There's really not a whole lot different to say about this year's party. We had asked Derek what he wanted to do this year for his birthday. He said Chuck E. Cheese. Despite some of the other ideas we gave him, he still said he wanted his party at CEC again. We tried. I also didn't take very many pictures.
Being a year older, Derek was going great guns all day long. He's very comfortable at CEC, and since he's older now he knows how to do a lot of the games by himself. This meant that I didn't have to spend a whole lot of time in the game room with him. I was able to give him some tokens and let him have at it. Of course, we got in our usual game of Arctic Thunder. I won, but only because I got a turbo boost near the end that enabled me to finally take the lead right before the finish line. The rest of the games he pretty much played without help.
This year we had to make the party start later than we have in the past. Derek invited five friends from school. One said she wasn't coming, and two said they were. Only one showed up. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon, and this was the first time I've ever seen them make people wait to come in because they had reached fire code capacity. Yikes! So yes, the place was packed.
Besides Derek, there were 11 adults and 4 kids at the party. We let the kids play for a while to see how many people would show up. Then we got the pizzas and after that let them play a bit more. Derek had a lot of presents, so he opened them and then we had cake. With a little negotiating, we were able to pick a cake that Derek really liked and that wouldn't be too complicated so my mother would still be willing to attempt it. The cake had Pikachu on it. It was just the right size, because all that was left after the party was most of Pika's body.
Derek got some clothes, and still appreciates them. I fear it won't be much longer before he doesn't think much of getting clothes. He got toys, a puzzle, legos, an ant farm (I appreciate that my sister asked me ahead of time if that would be an OK present!), and a new two wheel bike among other things. He's only had one real practice session on the bike, but he wants to learn how to ride it and I'm sure it won't take too long. He also got some money, which came in handy since two days later we were leaving for a trip to Disney.
People stayed as long as they wanted to. There was no official end time to the party. Because of all the people in that place, I was SO drained when I left. I'm hoping next year he'll want to do something different for his birthday! I will end by saying that as always the most important thing was that Derek had a lot of fun at his party. I know for sure that he did.