Family Date Night - Chuck-E-Cheese

OK. I admit it. It makes absolutely no sense that I would choose to take my kids to Chuck-E-Cheese. But the kids were psyched for Family Date Night, and they knew that Ed and I were prepared to do something on the big side. Ed started sweating when the kids made their usual pitch for Build-A-Bear. Since Valentine's Day, they've had gift certificates from Grandpa Dick and Grandma Lynn burning holes in their pockets, and it's been getting progressively more difficult to deny them the adventure. After all, the Love. It. But Grandpa Dick is visiting soon, and it seemed that perhaps he ought to have the pleasure of seeing their faces light up at Build-A-Bear, so in a panic, Ed offered up Chuck-E-Cheese. He explained to them that it was like when we were at Circus Circus in Reno. Both Helen and Connor were sold.

Not surprisingly, the kids had a ball. Helen was busy riding the rides, and Connor set immediately to figuring out which games gave him the most tickets, because he wanted to get a "big prize". Does a coloring page for 20 tickets count? Because that's the biggest item he got.

We actually followed up the adventure the next week with another trip to Chuck-E-Cheese, because Connor was begging, and Helen was the only one in the family excited about the possibility of skate night. (We went to a local skate night at a community center a few months back for family date night, and I assure you, it was cool. Unfortunately, I have no photos as I was worried about managing a camera and two children who can't actually skate very well.)

The good thing about Chuck-E-Cheese is that it's possible to make a very cheap night of it. For $10, you get a whole bunch of tokens - and since the first time we went it was Saturday night after dinner, it was super crowded so spending tokens actually took quite a bit of time. We walked out of there with tokens left over. The second time we went, it was a lot less crowded, so the kids were able to burn through tokens a little faster. But still, it wasn't bad. The food? Now that was bad. But not worse than we expected.

Elaine