Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in Philadelphia, PA

I don't know what's wrong with the weather; seriously, this fall it's rained for days and days and DAYS in Philadelphia, and now the time has changed and suddenly it's dark and rainy right when my daughter springs up from her afternoon nap, desperate to play play play.

I've been tearing my hair out.

I've also been spending a huge amount of time trying to find good, safe indoor places for her to play that don't cost much money and aren't a 45 minute drive from my suburban home. I wrote not too long ago about some fun places to go on the occasional rainy day, but when it rains for days on end you cannot pay expensive admission to these places over and over again. So instead, you look for alternatives. So I've been checking out indoor playgrounds. Here are the good ones I've found so far; I'd love to hear your suggestions!.

Kehler's Gym in Broomall. This one is located pretty close to me, and their play area is somewhat like the ones you'll find at McDonald's but considerably larger. Plus they have ball pits. My daughter -- once she figured out that she could hurl herself into the pit just like she does the water at the pool -- spent an hour wading through that ball pit. Her little face was pink from exertion. It was awesome.

Bette's Fun Center in Aston. This place was awesome -- huge, airy, and offered not only several moon bounces (with different types for different age groups, something you rarely see). They also had free video games which I quite enjoyed even though I cannot, apparently, ever dream of being a rock star guitar player. We liked it a lot.

Kangaroo U in Havertown. This spot was small -- there are only three moon bounces and I can see it getting very crowded easily -- but has the benefit of being the spot closest to my house. They have video games too, which my daughter found very distracting, and we blew through a fair number of tokens keeping her entertained. My only complaint is that I found that their voicemail message did not match their actual hours.