Figuring out what you want to do for your birthday party is a big deal. David started floating ideas in July; his birthday is in January. About a month out he finally settled on having it at an arcade, but then we had to negotiate which one. There's a small one 10 minutes from our house which also doubles as an ice cream parlor. He wanted the one 25 minutes away that perhaps had more violent video games rather than Pacman and pinball. When I found out option B wanted to charge me a lot of money and provide beer rather than ice cream, we went with option A. My favorite part were his picks for the goody bags: a punching balloon, a sticky plastic chicken that you could shoot across the room, and a whoopee cushion. It just screams ten years old, doesn't it?

We had a great time. We doled out the quarters, so the kids didn't run through 5.00 each in ten minutes. I played a bunch of pinball. And lost a lot. Rose got to play a Star Trek pinball, so she was very happy. David was a gracious host, and aside from the inevitable post party tummy ache, it was a great success.