I survived Chuck E. Cheese and nine 5 year olds...

I'm breathing a big sigh of relief now. We had a good time at Chuck E. Cheese for CS's birthday party.

In all, 22 invitations were sent out. RSVPs rolled in this week from about half the invitees. Eight said they would show up. I suppose for prime vacation season, we did well.

Having scheduled the party for Noon, we arrived at 11:30.

I remembered to bring the 105 tokens we had at home. As children arrived or checked back in, I would give them three tokens. This kept them relatively close at hand while we waited for the pizzas.

The only real thing to bug me was being told to have the children sit down because Chuck E. was coming out to sing Happy Birthday. We waited over ten minutes: an eternity to the five year old set. Pizza was eaten. The cake was cut and eaten. After having told the kids (till I was blue in the face) to sit back down, now I told them "Yes! Get up and go play!" We passed out tokens and stood back.

At 1:30, we had to clear our table. We were allowed to move our stuff to a booth and Hubby carried the gifts and extra stuff outside. All the guests left some time after 2:00.

After an eternity at the ticket redemption counter, we finally walked to the truck. I noted the time on the way home: 3:56 PM.

FOUR AND A HALF HOURS at Chuck E. Cheese. My ears are still ringing.

I need a drink. A stiff drink. See y'all later.