Chuck E. Cheese

On a rainy day last week, we took the boys to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch and an afternoon of arcade games. I wish we had discovered this place sooner - Ryan loved it and was completely exhausted by the time we got home!  Granted, we did outlast nearly every other family at Chuck E. Cheese; we were there for almost 3 hours!

The police chase game was by far Ryan's favorite! Daddy provided some much needed assistance with the gas pedal and steering, but Ryan did the hard work of activating the police siren to let the bad guys know he was in hot pursuit!

Monkey see; monkey do. Gavin wanted to get in on the action, too. Unfortunately, he was not able to catch as many criminals since he couldn't see over the steering wheel or reach the gas pedal.

After 4 or 5 police chases, Daddy decided it would be easier to join Ryan in the seat. By the end of the afternoon at least 10 dangerous criminals had been apprehended by Officers Ryan and Daddy.

As Ryan excitedly prepares to take flight on the whirly bike, he soon realizes he can't reach the pedals.

Daddy to the rescue!  Daddy gets an upper-body workout as he pedals the whirly bike for Ryan so he's able to fly up to the ceiling and back down.

While exploring the toddler section, Gavin discovered the ABC Whack-a-Mole game.

It was not a high scoring game for Gavin since he was startled every time a mole popped out. By the time he recovered and tried to whack it, it was gone and another had popped out and surprised him all over again!  Help from Mommy did little to improve his score since lack of sleep slows my reaction time.

Gavin LOVES talking on the phone. Although we have quite a collection of toy phones, he's only interested in the real ones.  It's only a matter of time before he dials 911 while playing with our home and cell phones!

Apparently, Gavin received some shocking news...

Big brother Ryan has taught Gavin how to safely descend the steps at home. Apparently, Mr. Safety Conscious assumes he's supposed to go down the slide the same way he goes down the steps. It was very cute to watch him climb up there, then very carefully turn himself around, lay on his belly, assume the feet-first position, and gently lower himself down the slide.

Ryan feeds the tickets he won into the ticket counter machine. Although he accumulated a couple hundred tickets, it only earned him a handful of Tootsie Rolls, a sheet of stickers, a plastic scorpion, and a pair of blue and yellow foam dice. Mommy and Daddy thought the prizes were ridiculous since it cost us almost $20 in tokens to win those tickets. Fortunately, they were considered completely worthy prizes in the eyes of a 4 year old!