Chucky Cheese With The Grandchildren

It's unfortunate when I don't get to visit with the grand children in awhile. Yesterday, I took the opportunity to drive over to Springfield, Ohio to take Oscar(6) and Genevieve(nearing 4) on an adventure. The Big O knows a lot about cars especially the names of them, make and type, from a distance. His other grandpa is a car aficionado and since he was a toddler has taken him to car shows and local dealers. So, just to make conversation I asked him, "O, what do you think of the Smart car"? His matter of fact reply, in two words: "Interesting technology". The kid's in kindergarten for gosh sakes!
We went to a state park. After swinging and climbing we explored the swollen waters of some creek that was now the size of the Amazon River due to torrential rain storms. We looked for interesting leaves, branches, rocks, things out of the ordinary.
After this we headed out to Chucky Cheese. Do you have one in your town? If not, beware. I gotta tell 'ya it was 3 in the afternoon when we arrived. Keep this in mind.
At any rate, it's a pizza place with kid games. The customer buys tokens, in my case twenty dollars worth. The kids put the tokens in a game of skill and then retrieve tickets for how skillful they are. In Vieve's case, not very, but who cares. It's all in fun. Vieve is a 'wild child'. I've written about her before. If asked by me she would kill on command. Her one response to life is, "I can do it myself". She needs one of those electronic devices on her ankle to keep track of her. Twice yesterday I asked the manager if he'd seen her. I thought social services was going to be called to take her away from grandpa. Oscar's tokens were gone in twenty minutes. That's a lot of tokens. What was he to do? What would any kid do, steal from his sister, right? And he did without her even knowing. O can be quite conniving.
By 3:30 our pepperoni pizza had arrived along with lemonade and sprite. I didn't want to be a party pooper so I ordered a salad. Long story short------when all was said and done it was a forty-five dollar afternoon. There's a big lesson in all of this and I keep forgetting. A person can take their grandchildren to the park for two hours and have just as much fun as when they go to Chucky Cheese. I mean, for the twenty dollars in tokens the kids won, two pieces of candy and a miniature soccer ball.
And do you know what Oscar told his mom as I was leaving the house? He said, "this has been the greatest day of my life". The poor kid needs to get out more or he was being what he usually is-----kind!