This isn't your drab hotel ballroom where partition walls, lighting rigs and bunches and bunches of flowers can barely start to cover the lack of character. This space has personality and soul, every last inch. Classic Chicago neighborhood setting, we didn't want to leave the beautiful courtyard space. Everything about the venue is built to make your guests feel at home, comfortable and intimate to the party. Did we mention the firepole?! Best entry ever for a groom to make. We can't recommend enough - Teddy and Sarah listened to all our thoughts/concerns/ideas and custom built a space and flow that complimented the night in every possible way.

Wonderful experience for my daughter's 22nd birthday party! Florentina was extremely professional…read moreand responsive from the very beginning to the end, and she had helpful tips to add along the way that made everything come together! Her place is in a great location, the place itself is gorgeous and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!

Loved the experience! Nicky and Carolyn were such dolls. Check-in could not have been more…read moreflawless. Hang up your jacket, grab a paint suit and a pair of rubber boots and head over to your station. Primary colors are your choices to mix with the intention of being as freely creative as possible. The canvas is blank, you are the artist so express yourself. I do have to warn you; spinning that wheel is quite the work out for your arms. I can still feel the burn. Lol. Spinning slow allows more control with your paint placement. Spinning fast allows more of an abstract splatter placement. Either way, those biceps and triceps are burning. There is even a secret tool for those daring to be even more creative; a leaf blower. Keep in mind, this is a messy, fun activity. Don't wear your best clothes. If you attend four times, your fifth visit is FREE! Or if you attend three times and leave a Google review, that counts as one of your visits. How cool is that. This is also a BYOB if interested. Spin Art Nation also hosts parties in the back room. A splatter room! They place your canvas on the wall and you can fill water balloons and squirt guns with paint and have a blast. There is also a drum set where you can splatter beat a master piece. For music, the room is blue tooth compatible. Let's go!!!

I've been trying to call for the last three days to try to set up my daughter's ninth birthday…read moreparty I have left several voicemails and called several times with no return call calls back at any point of the day