How Ginger Spent Her 5th Birthday pt 1

Hard to believe but it's been five whole years since little Ginger/Lump came into our world. This years event was held at Chuck E Cheese.

  We had the party at noon on her actual birthday, hoping weekday crowds would be far smaller than their weekend equivalents. We were right. While we didn't have the place to ourselves, it was close enough - it felt like our own private playground.


The party started off with the kids just playing and using their allotted tokens for a good 45 minutes.

Of course, some grown ups had to get in on the act too.

 











Meanwhile most of the grown-ups chilled.





At one point all the kids joined Chuck E for a dance along - including YaYa!







Then it was time for pizza!





The grown-ups, meanwhile, had a veggie tray and sandwiches.

Then it was time for cake:



and to sing happy birthday!





Ginger was loving it!



So was her Daddy!




Then Chuck E came out to visit her again





and we sang happy birthday AGAIN! (oopsies!)



not that she minded



Then they put her inside a booth that blew tickets into the air around her. The goal was the golden 1000 ticket prize, but the manager cheated and told her to step on it before the wind started :)







Mission accomplished!



Then it was time to open presents.



We got her a zebra print hassock





a Cuddle-Up-It (her favorite gift of the day!)






YaYa got her a princess movie DVD .



LuLu got her lipgloss




I got her a whiffle ball/bat and baseball mitt, and she got scads of other stuff from friends and family:












Smiley got her AppleJacks, a My Little Pony

and with her tickets from the games she got herself a gumball machine. It was a great time and a swell birthday party (oddly, very relaxing for the grown-ups too) and her day was only half done . . .