Chuck E Cheese's

Title says enough, right fans?  The occasion was Joe's friend Owen's birthday.  Ted was the handler for this adventure, and though it was clear Owen's parents were well prepared for parents to drop their children off, Ted stayed - partly for Joe's benefit and partly for his own.  After clinging to each other for a little while as the sounds, sights, and smells overwhelmed them both, Joe got into the spirit and checked out the big cheese himself (or at least his animatronic self).  From there the boys were let loose into the arcade.  Joe kept with Ted (thankfully) and they played whatever games Joe thought looked interesting.   Ted was lobbying for Skee Ball, but Joe only lasted one round.  Joe seemed more interested in the car racing games where you sit in the seat, and if there were pedals on the floor Joe would sit on Ted's lap.  It should be noted that the Raleigh House is anti-gun (pretend, real, and imaginary) to the point that when Joe was making his Christmas list he told us that "we don't get toys with guns."  But in an arcade gun play is hard to avoid, which is how Ted found himself trying to instruct Joe on how to pump the shotgun to reload so he could shoot the bear on the screen.  This is the society we live in.  The good news is that Joe quickly lost interest in said shotgun and wandered off.  The bad news is Ted's frugal nature kicked in and knowing he had 2 more "lives" left on that token, pumped the shotgun and got him some bears.  After some pizza, cake and a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" sung by Chuck E Cheese and his handlers for the four birthday parties (all at once...efficiency is the name of the game) it was about time to go.  Joe's ticket haul was 19.  That gets you nothing at the tchotke store - you need 75 just to get a little eraser.  So Joe donated his tickets to the birthday boy, and we hope his household has one more eraser in it tonight.

Joe and Austin trying to figure out the animatronic Chuck E Cheese.  By the end of the party, about 12 of the kids were standing up on the ledge grabbing his nose.

Charming, no?