Taking Xander to Chuck E Cheese

Since we are kicking it on the west coast and have no relatives or friends to visit Xander for his birthday, we decided to take him to Chuck E. Cheese's as a special birthday treat. Chris was surprised that Xander knew what CEC's was but I assured him that Xander had only heard it as a sponsor for PBS Kids and has no idea of what goes on there.

None the less, Xander was excited the entire ride to CEC's and was convinced, when he saw the building, that Chuck lives in a castle.

We tried to eat first but Chris had to keep yelling for Xander to eat his pizza. It was noisy, he had to yell. We were almost worried because Xander loves pizza but would barely turn for the flashing lights by the stage area to take a bite. One thing did get his attention though.

When we did finish eating and were all cleaned out, Chris leaned down and asked Xander if he wanted to play games. "Yeah!" was the enthusiastic response complete with jumping up and down in excitement. It's a good thing we put him in a pull-up.

Let me put in a side note here: no one told me that the dress code was mini-skirts and low cut shirts so I felt a little overdressed.

Anyway, Xander had a great time playing all sorts of games. Sometimes he got what to do:

Sometimes he had no clue what to do, but tried to win with great exuberance.

But with Dad's help, tickets were won.

Our prizes included a rubber duck, a silly straw and two Tootsie Pops.

I was a little disappointed that there was no ball pit for the kids. I know, they are disgusting and dirty. That wouldn't have stopped me from tossing the lights of my life in. There wasn't much for Josie to do, we mostly walked around. She did freak out a little when Chuck came by but didn't actually cry. Josie did ride plenty of the vehicles and Xander joined her for one last ride.

Look at their expressions, it cracks me up.

There was birthday cake when we arrived home, so everyone went to bed happy.