Nico’s Birthday

Today was Nico’s birthday party, held at Chuck E. Cheese again this year.  Honestly, going there is stressful enough for us, but Brian started off our day by really stressing us out.  We’d bought Nico’s present months ago, a Lego Creator set that I knew he wanted, and that was really hard to find.  We’d taken it out last night to wrap it up, but ran out of time.  Brian woke up early this morning, crept downstairs to play, found the Lego set, and proceeded to open it up and build it!!  He woke us up showing us the built car, very proud of himself–but we were… Less than pleased..!  It wasn’t his to build in the first place, and the set is out of production and would be very difficult to replace, especially on a couple hours’ notice.  Fairly perturbed, we picked up a replacement present on the way to the party, and confessed what had happened to Nico’s parents.  They had a hearty laugh over it, but it was a little too soon for the rest of us to find it amusing..!  We made it through the party without further major incidents, though the noise and chaos makes Chuck E. Cheese one of our least favorite places.  I think it brings out the worst in children (greed, tantrums, “mine!”s, and general screaming..)  Honestly, if it were any other kid’s party besides Nico, we would pass on it!  Brandon made some calls to other Learning Express stores in the area, and a couple of wild goose chases later, somehow, eventually tracked down a replacement of the original gift.  I know we didn’t have to get it, but Brandon didn’t feel like things would be resolved until we did.  Brian’s “punishment” was to get dragged along on the trip to Durham to pick it up. 😉