To party or not to party that is the question.......

On Wednesday, as I was cleaning out Colson's backpack, I found a birthday party invitation for him. It was a strange invitation because there was no number to RSVP, no parental names, just the place, the time and the young boys name who we were honoring. I asked Colson if he had seen the invitation and of course he responded with an loud "yes". I knew I was caught at that moment. I couldn't come up with some excuse as to why he couldn't go. So it was put on the calendar for Saturday afternoon.

This was the very first "school" birthday party Colson has been able to attend. (The last one I got the dates messed up and we totally missed it, much to his disappointment!) Anyways, he was so excited and thankfully I was not home for most of the morning to have to deal with the constant asking, "is it time to go yet."

Even though he can tell time he still asks, and asks, and asks. . . . .

I opted to take him, I knew Den would never take anyone to the mouse house, so off we went. As we were drving there Colson asked if I knew that the party was not at the Chuck E Cheese by Target but a Chuck E Cheese by a palace. I tried to convince him that this was the only one in our area that I knew of but he was very addamant that it wasn't and that we were going to the wrong one. In my mind I thought, "oh well if its the wrong one we will just return the gift and go home!" We pulled into the parking lot, arriving right on time. As we walked through the doors we were stopped, scanned and imprinted with corresponding numbers. Once we walked through the security gates we were met with screaming, loud, and a kajillion loose kids. My first thought was, "no wonder Den would never even think of coming here!" but I forged on to the back of the building where they hold their parties. We made our way through the maze of those kajillion loose and yelling kids to find 8 long tables lined up way too close to each other. We walked from table to table looking for the party boys name and found it, then realized that we were the only ones there. I was a bit worried at first that maybe Colson was right and it was at a place by a palace, but we hung out, walked once again through those kajillion loose and yelling kids to see if anyone else from his class was there. NOPE! just us, so we waited and hung out some more. About 15 minutes later another classmate arrived from Colson's class and then it was just the 4 of us waiting. The mom asked if I would mind keeping an eye on her son, until the party started, as she had planned on shopping at Target/Old Navy during the party ( I questioned her leaving him but she assured me he had done this several times before at MOUSE HOUSE parties). So now I was in charge of two kids in this NUT HOUSE! and we waited some more, another 15 minutes went by and the party boys dad and grandma show up, but no party boy. Now we have been there 1/2 hour and there are only 2 kids. I kind of felt bad for the dad but hey, maybe if he would have put an RSVP on the invitation. . . . .

He gives the boys a cup full of tokens each, (geez thanks alot, now I have to weave through those kajillion kids and watch two 5 year olds while they run around playing ridiculous games). So we go off and begin the quest of gathering tickets, another scam. Now we are well into 45 minutes and here come two more boys with their moms in tow (mind you the party is only supposed to last 1 1/2 hours).

Of course Colson and his buddy go through 15 tokens in record time and then what? Back to the party table to wait. Its now 3:00 and there are a few more kids from Colson's class who are there, coming late of course, and still no birthday boy.

So Colson and his buddies sit at the table and wait, the pizza and pop are sitting there, the kids are hungry and we are wondering, "just what the heck is going on" when behind us a huge fight breaks out between two groups of individuals. They are yelling, screaming and crying and we see 3 security guards come around and escort part of the group out. We adults look at each other and are in shock over what occured. I think the kids were lost in their own world chattering. We decide to let the kids eat. As they begin eating another fight breaks out with the same group again, only this time the yelling and screaming escaltes to a bit of pushing. I was thinking to myself, "what have I gotten us into?" Will they pull out guns next? (Trust me in the city we live in it could certainly happen.) So now we are down to maybe to the last 15 minutes of the party and guess what, the birthday boy finally arrives. He is rushed to the end of the table so his friends can sing Happy Birthday and then he can blow out his candles. He got no pizza, no pop, and didn't even get to sit down and eat a piece of his cake. The mom comes around to all of us and says, we are giving all the kids more tokens and I was like, oh my gosh, please no I just want out of here. . . . .My friend and I were trying to figure out this whole scenario, it was totally mind boggling, and we both concluded that as soon as the kids finished the cake we were outta there. As we were making our way to the door Colson realized that he didn't get to cash in his tickets. UGH! off we went to the ticket counter to get his receipt and stand in the line with half of the kajillion yelling kids and their parents to get a tootsie roll or two. It took alot of coaxing for me to convince Colson to give up his receipt to a friend. Thankfully he can't have tootsie rolls so he reluctantly gave them to a buddy upon the promise that I would take him to the store to get the biggest candy bar they had, whatever just get me outta there was all I was thinking, shoot I would have taken him to Target to get anything just to leave. We went to leave and found the security gate locked, and no one there to let us out. Finally I said to Colson, lets just go so we made our way over the gate and were almost to the door when we were asked to return. Come on, I just want out of this Hell Hole, sorry I just couldn't take any more! So we had to climb back over the gate, and have our hands scanned to make sure our numbers were corresponding and then we were "let out". As we exited the building I realized that there was a line from inside the doors out onto the side walk, along the front of the building and around the other side. I just couldn't believe that people actually wanted to go in there, and would actually stand in line and wait. I told my friend as we were leaving we will never ever darken the door of Chuck E Cheese for the rest of our lives. NEVER. . . . . EVER. . . . .

I am still in shock from this party. The whole thing was just STRANGE and weird.

We have decided that from now on Colson will only attend parties of kids that we know and families we know personally.

And. . . . next weekend Jacqueline has three birthday parties in a row to attend. The kids have a 4 day weekend so Saturday-Monday she has parties, one of which is her own. I am taking her and 6 of her friends to a womens MSU basketball game where there will be a kajillion loud and loose adults. I think, in some wierd way thats alot easier to take! Thankfully I know all of her little friends and their families and my future daughter-in-law is coming along to help with crowd control. We are also meeting a good friend there too. I am actually looking forward to this as this is Jacquelines 10th birthday and she is soooooooo excited fo finally have a party.

Well I am exhausted from my day, not only did I have a ladies prayer breakfast this morning, which when women get together they can find anything and everthing to talk about, and I got home way later than I had expected, just to walk in the house, get Colson ready and leave to purchase a gift and head to the party; and getting a text from Den that Victoria was sick; coming home and bundling her up and off the the dr we went; then stopping at the pharmacy to get her script, coming home to pick up Colson and take him to get his "humungous" candy bar, running into a couple of friends and of course chatting while the kids patiently waited for me, NOT, and then finally home to a late dinner, which was whatever, to bathing the kids, thankfully Den put them to bed and now I finally have a few quiet moments, with minor interruptions for tylenol, and questions, to BLOG!

Oh did I tell you my day started at 4am??????? I am so ready for BED!!!