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Starting the Year with Experiences
Something we want to try and accomplish is providing experiences over stuff. This is something we’ve discussed before, so when it came around to the holiday season, Meghan and I really wanted to hold true to that notion. We want our kids to be able to enjoy things, whether it be special activities or destinations they always want to go to. When making decisions on one income, it makes it easier for us to want to provide experiences rather than toys galore.
One income generally means that we don’t eat out often, or even do simple things like taking our kids to laser tag, an arcade, or putt-putt. So, we bought our kids gift cards or tickets to certain places. Then, we created special coupons, which we wrapped as presents, and they were more than excited when they read what the coupon said. One of those coupons is a place that our kids, and most kids, always seem to want to visit. Yes, dear friends, it’s that place.
Chuck E. Cheese, Please
The giant, friendly mouse is the one place that our kids will mention every other week it seems. They want to go and play video games more than anything, so we decided to cash in one of their coupons. Now, I’ll be the first to mention, when you go into a business and they’re open, it’s probably not encouraging to see carpet squares all over the place being ready to be laid down in a section of the arcade. Granted, seeing it first might’ve been better than actually stepping onto the upsidedown sections with whatever sticky putty was being used to lay them down with. Some of our family walked onto these pieces, because they were literally in the walkway after the turn station. Yes, looking down does help when walking, but when you’re looking around at all the games, I think it’s an honest mistake on our part.
Now, the turn station is a nice feature for Chuck E. Cheese. When you enter, you’re given an invisible stamp. When it’s time to leave, the attendant will check the stamp to make sure that kids leaving with adults have the same stamps. As a parent, this is a particularly genius idea to ensure safety of children, especially since Chuck E. Cheese can get incredibly crowded. Aside from accidentally stepping on soon-to-be installed carpet, the only other malfunction during our trip happened at a water shooting game. Our kids were loving this Plants vs. Zombies-like game. They loved shooting a jet stream of water toward the video screen. Marshall and Adelaide were laughing, screaming, and loving the fact that they were kicking some zombie butt. After a while, the game froze and that’s all she wrote about that.
Playing the Long Game
We spent about a little over an hour at Chuck E. Cheese. It was plenty of time for them to explore and check out a ton of different games. They were chased by dinosaurs in a Jurassic Park game. They played as Pink Panther, as he tried to escape a building before a giant laser catches him. Adelaide shot basketballs. Marshall tried his feet at skiing. All the while, they’re both gaining tickets to earn prizes at the end of their day. This was a fun adventure for them. They LOVE Chuck E. Cheese and they want to go back as soon as yesterday. Also, fun fact: Chuck E. Cheese has cotton candy as a prize you can redeem tickets for. Guess what was the first thing our kids picked out with their tickets?
Our family did not eat at Chuck E. Cheese. We wanted to save their vouchers for as much playtime as possible. This way, our kids will be able to return to Chuck E. Cheese, instead of having an extended stay the one time to eat lunch. Granted, they would’ve loved eating there, but we made the decision to let their experience be with the fun games.
Do anyone’s kids love Chuck E. Cheese as well? Have any parents gone on a date night to Chuck E. Cheese? We saw it on BuzzFeed’s Mom In Progress, so we’re curious to know if any other parents have, too. Let us know about your experiences at Chuck E. Cheese, especially if your kids have a favorite game. We’ll make sure to post about some of our kids other experiences as we move further into 2020, so make sure to keep following us here and on social media.
My son wears his sunglasses at night…or inside of a Chuck E. Cheese.
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