Last week we took Matteo to Chuck E. Cheese with Adam, Stefanie and Ayla. He had already been there the night of Joe and Carrie's wedding with his babysitter, but Matt and I hadn't been to a Chuck E. Cheese since we were kids ourselves.
I remember Chuck E. Cheese as being kind of dark, slightly creepy, and having a particular smell - like the weird smell of a roller skating rink, but mixed with pizza smell. It also didn't help my perception of kiddie pizza restaurants when I watched the movie The Rock-afire Explosion a couple of years ago, which was about people who are obsessed with the Showbiz Pizza (Chuck E.'s predecessor) animatronic characters and keep whole, working sets of them in their homes.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yNitSBXzsA&w=420&h=345]
Also making me skeptical of the Chuck E. Cheese experience was back in 2007-08, there was a Chuck E. Cheese outside of Milwaukee always showing up in the paper for fights between parents that had to be broken up by police. I kid you not, in a 15-month period during 2007-08, police had to be called to that Chuck E. Cheese to break up fights 81 times! That's crazy!
Apparently my Chuck E. Cheese prejudices were totally unwarranted. Chuck E. Cheese circa 2011 wan an altogether new and improved experience. (At least in Madison. I can't speak for Brookfield.) Matteo absolutely loved it and there were a lot of rides and games that even little ones his age could enjoy.
One of the rides they have is this huge horse, big enough for me to ride, and seemingly way too big for Matteo. At the end of the night when he had gone on almost everything else, I plunked him on the horse and off he went. He gripped that thing with his tiny knees and rode like the wind, even lifting his hand in a cheery wave when Matt came over to watch him. Check it out:
[flickr video=6083244250 secret=b39347cbfd w=400 h=300]
Toodle-oo Chuck E. Cheese! We'll be back!
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