Switcher-Roo Weekend with Colby

On Monday, it was "Switcher-Roo Weekend - Part II"... I got to spend some time with Colby. We had to modify our day a little because of an event Monday morning and because I was under the weather (and still am - yuck!!). But the time we did have together was a blast. Here's a little recap of our afternoon together.

We started out by going to Grapevine Mills Mall and playing "Lunar Golf". For those that haven't heard of that (or can't tell from the photo), it's basically miniature golf in the dark with blacklights and lots of neon colors. It's a great place for kids because while the golf is not as challenging as some miniature courses (no windmills for example) it did offer an element of fun for Colby for sure. He was so fascinated with all my clothes that were shining brightly under the blacklight. NOTE TO DAD: the next time you take your son to play lunar golf, dress him in lots of white so he'll light up too!!

After lunar golf, we were on the way to the 2nd event at GameWorks but .... we got hit in the head by the cookie monster!! :-) Ok, it was too tempting for me and Colby was so excited when he saw the store. He first wanted a little choc chip cookie with M&Ms but then I spotted the cookie he really wanted (he just didn't know it yet). It was called "The Colossal Cookie" and was the exact same cookie as Colby had already picked out but this one was almost as big as Colby's head!! Ok, ok, lest you jump down my throat about serving my 4-year old that much sugar, it wasn't quite that big. But (hee-hee) it was BIG!!! Colby was THRILLED beyond belief that he had had to eat the cookie with 2 hands. It was fun. I didn't think about a picture until he was almost half-way done but you get a sense of how big it was from the picture. By the way, towards the end of the cookie, Colby said, "Whew, Dad ... I'm full. I just can't eat the rest." I chuckled. Nice restraint Colby.

On the way to GameWorks, we got stopped again. This time it was something that was on the ground. It's hard to describe these things but I've seen them around different places and maybe you have too. It's a computer generated image that is very interactive with kids or anyone who is around. For example, there was one where a large amount of computer generated pumpkins appeared but every time a kid "stomped" on it, it went away. So all the kids are stomping all around this image trying to get rid of all the pumpkins. Then after that screen goes away, another one pops up. It's very addicting and for that, we ended up staying there for close to 20 minutes. Colby was having a blast and I almost felt bad for telling him we were done.

So then we finally went on into GameWorks. This is a big, giant video-game place that I've always enjoyed. I knew that Colby would be fascinated with all of the big games compared to experience at Cici's or something like that with only one or 2 games. This place has about 30-40 games!! And I was right. He just kept moving from game to game saying Dad I want to play this one. Of course, my reaction most of the time was sure Colby except the ones with the naked women on there!! Ok, sorry grandparents who are reading this - that was just to shock you. It wasn't that bad. There are some games with "EXPLICIT REAL LIFE VIOLENCE" that Colby thought were cool until I caught up to him and had to divert him to a cool Donkey Kong game! (like I said, he was going from game to game so fast I could barely keep up).

We played in there for over an hour. And I had a blast. I've always loved playing video games but I'm never very good at them. I especially enjoy the racing games where you can compete against others. Well, about half-way through our journey in GameWorks, we came across "ARTIC THUNDER". This was going to be OUR game. Colby loved it and I did too. We'd actually played this game before at Cici's but this time they had 2 machines side-by-side and you could compete against each other. So imagine myself and Colby just playing one round after another on this for about 20 minutes. It got funny when I stopped "swiping the card" (no longer use quarters or tokens) for Colby but instead just swiped my machine and then said, "Here you go Colby" and watched him swipe his machine (of course, he usually grinned really big after that because he knew he was cool!! Those that know Colby really well know what I'm talking about!!) We even then started trash talkin' with each other which was hilarious. I think I could have stayed there for hours. (Plus it made me forget that I wasn't feeling all that great.)

After leaving GameWorks, we were greeted with some rain as we were walking to our car. It was a unique moment for us to walk in the rain and as Colby said, "Dad, I'm not really getting all that wet - this is fun." We then headed to eat pizza at Cici's (his choice) where he stared at a TV watching Scooby-Doo cartoons. (Of course, it was also the night of the great Cowboy victory over the Bills so I was enjoying some pre-game TV on ESPN so all was well in boy land!!)

Again, a big plug for Switcher-Roo Weekends with your kids. It was such a blessing to have that time with each of my boys. In a way, I think I'm already detecting a difference in our relationships. They seem alot more close to me but I'm sure alot of that has to do with the way the Lord used this Switcher-Roo Weekend to help me be a better dad. Thanks God for the time with my boys!

God bless you all,
SJ