Day: September 5, 2005

I’ve got mice skittering in my walls again. This is shaping up to be an annual fall annoyance. Grr.

The trip began with chanting “Chuck E Cheese! Chuck E Cheese!” but by the time we were 5 minutes on the road Kiki had arranged a chorus of sorts:
Link — “Chuck E Cheese! Chuck E Cheese!”
Gleek — “I love Chuck E Cheese! I love Chuck E Cheese!”
Kiki — “Chuck E Cheese is Fun Fun Fun! Chuck E Cheese is Fun Fun Fun!”
Fortunately the drive was a short one.

This outing to Chuck E Cheese was part of the package of delights for the summer that was promised in lieu of the expensive family camp that we could no longer afford. We kept putting off the Chuck E Cheese trip because the contemplation thereof made neither me, nor Howard, nor my budget very happy. Last week Link sat up and gasped “We forgot to do Chuck E Cheese this summer!” his eyes began to water and I knew this was a promise I really needed to make good on. Noon on Labor day is probably one of the most crowded days and times I could have picked, but Chuck E Cheese has free kiddie rides from 11 am to 1 pm and all the other days of this week the older kids are in school at that time.

On the way into the store Kiki spotted a “help wanted” sign and her eyes lit up. “Mom! You could get a job at Chuck E Cheese!” My rational explanation about already having a job and the costs of childcare did nothing to quell her enthusiasm. She could think of nothing cooler than having a mom who worked at Chuck E Cheese. Even contemplating that makes me shudder.

We got inside and got settled. Patches loved the kiddie rides. In fact he spent the entire hour running from kiddie car to kiddie plane to kiddie dinosaur punching buttons and making things go. That was nice for me because I could just sit in one place and keep an eye on him. Gleek loved the rides and the giant playset. She didn’t clue into the token games until after she ate some pizza, she then happily used tokens and brought me tickets. I pretty much let Kiki and Link have the run of the place. I insured that they would check back in regularly by only dispensing a few tokens at a time. Kiki has reached the age where she still loves Chuck E Cheese, but because she’s older she isn’t sure that she is supposed to anymore. She solved this dilemma by maximizing her ticket acquisition for each game she played. She got to play a lot of games because Patches didn’t use any of his share of the tokens. She really really wanted to bring home cotton candy which she assured me was because she wanted the other kids to have a chance to try it. She succeeded.

The total cost came to $7 per person, which is a little steep for an hour’s entertainment, lunch, a few trinkets, and a bag of cotton candy. It definitely isn’t something we can afford to do often, but as a once-a-year treat we’re okay.