I don't think "Where a kid can be a kid" exactly covers it

Eli's birthday was yesterday, YIPPEE!!!! (I took about 200 pictures of all the things we did, so it will be a while before I post them, it's a lot to sort) One of the traditions that has started to form in our little family is that we take the birthday person to whatever restaurant they want to go to on that day. SURPRISE, Eli wanted to go to Chuck-E-Cheese. I was fine with that, except for the animatronic band that sings stupid '80's songs every 5 minutes. They creeped me out when I was 8 and they creep my out now!

So, I wanted to rush through the pizza to get to the good part of dinner...the games!!! I still get really excited when I play the games and see all the tickets pouring out of the slot. Who wouldn't? After all, the more tickets you get, the better prizes you can choose. We started the evening with 6 adults, 2 children, and 180 tokens. After about an hour we ended up with 6 adults, 2 children (I'm glad we didn't lose anyone along the way, all those blinking lights can be very disorienting), and over 1000 tickets!!! Now ask yourself, "How many of those tickets did Eli win all by himself?" The answer is, probably 20, at the most. Leah didn't even win that many, although she did try her darnedest at ski-ball. All those tickets came from the outstanding efforts of the adults involved. And, honestly, I think they all had just as much fun as Eli did. Let's also consider for a moment how many games Eli actually played, compared to the rest of us. Hmmmm....perhaps I shouldn't mention it; you might think we're bad at taking turns. All that really matters is if Eli had a good time, which he did.

All those tickets went to very good use. I chose a little feathery purse for Leah and Eli chose 10 giant bugs and 2 big snakes. I just love the innocence of youth. Clearly, he didn't grasp the full weight of holding 1000 Chuck-E-Cheese tickets. He could have gotten a BIG prize. All he wanted were those bugs and snakes and I'm okay with that. Those things can't really break and they'll keep him entertained a whole lot longer. I hope he's always satisfied with the smaller prizes. I can't always guarantee such a big win every time we go (which for us is once a year, so far).

In conclusion, I would like to say a special thanks to my honey Mike and my father-in-law Doug for being the top winners last night. Those two alone won almost half the tickets. And, an honorable mention goes out to Mike and Shaina Burgoyne and Caryl, my mother-in-law, for helping to provide the remainder of the 1000 tickets. And I need to also pat myself on the back for bringing in a goodly amount.

One final thought before I end: I would like to propose a change to the Chuck-E-Cheese slogan. Instead of "Where a kid can be a kid", I think it should be something like "Where people of any age can act like children, as long as all tickets won go toward benefiting a real child and not toward trying to win the cheap CD player that costs 10,000 tickets". I'm not sure though. It might not be catchy enough. What do you think?