Happy Birthday Lisi!

Well, I should have had this post up yesterday… However I was busy and exhausted from all the party stuff and just didn’t get around to it until now.

Lisi is now 7 years old! For a short time (18 more days) I have two 7 year old’s (Var will be 8 soon!)

Sadly last year Lisi didn’t get an actual birthday party… or a cake. Actually she did manage to get some presents a week or so after her birthday, but we were moving right around her birthday and had hardly any money to spend right on it. 🙁 Sorry Bunny!

This year though, I wanted to make up for it. So we let Lisi decide where she wanted her party, and I didn’t want to skimp. As much as possible.

Her choice was Chuck E Cheese. So, because I couldn’t really expect anyone to drive their kids clear over to WA for a party (we’re in ID) I didn’t bother inviting anyone. (Because last time I did only one of my siblings showed up, and our neighbors, and that was just in the next town over!)

That and, a Chuck E Cheese party for extra kids would have been a bit too expensive… If anyone had shown up. Anyway…

We went ahead and did their most expensive birthday pack for the kids, it wasn’t too bad price wise due to the fact that there are only four of them. Plus I wanted all the extra tokens and things that came with the pack… and to have someone else take care of most of the drama.

It worked… decently?

When we first arrived the kids were all impatient to just go play games, none of them cared about the schedule CEC forces on a party. >.>

Everyone enjoyed playing the games the absolute most of the entire party. Next time, if there is a next time. We’re just going to buy a ton of tokens and throw a party without all of the forced CEC hubbub!

Kat spent a fair bit of time with Lisi. <3 There is a 5 1/2 year age difference between the two, and sometimes Kat hates being the oldest… but she’s absolutely the best oldest sister I could ever imaging the rest of the kids having! Sis and Lisi played more than one game of air hockey, and I think Sis won them all… Didn’t matter, they had fun!

 

Sadly… our poor Birthday Girl did not have the time of her life during the ‘forced participation’ parts of the party. Where all the parties scheduled during the time slot are meant to yell, scream, and generally be loud.

This is the part that Lisi absolutely did not enjoy at all, and after the party time she told me that she never wants a CEC party again… because it was loud and made her so unhappy. 🙁 She plugged her ears and cried during the entire time, and it was heartbreaking to watch.

Thankfully, Lisi tends to be able to bounce back fairly quickly!

More so with tickles from her big sister and the promise that all the loudness is done and everyone can go play games soon!

There we go, a happy Bunny!

Our local Albertsons did a great job on the cake. Mostly anyway (I wanted the flowers to only be pink, the white one is a ring… so I get that, but what’s with the yellow one?!) The typical cake for this kit is WAAAAAAY too big (quarter or half sheet!) for those of us that would have been at the party. More so when you consider that Kat doesn’t like cake, so not everyone would be eating it.

There was no room for writing (but Lisi knew the cake was hers, so… who cares?) but there is a pink “Happy Birthday” pick on there, so it’s good enough. The cake was delicious and Lisi was thrilled to see how pretty it was!

She also put on the candles herself, and yes… I did let her have a number 7 candle, plus 6 pink candles and one (blue one) to grow on (it’s a family thing).. She picked her candles, and well… why not? It made her happy!

The kids were only half interested in eating their cake (which is why I don’t spend hours anymore making them myself. >.>), they wanted to go play games instead! They also were barely interested in their pizza (not that I blame them, CEC doesn’t have very good pizza… >.>), or their ice cream cups.

Lots of games were played, lots of fun was had, but in the end… Lisi would have preferred just tokens, cake, presents, and lots and lots of game playing!

 

OH! one of the parts of the CEC birthday parties is the “Ticket Blaster.” Basically you stand in this small little tubey thing, and they blow tickets around you for about 30 seconds while you try and catch them.

Lisi was having absolutely none of that noise, and opted to let Sisi go in her place!

Sisi was wise, and wore Lisi’s birthday crown into the blaster… it caught an awful lot of ticket and ticket vouchers for her! Hah!

In the end Sisi and Lisi decided that they would 50/50 split what Sisi got out of the Ticket Blaster, which was a pretty good deal since they both got about 175 tickets out of the deal!

All in all despite the break down, and my frustration with our attendant/hostess trying to force Lisi into each noisy event that she wanted to hide from, everyone had a good time.

Next time though? We’re going to have lunch someplace first, go in with presents and a cake, and just spend our money on tokens for the kids. Well… that is IF anyone of the kids ever wants to bother with a CEC party again. I don’t think it’s very likely at this point!

The extra’s from the party were nice and all (balloons, gift bags, little crown, and keepable cups) but not worth the stress, or Lisi’s tears!

Well, anyway, Happy Birthday Bunny love!!

Now to go plan Var’s birthday! @_@