Chuck E Cheese Family Day

As you know, Monday of this week was the last day of the Christmas break. On Tuesday, we were all back at school and back at work - bummer! As a way to enjoy our last vacation day of the break, Landis, Luke, and I headed to a place that Luke has never been - Chuck E Cheese! :) We had a super time!

We left the house a few hours before lunch with plans to run a few errands and then eat lunch and play at Chuck E Cheese and when Luke fell asleep in the car on the way to Winston, our plan worked out even better than expected. :) While Luke slept peacefully in the car, Landis went into Dillard's at Hanes Mall and did some shopping at their great sale! Then, we drove to Babies R' Us and while Luke continued to sleep, I did some shopping with some coupons and gift cards that I had. I bought Luke several outfits for half price. The outfits are super cute - he wore some of them to school this week. After I finished my shopping and got back in the car, Luke woke up right on cue - great timing! :)

So....the next stop - Chuck E Cheese. We went ahead and bought a combination deal that included pizza, drinks, and tokens. While we waited on our pizza, we let Luke ride a few of the rides and let him explore the different games. He enjoyed himself from the very beginning. Then, when the pizza was ready, we were very proud of Luke's reaction - I guess because he was rested and probably hungry, when we told him that he had to sit down and eat his pizza before we would play anymore, he didn't argue. Matter of fact, we all sat together while Luke ate a whole piece of pizza all by himself! Then, he said, "Are you done???" Which, remember, means, "I am done." He did so well, that off we went to ride some more rides.

Luke's favorite rides and activities included:

-the "airplane" (well, at least that's what he called it) - it was really a bicycle that he sat on and when the pedals moved it went several feet in the air. I had to help him pedal to get it to go higher and he loved it when it was at the highest point. He was very well strapped in so I didn't worry too much

-the yellow Chuck E Cheese school bus - he rode in this several times while he told me that he was going to "Georgia" and stuck his head out of the window waving at everyone

-the green car - he liked this car because he was sitting with Barney - he would wave and say, "Hey Everybody!" as he rode

-he liked watching the miniature train set go round and round - each time that you put in a token, Luke was able to drive it to make it go faster

-the red sports car - he liked this one because he could ride beside of Chuck E

-the jacked up jeep - I say, "jacked up" because that's exactly what it was - it was a very cool looking jeep that as it was "worked on" it was pumped up higher and higher - Luke loved looking down below him at how high he was - Luke definitely did NOT inherit my fear of heights. :)

By the time he had ridden several things over and over, his favorite part became putting the tokens in the slot. He loved to ask me and Landis for his "money" and then he put his own money in to get it started.

For several rides, he just walked around and sat in the chair and pretended to drive. There were quite a few activities that he was too small to do, but mommy and daddy had fun playing with them! For example, me and Landis played a game of Skee Ball and, I so proudly can say, I beat Landis - I won 10 tickets, Landis only won 8!! :)

Landis also enjoyed shooting balls in the big basketball goal to win tickets for Luke!

We took Luke to watch the big Chuck E Cheese sing a few songs. He smiled and stared at him for a second but wasn't too amused by the "big rat" as Landis kept saying! :)

After Luke had used all of his tokens, Luke helped us cash in his tickets and select a few prizes. Because of his love of carrying things around the house, Luke picked two very small plastic frogs as his prizes and he picked a Chuck E Cheese bookmark. He loved these little frogs so much that when we got home, he carried them around the house and "took care" of them. We named the blue one Bo and the orange one Oggi. Luke put Bo and Oggi in the bed for a "nap" and he also put them in his Little People Noah's Ark.

After being home for just a little while, we all sat down for an afternoon snack - the afternoon snack of choice - Boston Creme Pie - yummy! At Babies R' Us, I bought Luke a new booster seat. It's a "big boy" booster seat - no straps, no tray - just a little seat so he can reach the table with us. Luke loves this and sits very well in it! We all sat at the table with Luke in his "big boy" seat, Luke said the blessing, and then we enjoyed our delicious cake and milk. (By the way, Luke can say the entire blessing by himself. It's so sweet!) We say it at home and they say it at school before snack so he should know it in his sleep! :) Oh - and Luke drank his milk from a "big boy" cup with no lid or that spill free sippy cup style. He does very well drinking in these cups!

As we sat and ate and talked about our day, I just smiled! What a fun time - my favorite time - sitting here with both of my boys just enjoying a nice, peaceful afternoon with no stress of work or house duties - just enjoying each other! What a blessing! (Landis also made sure to add to the smiling and laughter by singing several silly songs that Luke wanted him to repeat over and over.) It was a lot of fun!

While we ate, Landis and I talked about how we couldn't believe how fast Luke is growing up. Everyone always tells you that time will fly and boy it is. Luke becomes more independent (and more head strong) everyday. He's growing physically and developmentally right before our eyes and we are enjoying every second of it!

Enjoy our pictures from our Chuck E Cheese Family Day...

Luke in the red car...

Driving the big jeep...


Driving the yellow bus...



Riding with Barney...

Giving Chuck E a hug....
The jeep again...




Watching Chuck E perform...



Back at home, showing me his frogs....




Oh...and, later that afternoon, Papaw Dale came over and he and Luke built a large block tower....check it out...


Luke practicing ball in the hall....
And, some videos...

#1 - Luke in the yellow bus.

#2 - Luke in the jeep.

#3 - Luke riding with Barney.

I hope everyone had a great first week back! It is suppose to be a beautiful Saturday tomorrow so Luke and I are excited about an outdoor day - somewhere! :) See you next week! :)

Toddy