The Big Cheese

We took Tanner to Chuck-e-Cheese in Topeka yesterday for his fifth birthday. The food and entertainment are best appreciated by the seven-and-under crowd, but that's the point I suppose. Tanner and company loved it. Our four boys, the cousins on Shannon's side of the family, and a few others were there.


As usual, Tanner was very gracious when opening his presents. He was thankful and seemed genuinely flattered that the attention was on him. I'm so impressed with this kid's sweet nature; I hope he allows it remain in the forefront (and rub off on his brothers). It would break my heart to see him grow cynical and self-centered as he gets older.


Tanner was especially pleased to find a new rodent to add to his collection. This one is a grey mouse named Cheddar, a sibling to Pellet and Cheeser.


Here's Tanner with one of his friends, Sydney. They were happy to see each other.


But not everyone was there for the socializing. Elijah put away several pieces of pizza and cake, some fudge, a cupcake, and a handful of cookies. He washed it down with a soda or two while everyone else was busy with skeeball and video games.

The boys earned about 680 tickets which we traded in for some markers for Tanner and a couple of plastic bugs for one of his friends, Ethan, who had as many tickets as the rest of the kids combined.