13!

 We have a teenager!

The gaga ball/bucket hat party was a bit of a bust, but I didn't even care because I knew his big present would make everything else peanuts. We didn't play gaga ball or any of our lawn games due to downpour. We still had "Search for Silas" going on inside where guests had to find 13 of his hidden baby pictures to enter the drawing to win a bucket hat and twin with the birthday boy. Other than that, I really had no back up plan so in a pinch we decided to have a Spoons ("Balloons" to be on theme) tournament. The various table heats are below. The finals ended up being Logan, Conor, Meemaw and Daron. Daron won as he does. Levi had his named pulled to from the hat and was the perfect pick because he seemed thrilled about the accessory, where I am not sure it was coveted by many others. 

Having completed his initiating 13 Ticket to Teen challenges, on his actual birthday he opened all the letters the family sent to encourage him. I included several shots of what the face of a teenager having his dream realized looks like. These were captures I pulled from the video of him receiving his first cell phone. I did not include the video because it is mostly us preemptively lecturing and yet still the face of bliss. He is now walking around quite a bit taller and we haven't regretted it so far.

The final shots are from a redo party where I made a few people come back to use the pit so I could say I did not spend that money for nothing.