Wordless Wednesday - Happy 5th Birthday Big Guy!

Happy 5th Birthday, my little Knight! (Chuck E. Cheese pictures!)

Watch out Chuck E. Cheese!  Here we come!

My Knight got a big balloon!

He was pretty excited when we arrived!

The Knight and our little neighbor girl!

A new ride at Chucks!  Ride 'em Knight!  (Now all he needs is some shining armor!)

Prince and AB!

My little Duke was fairly overwhelmed!

Our neighbors!

Pretty girl!

I ordered the small cake but they were out so we got a big one for the price of a small one!

Princess and her BFF!

Knight with Chuck!

Our table!

Presents!

Knight and his best buddy!

Daddy was able to stop by at the end of the party!  Thank goodness - I am not sure how I would have gotten everyone and everything back into the van without him!

Chuck E. Cheese!

Apparenly I was not the only parent who promised to get her kids to Chuck E. Cheese before the school bell rings on Monday. We are usually the only ones at this fun but sensory overloaded place for at least a half an hour before anyone else arrives. (We always arrive when the place opens at 9:30, eat at 11, and then head for the relative quiet of home.



Is there a home version of this contraption? One with 4 sides for the unruly 3 year old in the house?



Princess decided she was going to watch out for the Knight at Chuck E. Cheese. They play together really well!


The Prince wanted to try this ride too: a realistic rollercoaster!

Time for a pizza lunch! Pineapple and cheese pizza - yummy!

The Knight would not stop drinking his yummy Kool-Aid long enough to smile for a picture. It was just too delicious!

Time to count the tickets!

Princess got almost 500 tickets on her own! The boys and I got 200. Princess had a lucky day!

A fun day! With Princess and the Knight sticking together like glue, my job was a lot more fun. Of course I still kept my eye out for them but I was also able to play some games with the Princes. He found a fun Super Mario Kart game that he just loved!

Spring Break Day 2 - Chuck E. Cheese = Sensory OVERLOAD!

If you are looking for my 5 Minutes For Mom Party Post, click here.






Day 2 of Spring Break almost didn't get off the ground.

Princess has a temperature. It was only a little temperature, and she assured me that she was not sick enough to stay home from Chuck E. Cheese. (Although if it were a school day instead of Spring Break I am quite sure I would have had a different response....)

Since her temperature was only low grade (and because Chuck E. Cheese is most certainly germ infested with or without our help) we hopped in Otis the van at 9:15 and proceeded to Chuck's place.

The kids had a blast!

This is the only way I will do Chuck E. Cheese:

• Arrive as soon as we can in the morning (it opens at 9:00 so we were a half hour "late" arriving at 9:30),
  
• order pizza to be delivered at 11:00,
  
• play games until the pizza arrives,
  
• eat pizza,
  
• count our tickets,
  
• get our prizes and
  
• get the heck out of dodge before the place gets too crowded.

And it would have worked too if it weren't for those meddling kids (incompetent cashiers)! We were the very first people at the place. We ordered our pizza to be delivered at 11:00, as did everyone we came to Chuck's with. Their pizza arrived but ours didn't. (Try explaining that to 3 hungry kids who are watching their friends eat!).

At 11:05, I headed back to the counter to politely inquire about our pizza. They said they would check on it. About 3 minutes later, another worker came over and explained that it was not in yet but it would be out in about 5 minutes (yeah right!). I would have been more upset if he had not handed me two fist fulls of tokens to keep the young 'uns busy until the pizza came. The pizza finally did arrive at 11:30 (not quite the five minutes promised earlier) and the kids ate like champs! The Prince at 3 PIECES! Princess ate one and a half. The Knight ate 2 pieces. Wow! That is a lot of pizza eating for this crew. The last time the Prince ate 3 pieces of pizza we had left him and Princess with a neighbor to go buy Otis the Van - he was only 19 months old! (Another story...)

All in all it was a successful morning! The kids had fun and ate a good lunch. Plus I am off the hook for going to Chuck E. Cheese's for a long, long time!

Saturday Night On the Town!

The Princess and I hit the town last night!

She was invited to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, and she was so absolutely excited to attend this party without the boys. The boys had fun staying home with DadOf3 - they got the water slide out and they were worn out by the time Princess and I arrived back home.

But I digress...

Princess was invited to the birthday party of one of her former classmates. I was a room parent for her class, and this little guy was one of my favorites! He always ran up to me and said "Hi Princess's mom!" He and his family have since moved about 4 hours away. I thought it was quite thoughtful of the birthday boy's parents to drive all the way back here so he could have his 6th birthday celebration with his old friends.

As I have mentioned before, Chuck E. Cheese is sensory overload. There are bells, whistles, and the sound of tokens going into and falling out of machines. I do have to say, going to Chuck's with just one child was heavenly! Usually I am running like a maniac chasing the Knight. Princess was able to spend some time playing the games that took a little more skill. She was rewarded too! At the end of the evening she had earned enough tickets (551) to get a nicer prize, a little pink purse with Tinker Bell on it. She has been carrying it around all morning.

When we got home after 8:30, DadOf3 had already given the boys baths and tucked them in. However, the minute the Prince heard us come through the door, he was downstairs to greet us. He did not seem jealous at all about not going to the party, and he was overjoyed that the Princess had brought him home a tootsie roll. The Knight got his tootsie roll this morning.

It is hard when one child gets invited somewhere and the others don't. That has happened to us a couple of times lately. The Prince was invited to a play date without the Princess last week, and this weekend the Princess was invited to a birthday party without the Prince. It is a good lesson that we cannot always include everyone. We try! Don't get me wrong. I am all for inviting everyone and their dog when we have party! I understand that there are times when this is not an option though. In our family, we just try to balance things. A play date here, going to the grocery store without the Prince there. A birthday party here, getting some special time with DadOf3 there.

Balance, that is the key!