Valley Life: Dude, kids game trucks the way to party

Dude. It's party season for this grandmother.

Three of my four grandchildren have had birthday parties in the past few weeks. Two of them were girlie parties — the 3-year-old celebrated with a Minnie Mouse theme, complete with mouse ears, and the 4-year-old hosted a princess tea party, complete with tiaras.

But my 8-year-old grandson's party was all boy. So what do you do with 18 8-year-old boys? Dude, you host a video game party. I haven't been to an 8-year-old boy's birthday party in years. Things have changed since my son turned 8. Back then, it was either a pizza parlor or skating rink party, where kids ran around, yelling, screaming and begging for more coins. There wasn't much else to choose from.

But today's hottest ticket is the Game Truck Party, where they bring the party to your doorstep — or at least your driveway. I wish they'd had this when my son was a kid because it was so easy. All you do is call the video game truck company, book the date, pay the fee and invite the kids. They take it from there.

Here's how it goes: At the allotted time, a big brightly colored truck pulls up in front of your driveway, making you look like a rock star. The truck is greeted by 18 wide-eyed 8-year-old boys who can't believe they're about to play video games for the next two hours.

A really nice guy called a "game coach" opens up the doors and side windows, turns on wall-to-wall 50-inch flat screen TVs, hooks up the gaming systems — like Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii — inserts the 8-year-old players' favorite games — like Skylanders, Wii Resorts, Mario Brothers — and hands over the controllers. Dude, it's birthday party heaven.

I know what you're thinking. Kids today play enough video games. But they don't usually play together. Believe it or not, hosting a video game party is actually good for kids. They collaborate, they socialize, they learn skills, they move around, they take turns and they're inspired to read, do math and solve problems. Some of the game truck companies even include laser tag games that get the kids running, hiding, playing in teams and using strategies.

The game coach, with the enthusiasm of an 8-year-old boy, makes sure everything runs smoothly and fairly. Meanwhile, the parents get to mingle outside, comfortable in the knowledge that their kids are safe inside the self-contained party. With the convenience of keeping the party at home–and with no mess to clean up–it's a parent's dream too. The prices are comparable to a party at the play gyms, bounce houses, trampoline sites, movies and giant mouse pizza parties.

Dude, I have to say, the two-hour party flew by faster than a speeding Mario Brother. I've never seen so many boys in one place get along so well. I don't even think they took a bathroom break during the whole event. And I learned 18 different ways to use the word "dude."

The only problem? Dude, they could have used one more game truck — just for the dads.

Game Truck: Easiest Party & Fun for All

When Game Truck pulls up for video game party time on wheels, you can hear the collective shouts!

Parents and kids alike can’t wait to climb inside, take a look, and play: Game Truck wows everyone! Game Truck makes party time easy and delivers the fun straight to your home/business/location in Chapel Hill, Durham, Pittsboro, Raleigh and throughout the entire North Carolina Triangle.

Our recent Game Truck video game party (for our 3rd grade Birthday Boy) in Chapel Hill, NC was great fun with the least amount of effort: one phone call and Game Truck brings the fun!

Check out these video testimonials to SEE the fun and excitement of a Game Truck party: http://www.gametruckparty.com/ 

Inside the beckoning bright green Game Truck, you will find a comfortable black leather couch that spans the length of the truck, with lots of cushion and game screens to accommodate 16 players, and all of the accessories to go along with the games (including guitars for Guitar Hero, Skylanders figures for Skylanders games, etc). Game Truck’s driver/expert GameCoach is there for the duration to help players learn the games. The games are set to multi-player so all of up to 16 guests can play together in the Game Truck at the same time.

When Game Truck arrives (around 15 minutes or so before the party begins), the Game Truck coach goes over the game choices with the parent(s)/party giver, so that you can choose which games will be available for gamers to play at the party. (For our party, we had mostly 9 and 10-year-olds, but also our younger children, so we opted to have only games that would be appropriate for everyone.) They all had a great time with the dozens of game choices still available even after we had (surreptitiously) removed some of the game choices before the party began.

You can go to the Game Truck website in advance to see the game choices and read game reviews so that you will already know which games you may or may not want to include in the possible game choices for your party.

Our GameTruck coach, Brandon, was great with the kids, polite, friendly and personable. After an hour of game play, he took a photo of all of the kids in front of the game truck (part of the party package), then they went back inside to play. After 2 hours of Game Truck play, we had pizza and cake (in our neighborhood clubhouse) before pick-up time. Then the kids played tag and hide-and-seek on the lawn on a warm spring evening. Great fun and some exercise to round out one of the best – and most memorable – parties ever! Both boys and girls had an awesome time.

If you plan to have food/cake, we recommend scheduling (at least) an extra half hour for the food and cake (before or after Game Truck play time), since no one will want to leave the Game Truck during the video games.

Game Truck makes hosting a party for up to 16 kids amazingly easy. When you schedule a Game Truck party, all you need to do is log into the Game Truck site using the password info you’ll receive. There you can enter the guests’ email addresses and the detail for your invitations, and Game Truck sends Evites to your guests, and logs RSVP counts to allow you to keep track of which guests can or can’t attend. The Game Truck website also has links for local offers and discounts on party food and other party gear for your local area.

A few more party ideas we found when we were originally reading about Game Truck on the web: Game Truck is a fun way for parents to get together for a grown-up dinner and let the kids have supervised fun on the Game Truck.

Our Game Truck coach also told us about a recent local neighborhood Superbowl Party here in the NC Triangle, where the neighbors got together and rented the Game Truck for their kids. (Cool neighborhood, right?) Game Truck is climatized and air-conditioned, so it’s great for keeping cool for a Summer birthday party, and equally comfortable in any season! Book your Game Truck party at http://www.gametruckparty.com/Triangle or visit Game Truck of the Triangle on Facebook.

The Game Truck will be heading to the upcoming festivals & events in the Triangle; visithttp://www.gametruckparty.com/Triangle for the Game Truck events schedule or to Book a Party.

Game Truck Triangle, NC provides video game parties throughout the North Carolina Triangle including Apex, Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Holly Springs, Morrisville, Raleigh, Wake Forest, Raleigh, Holly Springs, Clayton, Garner, Pittsboro, Knightdale, Wake, Orange, Chatham, and surrounding areas.

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