insanity

We lost our minds last week and decided to take Gabe to Chuck E. Cheese. It's been ages (read: decades) since I've seen the lovable giant mouse, and I was anticipating lots of loud noise, an overwhelmed child, definite over-stimulation, and lousy food.




We were, to say the least, pleasantly surprised. I'd gone on the website beforehand and scored some great coupons, so for $25, we had a large pizza with multiple toppings, 4 sodas, 1 milk, one salad bar, and 40 tokens. All of the games were 1 token each, so 40 tokens went a long way. The pizza was shockingly good! Thick crust, lots of cheese and veggies, Gabe gave his thumbs up approval. The salad bar was super fresh and yummy, and we each found tons to eat on it. The staff was pleasant and kind and responded to every request quickly, including running over with a high chair and a complimentary bib, converting a soda to a kid's milk at no additional charge, and letting Gabe pick out a mylar balloon even though he was 40 tickets short.


Gabe loved the characters singing on stage, although he was careful to keep a safe distance from them. He enjoyed all of the ride-on mechanical toys and kept running away with our skee balls while Josh and I were trying to play. He was a little too young for the jungle gym area, but he loved exploring all the different areas. The beauty of taking a 17 month old to a video game place, is that he didn't understand the whole tokens thing, so there was no begging but lots of clapping and laughing while he watched the games do their thing. Shamefully, he actually did better than I did on a particular game just by smacking his hands down on the buttons while I tried to use actual skill.





Anyway, it was cute and fun and we'll definitely be back. Maybe next time with some friends, now that we know that we can survive it with a toddler. In the meantime, we'll enjoy some pretty cute pictures!




Geez, I love that kid!