When the Wife is Away, I Go to Chuck E. Cheese’s

·

As most of you who follow me on social media know, my wife left me (again) for Women’s Conference. I think this is the third year in a row that she’s made her annual trek to the mecca of women known as Women’s Conference. I say that only somewhat facetiously. I really love that she goes, but this year the timing was terrible since I’m planning a conference that is happening next week. Such is life. I want her to go to it and so I sucked it up and just dealt with 4 kids, my regular work, and a conference I’m organizing next week (I didn’t mention science camp the week after and then Dubai less than a week after that). Hopefully my complaining hasn’t been too distracting for my wife to enjoy Women’s Conference.

Today I finally broke down and decided we were going out. I told my kids I had a surprise Friday evening. That basically meant I had to do it. I’d been sent a gift card to go and check out the latest Chuck E. Cheese decoder glasses and so I thought what better way to celebrate with the kids while the wife is away? For about 2 hours my kids were dancing around the house talking about going to Chuck E. Cheese, playing the Chuck E. Cheese mobile game, Skate Universe, so they could rack up ticket before we even got there. I may have slipped in a game or two myself and it’s a lot of fun. Plus, we were able to get 480 tickets just from playing the game.

Of course, my favorite part was when Crash Kid #4 (2 years old) came up to me and said, “Dad, Chuck Cheez. Pizza!” I loved how excited he was and was surprised that he knew that we were going for pizza. Isn’t it amazing what kids pick up?

I’ll admit that I was a bit nervous to take 4 kids to Chuck E. Cheese on my own. I thought maybe it would be a disaster. However, after hearing Crash Kid #4 being so cute, how could I stop? Plus, I figured they had someone manning the door at Chuck E. Cheese, so what’s the worst that could happen?

We kept it simple and ordered one of their value meals with pizza, drinks and tokens. I did upgrade the pizza to the family size (might have been a mistake since I ate too much pizza) and the cinnamon bread sticks. Both might have been bad choices for my diet. The kids liked them.

As part of the value meal, each kid got a pair of decoder glasses, an instant win game, and a puzzle. Because of the decoder glasses, I didn’t give the kids any of the tokens until after we’d gotten the pizza and eaten it. Instead of eating up all of the tokens before even eating, the kids were running all over the place looking for the clues that could only be seen with the decoder glasses.

I thought it would be pretty easy and obvious to find the clues. I was wrong. It was pretty hard since there’s lights and movement going on everywhere at Chuck E. Cheese. I wish they’d shown a sample of what you were looking for at the front, because once we’d found one then we could more easily find the others. It still wasn’t easy, but it made it doable. I wonder how often they’ll switch up the clues and puzzle since now we already know the answer and locations.

The kids liked sporting the glasses. This was them right after they found the last clue (I was proud they figured out what the last clue would say before they even found it, but I made them find it anyway):
Chuck E Cheese Decoder Glasses
Once we’d found all the clues, each kid got 50 more tickets for doing the decoder game. I think we ended up with 900 tickets. Not bad! Each kid walked away with a couple little prizes (see pictures below):


Turns out Chuck E. Cheese was great for me do go with all the kids alone. I had a good time. They had a good time. I didn’t have to cook dinner. The perfect way to celebrate Crash Mom being gone. Although, I’m ready for her to be home. We can have fun without her, but it’s not the same.