Kristie Jones and Peggy Robinett know how to find silver linings.
They have operated home childcare programs for more than two decades now – with a forever dream to expand and open a full-grown center.
With recent childcare closures throughout Lincoln, they finally found one of the spaces that had closed – turned it into their own – and presto, Wiggles and Giggles Childcare opened in June.
“We’d been saying for years that someday we were going to open a childcare center,” they both agreed. “Then we kind of fell upon this property and knew the good lord was talking to us.”
Now fully staffed and launched – open 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. for kids six weeks to 12 years of age – Kristie and Peggy said they are blessed that almost all the families at the former home center have brought their children to the new place, conveniently located on the path from south Lincoln to downtown at 4805 S 16th St.
“Some of those families have been with us for 20 years,” Peggy said. “We’ve always had waiting lists, we’ve never had to advertise.”
But with the new center they can take up to 72 children so, over the summer, they are working on getting out the word.
“Yes, we’re going bigger, but we’re still like one huge family,” Peggy stressed. “We do this for the love of kids. We believe we are dealing with everyone’s pride and joy.”
Kristie agreed. “We feel like we treat children like our own here.”
This love of little ones goes back a long way for both Kristie and Peggy, a path that started in 2000 when the two met as part of a Wendy’s restaurant management team.
“We had our own kids and wanted a different way of earning an income,” Peggy explained.
So, their journey began.
Peggy opened a home childcare space called, “All About Kids,” and Kristie worked with her as a team. They were open from 6 a.m. to midnight and often worked very long shifts.
Eventually, they each operated their own home childcare places, separately. Then Kristie stepped away for a while and Peggy combined the two childcare families into “Peggy’s Playland.”
Ultimately, Kristie came back and worked in Peggy’s childcare again.
But through all those years and changes, their dreams never faltered. They wanted to open a full center.
Admittedly, there were plenty of hurdles, and that’s where Lincoln Littles entered the picture.
“Lincoln Littles has helped us enormously,” Peggy said. “They helped us look for locations, helped us figure out licensing and all the hoops we had to jump through, helped us understand the challenges in getting the building ready – it was definitely not up to our standards.”
Peggy and Kristie had much to do.
In March, they acquired space where a former childcare facility had closed and immediately tackled major renovations to update the center, pulling out paint, hammer and nails.
“We probably didn’t anticipate how hard it would be to renovate a major childcare center while continuing to run our own home center,” they both confessed, laughing. “We were very, very tired.”
But they say they were also fortunate. “We had saved up enough money to invest and our families and husbands helped so much. It would have taken much longer without all the support we received.”
The name of their original childcare center, “All About Kids,” was already officially taken, so they started brainstorming and trying out new names.
“At first we landed on Giggles and Wiggles. But then we decided, first kids wiggle, then they giggle.”
Hence, Wiggles and Giggles. 
They are now open and ready for business, fully staffed with openings for all ages including infants.
“I admit, this is all a little scary,” Kristie said. “But we are ready for the challenge.”
Though they have a solid foundation of children already signed up – including some of their own grandchildren – there are plenty of spaces left.
“We know we need to be patient, the kids will come, especially as big brothers and sisters go back to school,” Peggy said. “We know with all the recent childcare closures, there are children out there.”
Both women aspire to fill up this center and even consider a second somewhere in the future.
For now, however, they are concentrating on providing warm, wonderful surroundings at the new Wiggles and Giggles.
“We’re serious about bringing the closeness we had with our home childcare to even more kids at this new center,” Peggy said. “We feel confident it will all be worth it. God will lead us the right way.”
The new Wiggles and Giggles Childcare center is located at 4805 S. 16th St. Kristie Jones and Peggy Robinett both serve as co-owners, while Kristie is the director.