Over the summer Wesley and Carissa earned money for our “Helper Jar” by doing chores most mornings. I promised them we’d do something fun with the money they earned, and today was that day to cash it in. I took them to the local nickelcade.

They were SO excited.

Wesley came here once for a birthday party, but this was my and Carissa’s (and Elizabeth’s) first time.

Since we went at 1:30 on a Thursday afternoon, the place was empty and the employee turned on the machines so we could use them. But this was secretly my plan, because a big empty place means an easier job for me to keep track of Wesley.

In short, the kids had a ball. Lots of balls, in fact. Wes’s favorite games involved balls–basketball and ski-ball. The one employee must’ve been super bored, because she actually stood and played basketball with Wes for about 20 minutes while I took Carissa around to the other games. All I could hear was his laughter echoing in the room.

No, that’s not true. The nickelcade is really loud, like a Las Vegas casino. But I could still hear his laughter above all the music and noise.

Carissa’s favorite game–surprise, surprise (NOT!)–involved candy. She sat on a stool and directed a claw over a pile of candy and then pushed a button to scoop up a piece or two or three. I finally had to cap how many times she could play this game. But just look how joyful it made her.

At the end of two hours we had lots and lots and lots of tickets. Over 800. The kids immediately picked out two blow-up guitars that are as tall as they are, plus a ball. Once I got out to the car I discovered another pocketful of tickets–but I gave them to another family getting ready to go in. We had our guitars, and that was enough. And that was our reward for summertime chores.