James has gotten 4+ days of birthday celebrations.
I took him to Sears for his photos on Wednesday.
I had an OCD quandary because I wanted a matching collage of him on our upstairs hallway wall, but they only had one with a "linen" background and I couldn't change the template to white and it was smaller than the ones I got for Benjamin and Alexander. I really do like the photos though, so I need figure out the rest of our order (I was under the impression I could order them online and have them shipped to the store with our original order, but maybe not). The photos were really good and James posing with his hands in his pockets and looking so cute was all him... (with a bit of tickling by Alexander and a few smarties from me).
Ryan surprised us by getting home from work a bit early on Thursday afternoon. I was planning a dinner of Mac 'n Cheese and pinto beans (which we had on Friday -- James is a Mac 'n Cheese eating machine).We asked James if he wanted to go to the park or to Chuck E. Cheese and he had a hard time deciding, but Chuck E. Cheese won out.
Chuck E. Cheese didn't get much $ out of us. We were basically able to get a party for $25.
If you come back with their birthday party cups, you can get free drinks. We had 2 bobble-head cups and I tried to buy a 3rd for James, but they have a new design. The cashier offered to exchange our old cups for new ones, but I wasn't sure the boys would want to give up the bobble heads, but I was sure they'd be jealous in one way or another if James got a different cup. The manager ended up letting us keep the old cups and giving us 3 new cups.
I had a coupon for 1 large pizza, 2 drinks, and 40 tokens and brought coupons for 50 more free tokens... 90 tokens is enough to entertain us all evening quite well.
Jet pack ride... It didn't say anything about being bad for pregnant women.
Jurassic Park. Alexander was the one keeping us alive.
This Chuck E. Cheese had a great toddler area!
There were 2 "ticket blasters" with the one in the main area for a dollar. James was looking inside the window like he wanted to do it until he watched someone and then he didn't, but Ryan did. We told Alexander and Benjamin they could do it when we went back for their birthdays. Ryan collected 40 tickets.
We figured out a while ago that no matter how many tickets we get, it's worth paying $2 for mylar ballons that are great entertainment for a couple weeks and come with balloon weights. Alexander said he wanted Fun Dip and would get a balloon next time (he's my candy guy). We didn't quite have enough tickets, but I had found the online game where you can earn extra tickets. I didn't realize you couldn't print from the chrome browser though until later and asked the ticket girl if people had been redeeming online tickets. We probably would have had 120 extra if I had been able to print... so the girl gave us the balloons and candy without us having to pay the difference.
I told Ryan I felt bad that they didn't get their money's worth out of us, but he said not to worry b/c they do from everyone else. I do like being thrifty though :)
James wanted a "choo choo" cake! I based the design on the Freight Train board book. I'm pretty impressed with what I came up with while avoiding a trip to the grocery store. Yes, it is whole wheat, but the frosting is pure butter and sugar.
