I Survived Gavin's Chuck E. Cheese Birthday Party and Lived to Tell About It

Maybe surviving a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese doesn't seem like that big of an accomplishment to you.  It probably doesn't if you're a Mom or Dad who always has destination parties for your kids' birthdays.  I'm using the word "destination" loosely in this context.  I'm one of those Moms who, after 24 birthday parties for my three boys combined, has just now experienced an "away from home" party.  We did have Ethan's 5th birthday party at a park but that was only 2 miles from home and barely counts.  I have included some pictures of our "homemade" parties.

This was Jac's third birthday and 17 days before Ethan made his appearance.    Note my "impressively swollen", read chunky, hand in this picture cutting the cake.

Ethan's first birthday.  He looked like a little old man before we gave him his first haircut.

Here's Ethan digging into his cake.   Knowing him as I do now, he had probably realized the cake was chocolate and was trying to get to the good stuff.

Ethan's 2nd birthday party and one of my favorite birthday moments ever.   He spent most of his time feeding cake to his cousin, Jace, who is eight weeks younger.  Two cute little tow-heads.

Ethan again at his 2nd birthday.  Who is that skinny chick with the long blonde hair?

Jac's 4th birthday at home.  I threw this one in to prove that he really did choose Dora as the theme for his 4th birthday.  Ethan still teases him about this.

Jac's 5th birthday at our subdivision pool.  It was literally a cold day in June and Ethan and Jace were helping themselves to Jac's cake before it was cut.  That's Ethan's little hand on the left.

Ethan's 3rd birthday party in our backyard.  Yes, in case you're wondering, I threw this particular pic in because I am looking fierce here.  Alas, this was the same day I found out I was pregnant with Gavin and the skinniness was replaced by lots of swelling and looking pregnant in unfortunate places for the next nine months. 

Jac's 6th birthday.  I believe that was the year he had a Hot Wheels party.
Backyard, once again.

Jac's 7th birthday.  He was starting his third year with no front teeth.  If you've missed out on that back story then it will just have to wait for another day.  And, yes, I picked this picture because I love my hair here.  I was only 3 months out from giving birth to Gavin so I was also trying to hide my post-pregnancy belly.
(It is my blog, right)?

My Superman, Ethan.  This was his 4th birthday and began the years of dress-up for he and his younger brother.  He wore this Size 4 costume until he was about 7 1/2 and he couldn't fit into it anymore.  I had to ban him from riding his bike with the cape on because of some almost unfortunate accidents, but he said that his powers didn't work as well without the cape.

Gavin's 1st birthday.  I love this picture.  He is 100% full-steam-ahead Gavin all the time.  If you're gonna smile, give it all you've got.

Ethan's 5th birthday at the park.  I know this one is not very good at documenting proof of his party but it's my favorite picture from that night.  This is classic Ethan and reminds me very much of that self-confidence that he gets from both his Mom and Dad.

This was Jac's 11th and Ethan's 8th birthdays.  If you're wondering who that guy is who's singing in the background, it's Toby Mac, and as far as these two boys are concerned there is no other singer.  They chose to go to a Toby Mac/Chris Tomlin concert instead of having a party.  He was singing right beside us and Jac and I both got to shake his hand as he went back to the main stage.

Why this look of elation and spring in the step of this young boy?  Well, you have to look at the next picture to understand.

Gavin's 5th birthday, just celebrated on March 12.  He got a bike for his birthday before heading out to Chuck E. Cheese.

Here I am, surviving the party at Chuck E. Cheese.  If nothing else I'm colorful.  One of the funniest moments was when our party hostess asked me if our friend, Nathan, was the "Party Dad."  She was going to get a drink for him.  I said yes, thinking that he was a Party Dad, not understanding that she meant the Party Dad.  Once I realized what she meant I pointed out the real Party Dad.   Sorry, Nathan, you gotta be the actual Party Dad to get the hostess to bring you your drink.

Here are my two girlfriends/staff pastors' wives at church.  I posted this picture on Facebook and mentioned that I said when Lindy took the pic I told him I wanted one without our swimsuits on.  If you read that on Facebook, you might have been like, "Whaaattt?"

Here's the picture to which I was referring.  They, along with their families and my husband, threw me a super fabulous surprise birthday party a couple years ago at the pool.  It was a blast, and yes, I cropped this picture.  No need to show more than necessary.  Just trust me, we are super hot in our string bikinis.

Here's the smiling birthday boy and this face makes it all worth it.  We were waiting for Chuck E. to make his appearance at this point.  It felt like we were chanting "Chuck E. Cheese!" forever, and that's just a tad bit creepy in my opinion, by the way.  Later, the party hostess explained to me that the official Chuck E. got pulled over on this way to work that day and another employee was taking extra long getting into the costume.  Can our law enforcement not have mercy on a giant mouse whose purpose in life is to bring birthday merriment to the pre-school crowd?  Seriously!!  What is wrong with this world?

The birthday boy wearing his birthday medal and posing with the substitute Chuck E.  Don't tell Gavin.
He may feel like he got short-changed.

What's that face for, you ask?  Why, that's a 5-year-old who's all souped up on pizza, soda, games, and loud music and is getting ready to dive into his cake.

Gavin, hugging his Spiderman costume from Uncle Rob, Aunt Lisa, and Alex.  Spiderman was climbing the walls, or really, the banister later that day at home.

We closed out the night at Joe's Crab Shack where we celebrated Gavin's, Aunt Lisa's, and Alex's birthday.  Hopefully, Queen Lisa, who's waving to all of her loyal subjects in this picture, won't get mad at me for including this one.  She and Princess Alex were beautiful, don't you think?

So, that's the short and long of how I survived our first kid destination party.  I did it drug and alcohol-free.  No Xanax or mixed drinks here.  Just some retail therapy after the party.  It actually wasn't all that therapeutic.  I only bought a cute pair of shorts at the Loft.  The best part about not having the party at home is that there is no clean-up.  The downside is that I don't get to be hostess and entertainer to all of our friends and family.  I do love throwing a good party, no matter the occasion.  More parties to come in June.  I'm sure they will be exciting, regardless of the location.