Skeeball...It's not for everyone.

You know...the game at the arcade where you roll the wooden ball up an inclined lane hoping to land it in that hole worth 50,000 points.

Saturday night we braved the crowds of gleeful children (and their tired token purchasers aka parents) to celebrate Evan's 10th birthday.  He had been asking for a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party for a few months and because the first double digit birthday is kind of a big deal in the world of a child, we decided to give in, just this once.

As we pulled up to the building I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was ample parking available, however, when I looked through the large wall of windows I instantly went into survival mode.  There were excited, token carrying, ticket-winning-crazed children EVERYWHERE.

We had 3 extra children with us plus a few more who were on the way to celebrate Evan's special day.

Before we even got out of the van I went over the rules...

#1) Play nice

#2) If you have a problem with something or someone, please come to ME or Mr. Sutherland instead of trying to solve the problem yourself.  (This one was mainly for MY child who doesn't always THINK before he acts...and yes, he gets it honestly....from his father...hehe, okay, from both of us.) ;)

As we walked into the building with 5 children in tow I just smiled.  We were led to a table with a sign on it which read "Evan Party 5-7".  Yep, that's us.

The other guests began to arrive so we divvied out everyone's tokens and off they went.  I figured they'd all be back within 5 minutes since that would be about how long the tokens would last.

Fortunately for the adults in our group, the tokens lasted longer than 5 minutes.  Since it was so busy, waiting in line to play the games meant the kids couldn't spend them as quickly, so the packed house was working in our favor. Go figure.

Every so often I would wander the game floor to make sure the kids in our group were having fun and not running into any problems.

As I approached the row of Skeeball alleys I noticed Evan awkwardly throwing the ball up the lane.  I cringed at the thought of that wooden ball ricocheting into the neighboring lane and whacking someone in the head.

"Woah, Evan.  Let me help you. You have to ROLL the ball, not throw it.  Here, like this."

You see, when I was a kid I LOVED skeeball.  I wasn't really good at it, but I did okay.  So after seeing my poor uncoordinated child abusing that ball I just HAD to step in and help him.  He let me show him, reluctantly, but as soon as I rolled the ball and actually scored him some points, he thought he knew what he was doing, so he grabbed the next ball and proceeded to clumsily throw it up the lane a second time.

I braced myself again for impact with a neighboring player.  Phew, it bounced into the gutter.

"No, no. You have to ROLL the ball, Evan.  You are still throwing it." "OKAAAAY, MOM."

Oy vey....he just couldn't figure out how to roll that ball.  It took all I had to keep myself from taking the ball right out of his hand and playing the game for him.  Restraint is a hard thing for control freaks, you know, but I behaved myself and let him bomb the rest of the balls at which point he said, "I don't like this game."  Well of course not, sweetie, you stink at it.  Okay, I didn't really say that.  I did what any good mother should do and told him not to give up, that it takes practice to get better at it just like anything new and that it was a fun game once you got the hang of it.  Well, he didn't buy it.  He was off like a shot to find something less frustrating to waste his tokens on....like whack a mole.

On the bright side, he had a GREAT time at his Chuck E. Cheese birthday party, which is a good thing since it won't ever happen again. ;) 

One of the funniest moments of the night was when Chuck E. Cheese himself crowned Evan with an inflatable crown which held 8-10 tokens.  I thought he was going to die, he was so embarrassed.  He will be 10 after all (on the 26th), which is much too old to have a man/woman dressed like a rat place a fake crown on your head while everyone is cheering and snapping pictures.

I do think maybe we should buy a skeeball alley for the basement, though.  Wouldn't that be fun?  Kinda like stamping...

I made this card yesterday for the SCS Featured Stamper challenge while my dear friend, Janette Olen, was here with her girls for an impromptu visit this weekend.  We haven't stamped together in what feels like forever. It was so much fun to giggle around the table while we made a huge mess with my stamping supplies.

Stamps: Vintage Ornaments (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps)

Paper: Aspen Frost (Basic Grey), kraft CS

Ink: Cranberry (CTMH)

Accessories: ribbon, scallop border die (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps), pearl, holly embossing folder (Sizzix), twine