Incredible John's Pizza...Not So Incredible

Last week we took Ava to Incredible John's Pizza for the first time. It is basically a better version of Chuck E. Cheese. We met Rich's brother and his family there thinking Ava would have a blast. Unfortunately she hated it.

At first she was excited and couldn't wait to go to the ride/arcade area. Of course we made her eat first. We sat in the cartoon room which got her attention. She was glued to the TV and Rich and to feed her, so she would eat something. Ava didn't complain about the food, but we weren't impressed. It was nice to have a buffet with a selection, but the choices weren't great (bad pizza or bad pasta).

After eating we headed to the games. Ava's cousin Ezra was loving it and had a great time with his parents. Ava hated it and wanted to go home the whole time. The games were obnoxiously loud and Ava was overwhelmed. We felt bad and tried to comfort her but nothing worked. She didn't even want to throw the balls for the skee ball game.

It only got worse when Ezra won a big stuffed alligator. It was awesome to see him so excited. We thought we would give the same game a try for fun, but that was a mistake. When we didn't win Ava got upset had a hard time understanding not everybody wins a stuffed animal. Then we tried a smaller version of the claw game but didn't win at that either. By this point Ava was crying and done with the place. We only calmed her by getting plastic dinosaurs with our tickets and then eating ice cream as we headed out the door.

It was a great learning experience for us. We have always known Ava is easily overwhelmed, but this made us realize just how sensitive she is. When we go to Disneyland in a few months we will be better prepared to ease her into the situation and hopefully help her enjoy the experience.

Ava starring at the T.V.

Bob and Ezra having a good time with the dance game.

Rich trying to get Ava to play Skee Ball with no luck.

Ava plugged her ears most of the time we were there and kept saying "too loud".