Where a Grizz can be a Kid!

Grizz turned 61 on Friday. It's somehow less fun now that we know he's going to live forever, rather than best case scenario only making it to sixty.

He started his day by driving Sara to work, and also taking Ellie to school for me, since it was my first day back at MOPS. The day before at the YMCA, Adam had dictated a card to Ellie, which features all of his favorite things to do with Grizz:

They like to pick vegetables, and go to the park, and watch the trash trucks. And there are lots of hearts and love. I also cried when Ellie showed it to me. Her card had less illustrations, but just as much love.

They also like to help Grizz grill, which he had to do for his own birthday dinner. He made them some sliders to start, so they enjoyed their food while helping him feed the rest of us. Then we had brownies, and of course, sang twice because each kid had to be allowed to blow out his candle for him.

The big fun though, was that he asked them to see Chuck E. Cheese with him, in the style of Grandpa Howie having his grandkids come with him to Showbiz Pizza for his birthday celebration. I have never taken my children to Ratville, and was nervous going in, but it was nowhere near as bad as I feared. For one, they have actual lighting now instead of it being some weird, dark pit. Whether because of germaphobia or other litigation, there's no ball pit (which is good for Sara. A favorite family memory is her getting stuck in a ball pit, and Uncle John having to climb in and scoop her out because she couldn't get her feet under her, and David and I thought she was actually drowning) and there's very little climbing equipment. Most of the place is taken up with video games and carnival style games. I absolutely killed it in skeeball, and Grizz and Ellie did some good smashing of clowns.

The video games are oriented much more to small children - Adam did a great job at some fishing game because all he had to do was smash around. There were some incidences of weeping, but considering how easily my kids get overwhelmed, it was a very successful outing. Plus, who doesn't want to pay a bunch of money to then turn in a bunch of tickets for the grand prize of not one, not two, but THREE plastic rings! A spider, a butterfly, and an enormous purple jewel.

There was another pizza place in the shopping center, so we were able to go and get regular pizza instead of Chuck E Cheese food, and also they had beer! See, he didn't need to go to Germany last year - there's plenty of fun here.