Nonnie's Here

Whenever we drive by Chuck E. Cheese McKay asks, "Is Nonnie here?" About 90% of the time I say, "No. She's in Canada." McKay will probably always associate the beloved Chuck E. with Non. He's only ever been there with her. Nonnie lives in Canada, but comes for extended visits twice a year. During these visits, this one of a kind great grandmother takes all of her greats to visit the mouse. And they LOVE it.

She treats us all to pizza and drinks, and even dessert. She buys cups full of tokens and the kids come and refill their little hands whenever they want. She always ends up buying more and more tokens when the cup empties because those kids can spend those tokens in record time. Our kids are all pretty lucky to have her as a great-grandma- going to Chuck E. Cheese is probably her number one priority while she's here.

Except I noticed something this time. Do you remember going to Chuck E. Cheese when you were little? What was the most exciting thing there? The pizza? No. The games? Almost, but no. The prizes? Not quite. It was the show! Am I right? It was for me anyway. You know, the singing animal band, with Chuck E. on lead guitar and vocals? That was the magic. I have memories of going to Chuck E. Cheese in California when I was little and that is ALL the memories consist of. That crew singing those songs. It was wonderful. Well, guess what?




Kids don't even care about that anymore. Absolutely no audience. The whole time we were there NO CHILDREN watched the show. Granted, the show that I saw had louder music, and they would dim the lights during it, but really what has happened to children? Why is that not enough anymore? I felt bad for the band. The only people in the whole place that even noticed them was Ellery, for a second, and Ashlyn, who was deathly afraid of the group. Sad.



It was the games, the spending of tokens that the kids were into. I assigned Alyssa to be McKay's buddy, and they went around and around riding little things and acting like they were playing the games. One of the biggest thrills for the older kids is the little booth that sketches your picture. They probably did about fifty of them. And yes, that's fifty tokens.

The kids had a lot of fun, of course, but so did the adults. We went on New Year's day and so husbands (minus Brian- missed him) were able to join us. There were some intense free throw shooting competitions and skee ball, always a favorite. I won't even start to brag about the Fuehrer girls free throw skills. I'll just say we're more athletic than we look.




Elle just hung out most of the time and consumed pizza and soda. That kept her busy for a good hour.



After that she went on one ride and hated it at first, but then came around by the end.

When it's time to go the kids pool all their tickets together and then go prize shopping.

This takes a good chunk of time. Trying to decide which piece of cheap plastic to take home. It's the highlight of the day.



Mack chose three pieces of plastic- two dinosaurs and a blue lizard and to change it up a bit, some bath fizzies . He was pretty much ecstatic. And he also kept his hood on the whole time. He does that with hoodies. It drives Brian crazy.

We always love when Nonnie's in town. She's pretty amazing. And we always have tons of fun at Chuck E. Cheese.