Pizza Party Pizza

No my kids aren't sheltered (too much).

Yes, we do get out of the house (sometimes).

Of course, we do some really fun things together as a family

(museums, goofy golf, movies, play places, parks, etc.)

However, I guess we haven't taken our kids to Peter Piper Pizza

(or as James calls it Pizza Party Pizza ) in a very LONG time.

James was invited to a birthday party there tonight.

Since it had been half day, and I haven't spoiled the kids lately,

I decided to use a coupon and buy pizza for dinner -

we all went, not as much for the pizza, but as for the need to watch

James in a crazy place like that.

Oh my goodness! I wish that I had had my camera with me!

James was - at best - a MANIAC!

No, really, I'm not kidding.

I have NEVER seen him so hyper before,

not even when he's been in the same room with Jonathon, Ashley & Jacob

(and that's saying A LOT!!!!)

Tonight he was jumping everywhere he went - the poor kid could hardly even walk.

And then, he was physically shaking - shaking with euphorium and excitement

and anticipation and exhiliration. It was the craziest thing I ever saw.

AND - he doesn't particularly love pizza, especially pepperoni pizza (he likes the

mildness of cheese), but he was wolfing the pizza, as if his Mom had not fed him

any breakfast or lunch (which I happen to know for a fact that she did - oatmeal

for breakfast, tuna fish sandwich, mini Pringles, an apple, and applesauce for lunch.)

Shaking - I'm not kidding - he looked like he was coming off some drug induced something -

he was shaking so much.

But that's not all . . .

OH NO! That's not the half of it -

Jalen Andrew - mild mannered, timid little, quiet Jalen Andrew had a blast!

I don't know how many times he rode the carousel - dozens atleast.

And then there were the car video machines, you know the ones that little kids

like to sit at, because they can grab the steering wheel and pretend that they're

driving even though their parents are too cheap to put in a token.

I think that Jalen Andrew was under the impression that he was really driving,

he was weaving his head - no his whole body - back and forth as he yanked that

steering wheel around, all the while his legs were kicking full force, and he was

screaming. When the pseudo race would end, and the computer screen would

flash "Insert another token" Jalen Andrew would sail backward into his seat, and

yell, "Oh! I mished (missed)!!!" He was a crack up to watch!

To steal a phrase from one of my favorite books Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin

Henkes . . . "Wow! That's just about all [I] could say. Wow!"