13 Gun Salute to William

Officially a teenager today, William celebrated his birthday with a bang. A lot of bangs actually. With clicks and booms and whooshes of Nerf guns, laser tag guns, and disc throwers. Yup, officially a13 year old boy. Hanging out with a passle of other 12-soon-to-be-13 year old boys for 5 hours made me understand how normal any goofiness my William may be manifesting at this age may be. (As perfectly illustrated in the photo to the left.)

Family presents always begin any birthday celebration. Romney gave William a video game he had been wanting using a good chunk of his own money. Bill and I hemmed and hawed about whether or not to get William the gift we had been considering since July. I found it perusing Etsy in Portland one night. I thought it was perfect. Bill not so sure. I book marked it and we revisited it several times before I convinced Bill of it's absolute perfection. When William opened it up, beheld it's magnificence with dropped jaw, broad smile and shocked "IT'S AWESOME" , Bill whispered these magical words to me-- "You were right!" A Nerf gun transformed with paint and accessories into a steam punk-style weapon of the future, how could I possibly have been wrong?


With such a masterpiece in hand, what better way to show it off than to invited 5 of your friends, your brother and his friend and your parents (because you need a way to get there and pay for it) to the Ultimate Sports Complex in Lindon for a rousing, epic Nerf gun battle. With a warehouse worth of square footage complete with giant obstacles and balcony at his disposal, William honed his "hurling foam darts through the air at friends" skill. An important 13 year old boy proficiency. He also practiced to perfection his "laughing uncontrollably while running" savior faire as well as tested his moxey at "finding hidden Nerf darts in a building the size of a city block". Once those had been mastered, the frivolity continued, this time with laser guns.


After laying down all manner of weaponry, the boys felt as though something was missing and so took up more arms in the form of. . . bouncing playground balls. Dodgeball the evilest of all nefarious playground games. They loved it. Well most of them. One of them would just kind of fend of balls until he was the last one standing and them wait it out without throwing a single shot.

All those "war" games can really work up an appetite- as does breathing, sleeping, reading, going to school, watching a movie, playing on any kind of electronic equipment- for a 13 year old male. Food of choice in our home: cheese pizza. I love that some of them couldn't or wouldn't put it down even long enough to snap a photo. I love that there is chewing, swallowing and even showing off of said pizza happening in this shot.


Once the troops had been fed, it was time to battle the presents. First up, a giant present from his two best buddies. Layer after layer was peeled away, only to be met with peals of laughter as another layer appeared. The more layers that materialized, the louder the giggles and squeals of delight from the onlookers. After being promised that within the box, lay the gift of a puppy (no one believed the givers on that one), a puppy it was. At least a 2-D puppy. A puppy shaped piece of paper that held the information about the "true" gift (a Pokemon video game, in case you were curious.) The whole experience was a big hit.

Finishing up the party, and about to send the kids home to their respective families, we brought out the sugar and heard a rousing rendition of the Happy Birthday song, sung in various keys with various gusto by voices in flux. William asked if he could forgo the usual homemade cupcakes or cake for a Baskin-Robbins masterpiece ice-cream cake. Which he summarily ate 1/2 of a piece of before being "too full of sugar" to consume any more. (Yippee for us!) Finishing up his night with his Dad, his brother, and two of his best friends watching Portland duke it out with Salt Lake in an MLS soccer game pretty much capped off the perfect day of "battles".


What changes happen between the age of 12 and 13? Well. . . so ok, the mustache is fake (a gift from his Aunt), but the change that William was most excited to happen. . . the ability to watch *some* PG-13 movies. Yes, that Pandora's Box has opened for our family. We kept it closed as long as possible, but opened it has. First on his viewing list X-Men 2 and X-Men 3, which he watched for the better part of the evening on his actual birthday. Such a funny mix of "little" and "grown-up" 13 is!