i survived chuck e. cheese! :)

...and when i first walked in, i wasn't sure i would!

i had never been to chuck e. cheese until last night. i could have died a happy girl never having set foot into a chuck e cheese. but my friend kellie had her daughter's b-day party there yesterday, so off we went -- all 4 of us -- to that mouse's pizza parlor.

at first i'd just planned to go by myself with the kids. but christopher counselled me against that. i truly had no idea. i am so grateful that he came with us. i really don't know how i would have managed without him with both kids. neither one of them is old enough, or tall enough, to go anywhere there by themselves. there's a section of games designed for them, but it was packed. the place was full of kids from 5 weeks (obvously not partaking of the festivies *smile*) to adulthood. i was absolutely flabbergasted when i walked in the door.

and they are a serious wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am birthday party provider. we were late, cuz the kids didn't wake up from their naps as early as i'd hoped. but when we got there about 1/2 hour into our designated party slot, the pizzas were ready and the kids were being called back to the table. they were given 2.5 seconds for pizza and an additional 3.8 seconds for partying with chuck. then the candles were blown out and the kids were lead away, pied-piper style, by the mouse himself back into the play area. i really didn't understand that, cuz while they were away with the mouse, the "party hostesses" cut the cake, but there were no kids to serve it to. icame back to the party table cuz isabelle has discovered she's hungry again, and the party hostess comes to tell us that we've got to move from the designated party tables cuz it's time for them to set up for the next groups! i don't think any of the kids (other than isabelle *smile*) got cake, cuz none of them came back to the party area until after we'd moved everything to a different table. and there wasn't really any partying with the birthday girl, cuz everyone was off with their cup of tokens playing games. there were 2 parties in our time slot, clare and one other boy, and 3 parties in the time slot after us.

the cake was wonderful! very rich chocolate made with hershey's chocolate. and the sandwich ring they had for us parental types was very good. but the pizza sucked! it was obviously not made with love and straight from a box. but once the kids got over their initial shock of being in such a loud place with so many kids, they had a great time. when we first got there, both of them were hugging my legs. but we practically had to drag them out when it was time to leave.

i don't want to go back any time soon, but i know i will have to return eventually. we have more tickets to win so we can get a prize. of course, the good stuff is like 4000 tickets, and we've got 43, so it'll be a while *smile*