Carter's 9th Birthday

For every kids birthday party we have ever had Callie and Carter have wanted to have a birthday at home. This is fun but it's not exactly the easiest thing. Easier would be to have the birthday at a location like a pool, the bowling alley or in this case Chuck E Cheese. Carter decided that this year we would be doing a Chuck E Cheese birthday party. For not a lot of money they provide pizza, tokens and drinks. Each kid got 50 tokens and Carter got a few extra for handing out to friends. He even got to go in the ticket booth where they blow air around you and you have to try to catch tickets.

Chuck E Cheese is an arcade for kids with all sorts of games including video games, Skee Ball and other midway type games. My favourite is the basket ball nets. Once you get a rhythm going you can really rack of the points. The points give you tickets that you can trade in at the end of the day for prizes. Carter had a lot of fun with his friends from school and we combined all the family tickets to get him a better prize at the end. I think he had close to 2000 tickets. (About $20 towards a prize.)

His family party was a bit more low key. There is a new outlet mall near Tsawwassen that the kids have been to several times but I hadn't been. For the most part it's just another outlet mall that you have to drive a long way to get to.  I think they are trying to feed off of the ferry traffic with the hopes that people will stop for a few hours on their way to and from the island. One of the unique things it does have is called Uncle Bucks Fish Bowl and Grill. It's a restaurant associated with a giant outdoor living store that sells everything from canoes to fishing gear. The restaurant has a great atmosphere as it is painted up to look like you are underwater. Right next door is a 12 lane bowling alley that also looks like you are under water. Carter has gone bowling for a few birthday parties now so we stopped for a few games. (With the gutter guards up of course. Carter doesn't like to get gutter balls.)