Obviously the birthday party went well. The only glitch of the entire day is that there was MAJOR construction on the interstate and many people were late. One child didn’t show up until an hour into it. I felt bad because they were pushing us out of our tables because we only get them for 90 minutes. The whole thing was kind of hurried but it was great because then we were free to play as long as we wanted after that. The order of the whole thing was play, pizza, show time, cake, play, open presents, play again.
All of the parents were SO nice and SO helpful and it is true most of them were just running around with their own children or making sure they had something to drink and eat. FIL manned the table to hand out coins. Mom helped with the presents and wrapping paper. Dad took some pictures and helped carry ALL the presents out to the car.. Heather was on Lexi duty some and even donated her tickets at the end – Heather, I’m so proud of you. MIL was on Emma duty some. Everyone really pitched in.
Apparently Lexi’s little boyfriend is into Lexi as much as Lexi is into him because he gave her a big hug when he got there. I HAVE to show this picture of them. I will take it down by tomorrow though just so it’s not sitting out in cyberspace. Lexi wanted him to sit beside her but he was a little afraid of the stuffed, moving characters on stage. I can’t blame him but Scott says he doesn’t know if he can let Lexi marry a man that’s scared of things like that. lol. As for Emma, her little boyfriend showed up but he is quite shy and according to his mother is not nearly as aware of Emma as she is of him. He is a sweet little boy though but ended up playing with the other little boy that came from Emma’s class. Which HE was a sweetie. His mom said he would NOT play a single game until he had searched the entire game room to tell Emma Happy Birthday. But Emma was stuck to the hip with this little girl as soon as she showed up during the show time. They had a GREAT time and her parents were nice enough to follow the two of them around the game room to supervise them.
Emma and Lexi both liked their cakes and boy were they delicious! Only spent 18.99 on each and WAY better than the ones I had paid $30-40 for at a bakery. They were obviously very happy with them.
The presents were a hit and I really can not tell you how many they had. They literally had 3 tables worth of presents lined up. I really, really was not expecting that. Everyone was extremely generous especially since I had the double party and people had to buy two gifts. They had a great time opening them. Lexi finally can unwrap a present with no help and she had a great time doing it.
But we all know the REAL reason I let the kiddies have a party at the Cheesola is the skee ball. I love me some skee ball. I didn’t touch it until 2 hours into the party but I put out some coins to play a couple rounds of it. I watched Emma play a few rounds with her little friend and it looked a little more like a game of softball than skee ball. We were lucky there weren’t lost balls. As for Lexi, poor thing couldn’t get it more than 2 feet from the starting line so we let her cheat a little. Somehow we couldn’t convince her to stick them in the 50 point hole instead of the 10 point hole though.
The girls racked up on the tickets though as several people donated theirs to them. They walked out with 500 tickets in exchange for a little 6x6x6 Princess box and two little plastic rings. At one point, D saw me at skee ball and said, "Wow, you’re going to get a GREAT jelly bracelet with that."
By the end of the evening, my girls were tired and Scott had a headache but we all had SO MUCH FUN. I’m so glad we did it and it was worth every penny. I think everyone had a great time. I’m not sure if we’ll be doing this every year, but I for one will always remember Emma’s 5th birthday even if she doesn’t.
And lastly, I must mention the presents again. It was like Christmas morning around here. I seriously considered just wrapping some of these things up for Christmas. In fact, they got a couple duplicates and I think I’m going to exchange them and use them just for that. It’s just really ridiculous how much they got. They were happy as larks with it. I looked at Emma and said, "Remember all those times you say you want a toy at Target? Well, this is it. These are all the toys you want." And as tired as they were, they haven’t quit playing with them for a skinny minute all evening.
We are so blessed.
looks like everybody had fun…and I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who hits the skee ball area at that place!