"The Family Entertainment Center" - my ass!

How *I* see C.E.C

I want to start off with giving you the knowledge that I HATE children's "play places" (example - Chuck E. Cheese and all those places like them!)  

      We out grew the creepy mouse and his creepy robot friends this year and moved up to "The Plex" (has less games, bigger kid toys, activities - go carts, battle boats, batting cages etc).  This is our first experience with having a party at "The Plex" and it's NOT much better than C.E.C - cost a little less - and you get more shit to do (but costs extra), but that's about it.  $69.00+ tax gets you into the "party area" a "party coordinator", 2 medium pizzas - 2 pitchers of soda, 20 tokens per kid *up to 8 kids* and 40 for the birthday monkey, they put balloons on "Wild Child's" chair, had "THE PLEX" plastic linens/cups/napkins/plates and we had our own cupcakes brought in (cus they use the premade/frozen ones that are freakin N*A*S*T*Y!).

     We get there at 2pm - our "party time" we told them on the phone 6-7 kids *since we are such a large family, we don't usually invite others to gatherings like this because honestly it costs to damn much - want a "friend part"? OK - we go to the park!!! We walk in and see our table in the "party area" - which is a long table on the high rise part of the room, NOT in the "PARTY ROOM" - that says HAPPY BIRTHDAY "WILD CHILD" on the door - they say its because "Your party isn't big enough, and we don't have any other parties for today so we put you out in the open instead of opening up the whole room" Whatever - roll my eyes and walk away - We  get the kids their tokens, order the pizza's and 2 extra (we always have more adults than kids at these things) We are rocking a long - and I realize we are 1 bag of coins short - the "party coordinator" gets us more coins - apparently she couldn't count to 8?  Pizza is very good, I was impressed -  but they advertise and told us on the phone the party came with 2 LARGE - we got 2 medium - Thank God we ordered Extra - there was only 1 piece left over.  The additional 1 pepperoni and 1 cheese cost an extra $25.00 (I just THOUGHT pizza hut was proud of their pizza!) During the "free time game play" every machine we touched broke - and I am NOT exaggerating - the "ticket counter" broke while we were putting in our tickets and they tried to jip us out of 930 something tickets (I took a picture with my camera to show the manager just in case...smart move on my part!!!!!) "Babe" hit the jackpot on 1 game and won over 2000 tickets - paper jam - tickets held up - call for assistance.  I won 100 on the spinning jackpot game - nope, call for assistance.  The "1 token gets your free candy claw game" took "Darling Diva's" token and they wouldn't help fix it because they were having "computer issues"  - We were hand written a "note" for the 930 something tickets they tried to jip us out of.  We decided ok - GO CART - BUMPER BOAT TIME -  because we bought the "party package" the rides were cheaper - we did one "game" of bumper boat wars - they spray each other with water - it was cute (once someone showed up to let us in to play!!!) there were ducks in the water too so that made the smaller kids happy! "The Oldest" got in and drove one so that "Leggs" could play too (hes not tall enough or old enough) Then to HELL go carts - $3.50 a ride - we bought 15 rides (5 adults, 3 rides each - cus none of the kids are old enough to ride and they told us they had enough carts for all us to ride doubles together - WRONG - we needed 5, 2 seater, go carts - we get out there and they only had 4 running and 2 singles.  SINGLES DON'T HELP US!  "Babe" is much more amazing than I am, and can make ANYTHING work - while I'm freakin out and pissed - he's making "the best of things"  - so TA DA - we ride
     Everyone is having a great time - kids are having a blast!  I go in to get drinks for everyone - and come back to find my  "Darling Diva" bawling, "The Oldest" laughing, "Drama Rama" almost in tears, and cousin chasing me down!  She grabs me in the middle doors and tells me that "The Mom From Hell" 

My Version of Mom from Hell!!

has come over screaming and irate with "Drama Rama" because she ACCIDENTALLY spit on her daughters leg.  She apologized repeatedly in front of many witnesses when she realized what she had done, but that wasn't good enough - "That's assault and I am pressing charges and suing your parents"  I have no idea what my husband was doing at this point.  ((No one said))  The lady in line behind us told the women to watch her mouth and get back in her place/space because she was being rude and making a scene infront of way to many children and making herself look like a fool.  My cousin tried to reason with the women - made "Drama Rama" apologize again and when the "suing your parents" came out it was all over - she laid into her like no other - (pissing her off is BAD BAD JUJU)  Sadly, thank god I missed it and just walked into the after fire.  I totally understand standing up for your kids and making people "right their wrongs" but this was a little extreme - I hate to tell the lady that if her kids think there aren't "accidents" in life - they are in for a long rough road a head of them!  "Drama Rama" is a handful at times, and can be very much my child and run her mouth with the best of them, but she would NEVER spit on anyone just for shits and giggles - punch them, scream, cuss, yell, try to fight them maybe, but not spit (and walk off!!) -   Rides were over and done shortly after - we cashed in over 6,000 tickets for prizes for "Wild Thing" and headed home.

      We realized during this horrible adventure  that we had an appointment at Sam's Club at 5 to pick up our "click and pull" items - I thought they closed at 8 on Sunday - no that's regular hours - they close at 6 on Sunday -- ooops another trip tomorrow! But thank GOD no "Party" tomorrow!