Before family-fun centers, kids were forced to spend the hot months reading Tolstoy and counting the number of times Nana said "scorcher." Raise the bar for summer fun with today's Groupon: for $25, you get $50 worth of bowling, laser tag, rock climbing, billiards, and more at Alley Cats Entertainment Center in Arlington.

Alley Cats' felicity-inducing facility boasts a plethora of family-friendly activities to banish boredom from corporal kingdoms. Families can practice their perfect orb-hurling form on Alley Cats' 24 bowling lanes ($28.99/hour Friday–Sunday plus $4.49/person for shoe rental) equipped with six giant-size TVs and furnished with padded couches and coffee tables that create the sense of bowling at home or in a furniture store. Patrons can rack up billiard balls and cool points at full-size pool tables surrounded by high-definition TVs ($2/rack or $5 for 30 minutes), or attempt their best Jack in the Beanstalk impression at the 26-foot-tall rock-climbing wall ($5.99/person for three climbs). Skee-ball, air hockey, racing games, and more virtual attractions pack the arcade, which houses more than 70 games and a token-redeeming store, while a two-story laser-tag arena proffers 5,000 square feet of photon-dodging fun ($8.99/person Friday–Sunday). Guests can also refresh their point-winning phalanges by filling them with burgers, pizza, or ice cream at the full-service snack bar.