Friday, April 30, 2010

Team Darnell has another playdate!

Team Darnell was invited over for another play date by Ms. Katrina and her son, Cal. The boys enjoy playing with Cal and all of his neat toys, so we graciously accepted. Since I neglected to take photos of our last play date, I made sure to bring the camera this time.

Andrew showed more interest in the car this time. His turn would be short lived...
...because Jared was going to carjack him. We are still working on "sharing".
Jared lays on some cheese before shooting hoops.
Cal shows me the sign for "butterfly", then growled at me.
Jared was sinking three-pointers all morning!
Ms. Katrina introduces the boys to a jack-in-the-box. They all jumped when it popped out.
Micky the cat, who stayed in this box during our visit. Last time he was more social.
While we didn't pull out every toy, we still managed to cover the floor.
Wesley takes a break from playing to read a book.
Cal's grandmother made this play mat by drawing a whole town onto a tablecloth. It was very cool and had a lot of detail, including a Starbucks!
Hopefully, this will be Jared's only experience with a police car!
I give many props to Ms. Katrina for having more courage than I do. She suggested that the boys do some finger painting. It actually turned out good, and she had extra t-shirts for everyone to put over their clothes.
Jared had paint on every finger, and is sharing some with Cal.
Andrew and Wesley work on their paintings.
Daddy left the camera sitting out, and Jared came running into the play room with it. This is one of the pictures he took, with his fingers over the lens.
Wesley grabbed Cal's camera to take some photos of his own.
Wesley wouldn't get any closer to Kota, an interactive dinosaur toy. Kota is pretty big, moves its head and makes noises.

Another successful play date for Team Darnell! We always have fun with Cal, and Wesley reminds us of that all the time. The boys came home, ate lunch, and took a nap. Mommy came home from work and we all headed out for much-needed haircuts and a great dinner at Sonny's Barbecue. After a full day of activities, full bellies, and a bubble bath, they headed off to bed.


Sunday, April 25, 2010

Chuck E Cheese's!

As the weekend approached, we were trying to think of something fun to do as a family. We had a few different ideas but we decided on our first trip to Chuck E. Cheese's! We arrived early in the morning to beat the crowds and work up a hunger by lunch time. We actually arrived so early that we were the very first customers to arrive. To add to the fun, we reached out to the boys' new friend, Cal, and invited his family to join us. We had a blast! In addition to having fun with their family, we also greatly appreciated the additional sets of eyes to help keep the boys all accounted for.

The boys enjoyed starting out the morning with a ride with their new friend Chuck E. Cheese. Jared served up a picture full of "cheese"...
Wesley took his picture with Chuck E. but withheld the "cheese"...
Andrew watched his brothers take their ride and when we asked if he wanted to ride, he shook his head 'no' and took off the other way...
The boys (all of them) enjoyed playing with all the games...
When we arrived, this game was barking loudly and the boys were hesitant to go anywhere near it. However, it turned out to be one of the games they enjoyed the most. There was a big dog head with an open mouth. The player hits the black button and it tosses a bunch of balls up and some go into the mouth. The boys loved it!...
This game was also the most lucrative for tickets! Actually, we think the game had a minor malfunction as it kept spitting out tickets (approx 300) and kept going and going...
The boys were thrilled to play all of the fun games. This little (violent) game involved punching over little rubber duckies. Interesting game...
Andrew enjoying a 'driving' game...
Jared makes a very important call...
The boys enjoying the slide.... Andrew...
Wesley...
Jared...
The boys also loved the riding car, tracker and bull dozier! Jared taking a ride with Stuart Little...
Andrew rides with Barney in a tractor...
Wes gives Barney a 'high 5' and then proceeded to spend about 30 minutes riding the tractor. Wes kept putting token after token into the tractor to keep it moving. He would hop out and still kept it running by feeding it tokens. I think he loved learning the idea of putting the token in the machine and it would start to move. So, he kept doing it even with no rider in the tractor. A huge thanks goes to Miss Katrina who hung in their with him feeding Wes token after token to keep his party going...
The boys even rode the Bob the Builder Bull Dozier and were cooperative enough to share the single seat ride. The boys are both looking up at the tubing overhead that was full of 'big' kids. Can't you see the dream in their eyes that says.. one day, we will be up there... one day!..
This ride was large enough to hold all four of the boys...
Cal joins the boys for a Trolley Car ride...
We really didn't mean to monopolize all the ride...
Cal challenged Mr. Mike at a game of Air Hockey...
Miss Katrina helps Jared win a horse race...
There was a game that takes the rider on a roller coaster ride or a jet pack ride. Jared and Andrew enjoy a roller coaster...
Above the game, the camera shows the faces of the riders...
Wes takes his turn and was very safety conscious by making sure his seat belt was strapped...
Wes' moment on TV...
Andrew and Cal take on the water guns. After this, we were all appreciative the guns can not turn or there may have been water everywhere...
The stage area was almost completely reserved for Birthday parties. The show started for one of the Birthday parties. Our boys watched the show from the 'cheap seats'...
After watching the show, the boys returned to their spots when Chuck E. Cheese arrived at the party...
Cal was in awe of the big Cheese...
After giving his birthday wishes to the party guests, Chuck E. Cheese stopped by to visit our troops. Chuck E. Cheese dishes out 'high 5s' to the boys....
Chuck E. stayed for a while so we could try and take a group photo. However, only Cal cooperated. The Darnell trio was more interested in throwing tokens around than posing for a pic. As such, this is the best one I could get...
After a morning of play and a visit from Chuck E. Cheese, it was time to eat...
Or drink...
It was time to bring our morning to an end by counting up all of our tickets. How many men does it take to feed some tickets into the machine? Mr. Jayson and Daddy show the boys how this machine works...
The boys LOVED this game! Jared was so excited each time is sucked up the tickets....
We had a wonderful morning and each family left with a new tool set as a prize purchased with all the tickets we won. I tried to convince the boys to get Mommy a new pair of shoes with all of their tickets but they were more interested in a new toy. I needed a new pair of shoes because one of my flip flops got caught in the bathroom door and completely broke. As such, I spent the last part of the afternoon wearing only one shoe. Yep, I looked very classy walking out of Chuck E. Cheese with one flip flop and one bare foot. This is really the way to impress our new friends!

The boys were very sleepy on the ride home and went right to sleep once we put them down for nap. We had a great time at Chuck E. Cheese and enjoyed hanging out with our new friends. We look forward to getting together again very soon.

Take care,