"Cheezies"

Matt and I really deserve the "Brilliant Parent Award". I mean, how many parents do you know who take their kids out during the peak of cold and flu season to the largest public peatrie dish in the Continental U.S.?

The catchy little jingle really should be re-worded to something like, "Where a germ can be a germ..." But I guess that wouldn't have the same effect of bringing in the endless birthday parties and token counting kids.

I may be going out on a limb here, but I don't think it would be crazy to think that once the crowds clear out and the "CLOSED" sign is lit, microbiologists flood the place in search of the newest super bacteria.

I'm pretty sure this was the testing site of Purell. It was where they discovered the .01% that isn't killed in the 99.99% effective antibacterial hand gel.

But there are just some things you have to overlook when you become parents to little humans that are perfectly fine to eat food off the floor.

And so we totally chose to overlook the unseen organisms and introduce our boys to the world of arcades, tokens, tickets, and prizes...they were hooked.

Running from game to game and ride to ride all three of my men took up the competition of basketball, skeeball, and hoarding piles of tickets won.

I remember Chuck E. Cheese as a kid and I can remember having a good time, but it's way more fun watching it through the eyes of my excited kiddos.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that some things have changed since I've been last, but I'm still having a hard time getting over my disappointment of the revamping of Whack-A-Mole.

It's now an interactive screen where kids can bang the mess out of pizza toppings with a plastic mallet. I guess PETA put up some kind of argument against teaching children to neurologically harm rodents. Oh well.

But even without some arcade classics I think we all had a blast. All germs, microbes, and influenza aside we needed the time. Time out laughing as a family. Time with close friends to make some lasting memories before we move.

Time with our boys away from the packing and cardboard boxes. Time to capture the moments while our kids still are kids. And time to buy stock in Lysol :)