Once again it was driven home to me how much hard work it is to play.

I know play is work. Whenever I go to work, I hear the sounds of blowers and mowers as our brilliant grounds crew makes the facility clean and magical for our guests. I see our talented program, guest services, marketing and development crew put out information and materials so out guests will have everything they need to make a life-long memory.

I know this – and see this nearly every day. And yet…

The hard work of play was made abundantly clear to me at an off-site outreach program the other day. My job was to play with the kids while their parents visited with my colleagues to learn more about the programs we have at Fairytale Town. I played a bean bag toss game, jumped rope, played two-square and fooled around with streamers. I used my brain a lot as I played, determining which games were most age appropriate and engaging to each child. I used my body a lot too – jumping quite high, quite often to make sure we didn’t hit any of the adults in our competitive game of two-square and bending down repeatedly to pick up the tossed bean bags.

I had a blast. Three hours later I was exhausted and so sore I could hardly believe it!  No doubt about it – I need to get out and play more often, if only to improve my two-square game. The kids I played with that evening have inspired me to do so.

You probably need to get out and play more often too. And if you decide you need to work on your two-square game, you know where to find me.