About a month or so before his birthday, Derek and I were out to lunch with my parents. Derek was talking about where he wanted to have his birthday party. He said Chuck E. Cheese (are you as surprised as I was??). Derek said he wants to have all his birthday parties there. My father asked Derek if he would have his party there when he turns 100. Derek said "No one knows if they will be 100." So I asked about his 40th. Derek said Yes. My father said "If I'm still around, I'm going to hold you to that." That one went over Derek's head, but the rest of us laughed. If things do play out that way, I'm making sure that my father will be there too, even if I have to grab the remote control to his rocket-powered wheelchair and fly him to CEC myself!
This year was the biggest bash yet for Derek's birthday. He invited three friends from his kindergarten class. They all came. Two of the mothers dropped off their kids, and one mother stayed. He invited two kids from his Sunday School class. They both came. One had his father stay, and the other's whole family (sister, brother, and both parents) came. Add all four of Derek's grandparents, my sister and her fiance, Derek's cousins and their father, and of course both of Derek's parents (one of them being me). We went through six pizzas (with only a few slices left over at the end) and most of the cake. I really didn't take many pictures because it was SO busy.
The party was scheduled to start at 11:00. Most people came in around 11:15. When enough people were there (with most of them not wasting any time and heading straight for the playroom), we ordered the first round of pizzas. When the pizza came, we rounded up everyone and the pizza went fast. We ordered more pizza, and most of that went as well. When the kids were done, we needed one more pizza. The kids hit the playroom and some of the parents went with them. Some didn't. Fortunately I was thinking ahead, and I knew there would be a lot of people. So I brought a Sharpie so I could write everyone's names on their cups. I had to mention it because it worked out so well!
After a little while, we rounded everyone up again and Derek opened his presents. With that many people, there was a pretty big pile of presents to open. Derek got all kinds of good stuff. Rather than release the kids and have to round them up yet again, we moved straight to the cake after presents. Derek had told me he wanted the piece with the 6 on it, and was going to eat off all the frosting and none of the cake. We gave him the piece with the 6, and he did just what he had said he would.
The cake was once again made by my mother. She said last year's Spongebob cake was a lot of effort. This time I was trying to help Derek come up with ideas and inside I was trying to come up with simpler ideas. Derek is playing T-ball this year, so he wanted a cake with a bat and a ball on it. The bat had to be brown with a black handle, and the ball had to be white with red stitches. Derek was put on the Cardinals, so my mother wrote Cardinals on the ball, in red of course.
Parents were coming back to pick up kids, so we told everyone that the official party part was over, and everyone could make their own choices about how long to stay and play, and whenever they wanted to leave to feel free to do so. Quite a few people played for a bit more, pretty much to use up their tokens. Even though we had said the party would end at 1:00, it was more like 2:00 when I packed up the car to bring Derek home, and that's when the bulk of the people left.
My sister had only been to Chuck E. Cheese once, and it was on a Christmas Eve when there were only two or three other families there. So she got full credit for coming, but I told her it was not the full CEC experience. Her fiance had never been to a CEC before. I can honestly say that this time they both got the full experience.
Like I said, things were so busy that I really didn't take many pictures at all. Derek got many toys and a good assortment of clothes. He seemed pretty happy with everything. I did my best to keep a good balance during present opening. I didn't want him to open a present and say "Next", but also since there were so many presents I didn't want it to take all day. I let him look at each present, but not take anything out of the packaging so we could keep things moving. I feel it went very well.
When we got home, Derek took a huge nap -- over two hours. I myself flopped on my bed and was there for about an hour. I didn't fall asleep, but I came close a few times!