Alison hangs at ChuckECheese and other fun stuff

Alison turns 7 tomorrow (yeah, I can't believe it either) so we celebrated today with the biggest Mouse in town -- Mr. Cheese, that is. Chuck E.

It was actually a lot of fun. The kids were great, the pizza was, well, the kids were great and had a ton of fun. Mr. Reed is the perfect parent for this place. He doled out tokens, helped organize tickets and even gave game advice... when he wasn't playing himself.

Karin, Ali, Alex and Hannah made the birthday cupcakes, which were on fabulous display. I pretty much shopped, wrapped and cleaned up. Not such bad duty, really.

I said something to Ali this morning about how I can't believe she's 7 and could she please just stay little. She said, "Mo-om. I can't stop time, you know..."

I was a little bummed about this until one of the moms told me that she'd been awakened at 2 o'clock this morning by her 3-year-old who'd fallen out of bed and was crying so hard she puked all over her mom. Seven's not that bad, really.

In other news:

Jeff and Alison were taking a walk and somehow the subject of Caleb (her boyfriend) came up. Ali told her dad that every day at school, Caleb wants to hug. To get said hug, he says, "Huggy? Huggy?" (Blech. I hope her standards get a little higher as time goes by.)

Now, Alison may have agreed to be Caleb's girlfriend, but she's not ready to announce it to the world. So when he says, "Huggy? Huggy?" she makes him slip off somewhere. "You know, the dumpsters or behind the slide where people can't see," she explained.

Alarmed a bit by this, Jeff asked whether Caleb ever asked, "Kissy? Kissy?"

According to Alison, he hasn't but the secret hugging kind of got me worried and I later told Alison that if she didn't want to hug Caleb all she had to do was say so. First grade seems a little early to go down the path of respect your body, it's your personal space, etc... but hey, I'm guessing that little Spears girl could have done with a little extra education along this vein.

Alison? She not interested at all. Besides, "Christ the King has a no-kissing policy, Mom," she said.

Suddenly I'm not so concerned about that tuition increase... :)

****

Last weekend, Karin was taking her kids home and was backing out of the driveway when she heard Alex gasp and then exclaim, "Weird!"

"What's weird?" she asked.

"Mr. Reed just leaned over and grabbed Mrs. Reed and kissed her!" he said.

"That's not weird, Alex. It's OK. Sometimes Dad kisses me," Karin said.

Another gasp: "Oh my gosh, he's doing it AGAIN!!!!"

Karin just stepped on the gas.