Chuck E. Cheese

I'm in Kentucky visiting with my parents this week, but I wanted to get a few blog posts accomplished while I had less distractions. I've got Mom around to play with and tend to the kiddos which gives me a few extra minutes from time to time. Hooray for Grammy!!


Brent had Columbus day off Monday October 13th, one of the few benefits to being a government employee, random holiday breaks. I wasn't complaining! It was wonderful to have the three day weekend, especially after having house guests over the weekend. I took the opportunity to go to the eye doctor, but I really wanted to do something fun while he had a day off. We opted for Chuck E. Cheese because Maura had never been there. We didn't end up getting there until about 12:30 due to my doctor's appointment and almost turned around and went home in the parking lot because Maura was having a meltdown about something in the car. I wasn't sure how much fun we were going to be able to have when she was obviously already tired, but we persevered and we introduced her to the world of Chuck E. Cheese.

As you can see, she was thrilled. We opened the door to the restaurant and all whining immediately stopped. I asked her if she wanted to stay and she gave us an emphatic, "Yes!" I think she was in sensory overload because she wasn't sure what to do first. We bought about a million tokens and we got to some serious playing.

Yes, we are the awful parents who allow their child to crawl up on the skee ball machines. There were NO attendants in the whole place, so we let Maura go on up to where she could actually get a ball into the machines. She wasn't at all interested in winning tickets, so mostly the balls just went into the gutter. She was thrilled with the arrangement, though.

I challenged Maura to one of those water pistol races. Being my competitive self, I could not allow the time to expire while Maura tried to hit the target in order to let her win. I was focused on that target!

The kids road in a monster truck. Maura was so excited to get to drive her baby brother. Tristan wasn't sure what to think!

Maura loved any and all rides that they had in the place. They're her new favorite thing and she notices them everywhere now.

Maura hanging out with Chuck E. She loved everything about the experience and we really had fun as a family. I still have about a thousand tokens and so I'm sure we'll be heading back before too long. AND, the pizza wasn't so bad after all!

Just a preview of coming attractions of her Halloween Costume. She is so stinkin' cute in it! Mom made it for her. It was another of my crazy brainstorms that mean a lot of work for my poor mother, but she gamely went to work on it and it came out so fabulous. Mom sent it to us in the mail and I couldn't wait to try it on her. I think she looks like such a lady in it!
Oh, so adorable. She's supposed to be Little Miss Muffet, but she looks more like Elizabeth Adams or Betsy Ross, or some other early American. She's loving all the attention she gets when she wears this dress. There will be lots more pictures to follow of her wearing this dress.

And, finally, what happens when you give a two year old non-washable markers to draw with??

Answer: She draws a Hitler mustache on her upper lip!!