turning four (part two)

June 23, 2011 at 6:39 am (birthdays, party time, picture post)

“Why is a birthday cake the only food you can blow on and spit on and everybody rushes to get a piece?”

  – Bobby Kelton

This year Teagan’s birthday was super special. Not only did she get to turn FOUR (which by her way of thinking is THE ultimate age of all time), she also got to have, not one, but TWO birthday parties! Since she finally has enough buddies to fill a table, she chose to have a party for all of her little friends at Chuck E. Cheese!

Compared to the expense of feeding 50+ guests at a cookout, Chuck E’s was cheap – and as an added bonus I didn’t have to set up, tear down, or clean a single thing. I like that! The kids did, too – everyone had a fantastic time,

from the biggest. . .

. . .right down to the smallest. . .

. . . and everyone in-between!

Our party started at 10:00 am, when all the Littles in Littleville were at their best, and since we had it on a Wednesday, we had the place pretty much to ourselves for the first hour or so. Chuck E. Cheese’s is a far cry from the arcade that it was when I was a kid. There’s an entire section set aside for the under five set, and SO MANY fun things to do! I’m pretty sure we did it all!

Ro was a bit on the fussy side due to some nasty teeth cutting through, so she was pretty well attached to me the entire time. I managed to convince her to give the Hicory Dicory clock ride a try, and it was true love!

Once I got her on it, I found it nearly impossible to persuade her to get her off again!

Still, she was nice enough to take turns with the birthday girl – if impatiently. . .

After we played for a bit, it was time for a good old-fashioned pizza party!

Ro was fairly obsessed with watching the animatronic Chuck E. and the rest of Munch’s Make-Believe band sing and dance on stage. So cute!

Then the Big Cheese himself came out to wish the birthday girl a happy day. . .

. . . and lock her up in the ‘Ticket Blaster, which is a transparent plastic box that apparently was made for putting small children into (I need to buy me a couple of these).

The idea is to give the birthday girl a chance catch as many extra tickets as she can (in her case, none) before the time is up. I thought T would be unnerved by being locked in a box with noisy fans and bits of things flying all over, but she thought it was the coolest thing EVER (seriously, I wonder if I could find one on E-bay. . .)!

Her friends all agreed, and Ro spent the next 15 minutes trying to find a way in to take her own turn!

After all that ticket blasting, Mr. Cheese crowned my little girl the birthday queen!

And it was finally time for singing, cake, candles . . .

. . .and PRESENTS (the best part of ANY party)! We handed out our own little gifts to all of the guests – Teagan was very proud to have helped in the choosing of the party favors this year!

After all of the fun, excitement, and sugar my poor little birthday girl was all done in. We had a bit of a fit when time to go was announced, but once the car started rolling she was out like a light, and snoozed the whole way home! It is VERY rare for Teagan to sleep in the car, in fact I can probably count on my hands the number of times it’s happened since her birth! Even a grown woman of four needs a break after such a fabulous birthday girl day!

A huge thank you to everyone who made it out to celebrate T’s fabulous four with us!