Chuck E Cheese!

One of the new things that Brad and I have been working on is not pushing off too many of those "when the kids are older" experiences and just embracing some of the fun activities now.  My children have been wanting to, asking to, begging to go to Chuck E Cheese ever since they first could utter the words "PBS Kids."  One morning Brad woke up, looked at me and exclaimed, "Let's take the kids to Chuck E Cheese today!"  You don't have to ask me twice!  And the words were barely out of Brad's mouth before the excited shrieking and bouncing around began (the kids, not me, I swear!)  We did our morning thing (which can't be shortened less than two hours, no matter what I try!)  Breakfast, brush teeth and hair, get dressed, pack up, jump into the car, "Has everyone gone potty?", everyone out of the car to the bathroom, everyone back in the car, "Where's Soft Puppy?!", mom out of the car to search the house over, mom back in the car holding the treasured Soft Puppy, "Did we remember to lock the door?", dad out of the car to triple check, we're all in, buckled, cd player repeating The Beatles' Yellow Submarine, and we're Chuck E Cheese bound! (Whew!)

We ran a couple of errands first (cruelly prolonging the kids' Chuck E Cheese experience, I know, but we weren't sure they would be up for it afterwards) and then we were finally there.  We arrived at about 11 am, which was great timing because it didn't start to fill up until about 1pm, when we were starting to get ready to leave (we didn't actually leave until 2pm.)  The kids had a blast!  Brendan and Brad bounced around, trying the racing games, hunting games and sports games, while the girls and I didn't make it much past the froggy game, which Megan dominated.  A quick pizza lunch, a little more game playing, cashing in our tickets, and we'd completed our first Chuck E Cheese experience.  $30 for an afternoon of fun?  It gets a thumbs up from us!

We're ready for some Chuck E Cheese fun!

Megan started off on a horse racing game.  The game itself was a little complicated for her, but she just loved being up on the horse.

Brad and Brendan, high-fiving after a successful race.

Our pizza lunch!

Brad and Brendan.

Megan and I.  We even caved and let the kids have their own pop (although half-filled), which has never happened before.  I'm pretty sure that was one of Megan's favorite experiences of the day!

Emily, getting in on some pizza action.

After lunch, Brendan and Megan hit the deserted play area.  They climbed up and around in tunnels and went down the slides.  It took Megan a little bit to get over her trepidation on going down the dark twirly slide by herself, eventually causing Brad to climb up the slide and pull her down (above)...and then she couldn't get enough of it.  Kids!

Brendan, peering out from one of the tunnels in the playland.  (Another anal mom moment...look at all those smudges!  Don't get sick...don't get sick!)

Oh, the Froggy game!  Megan seriously dominated this game and ended up winning a majority of the tickets that the kids used to buy their souvenirs.  Poor Emily was confined to her stroller for a large part of the time, but she didn't mind as long as she had a game to play too!

Megan, cashing in her tickets in the "ticket chomper", as she called it.

Brendan, counting his tickets.

Little Boo, finally out of her stroller, which she was delighted with.

Brendan and Megan, showing off what $20 in game tokens (and an afternoon of fun!) can buy you...a slinky and piece of Laffy Taffy for Brendan and a small blue frog, squishy pink dinosaur, and mini-roll of candy for Megan.  All in a hard day's work!