Turning the Big One Three

It finally happened: our little boy became a teenager! All right, in all honesty, he hasn't been a little boy for quite some time now- he's five foot nine! Anyway, we knew we wanted to do something special for his birthday, so we had him invite over a bunch of friends and have a party. In the past we've had birthdays with different events and activities, but this year he just wanted to hang out with his buddies. No problem, kid. We settled on 6 friends, certainly enough for a party.

The party was on a Friday, so the boys walked home with him after school. I was ready and waiting with a bunch of snacks and drinks for them to devour! After a quick feeding, they all piled into Ledger's room with their devices and played a bunch of online games together, pausing only briefly to ask what the Wi-Fi password was. Loud laughing and talking poured out of his room for the next hour or two while Diana and I tried our best to stay out of sight, letting the boys have their fun.

Eventually the pizza arrived and they all came flooding out of Ledge's room to chow down! After they almost filled up on pizza, it was time for some singing and a birthday cake. The boys were loud and rambunctious, as 13-year-old boys are want, and we just got out of their way. Now with all the food eaten, I shepherded the boys to the living room for gift time. Most of them had brought gifts for Ledge, a very nice and thoughtful thing to do, so he went through and opened each one and joyfully thanked each person he got a gift from. I figured they might get a kick out of the gift we had gotten for him, and I wasn't wrong. As Ledger opened up his last gift from us, the boys realized what it was and the room exploded with excitement! I'm not even exaggerating- when he unwrapped it all the boys screamed, punched their fists in the air, and stood up with excitement! They laughed hysterically about it for a good 5 minutes before anyone was able to collect themselves enough to make a complete sentence! (check the pics to see what the gift was)

They had about an hour or so before it was time to bring everyone home, so they filed back into Ledger's room and kept playing their different games. Finally, a couple parents arrived to pick up their boys and the rest filed into our car and we brought them home one by one. Phew! An absolute success on a fun birthday for our newly minted teen!
(more pics: 1, 2)