A BOY'S Birthday Party!

Yesterday, Christopher had his 12th birthday party. Well, I should say his 1st birthday party for his 12th birthday ;-) Through the years, we've always honored the kids' birthdays with cake, presents, etc. as a family and then celebrate with them in special ways (last year Christopher got to spend a weekend snowboarding with his dad; one year we all went to a hockey game). However, we've never really held "friends" parties. First, I'm not big on the stress of throwing large parties each year, constantly having to think of ideas bigger and better than the last. Also, we've traditionally attended smaller churches, and our neighborhoods rarely had many children their ages, so the group of the kids' friends was usually limited. The friends they had were extra special, but the kids just didn't have large numbers that they could invite to birthday parties anyway.

Well, having moved to Virginia this past summer and joined a larger church, the kids have been blessed with many wonderful friends! So, as Christopher's birthday approached, his excitement built, and the planning started for hosting his first "real" birthday party. When I asked him what he wanted to do, he would answer "just eat and play football". Ok...I could handle that ;-)

Below are a few photos of the wonderful time that we had yesterday. We had 11 boys join us, and while it was 25 degrees outside and bitterly cold, they all seemed to have a great time!

It started with a freezing (and very short) game of football at the field across the street:

Gary is such a good Daddy, playing with the boys :-)

I think Christopher had fun!


Many of the boys brought their Nerf guns, so a war was inevitable :-P

We had boys and guns all inside the house...

And outside in the backyard...There were Nerf bullets everywhere!

Christopher said we had to have food, and we couldn't go wrong with hot dogs, chips, and soda.

Gary seemed to enjoy the chocolate fountain that Mom gave us for Christmas ;-)

Christopher enjoyed opening presents! He got gift cards, Legos, footballs, & 2 more Nerf guns :-D

I called these boys the "stragglers"...LOL!

Overall, it was a good day and a fun party. Christopher was happy!

Happy Birthday, Christopher! We love you!!