Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Preschooler's Paradise

You may know it by its commercial name: Chuck E. Cheese's. 

Sarah's 4th birthday is this Friday, so we kicked off a week of celebrating with a trip to good ole Chuck's.  Our neighbors have the same birthday as Sarah, so we thought it would be fun if everybody got in on it and had a mini-party.

Let me just say that my kids have never been to this mecca of Whack-a-Mole.  They've seen the commercials on PBS and, if any market researchers are tuning in, they are quite effective. 

S & W started shrieking as soon as we pulled into the parking lot.

If I had Photoshop (ahem, Mike Brown) I could have bathed the front of the building in a heavenly glow and shown angels singing and strumming harps.  I truly believe my children heard the Hallelujah Chorus as we walked through the doors. 


Anyway, once we got through security (a big plus for the big Cheese), I took out a second mortgage, got some tokens, and gave half of them to Will. Which he promptly put into the first machine he came to.  All of them.  And he didn't play the game. 

My bad.

This is one happy girl.  Sitting next to a weird purple dinosaur.





I think this smile just might be genuine.

This is the game that ate Will's college fund. 

I think my kids must have the same aversion to big furry mascots as I did at their ages.  There was a little girl in front of us who couldn't tear herself away from Chuck.  When we walked up, I saw a flicker of hope and relief in his eyes for a beat as he thought I was Miss Velcro's mother, come to remove her from his hairy leg.  After we got our picture and the little girl resumed her grip on Mr. Cheese, I saw him pleading silently with those big, plastic eyes. 


We all left happy with our loot consisting of 2 packs of Smarties and 2 plastic stars.  It's really a shame Chuck E. Cheese's is only open a very few days a year...

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