The Cannonball's 14th (Observed)

What's Up, America.

So this year we didn't really do much of anything for Alayna's birthday because, as you may know, we will be down in Florida when she actually turns 14. Furthermore, she had asked for ear piercings for one of her birthday gifts this year and because the healing process for something like that takes like six weeks - and we wanted to have her ears completely healed before she started swimming salt and chlorine water down in Florida - she got this birthday gift of hers back in April. 

Nevertheless, the soon-to-be 14-year-old insisted on having friends over for a sleepover with cake and all that nonsense, so we said 'whatever' and let her have some friends over for a very simple, very scaled-down 'birthday party.'  So scaled-down, in fact, that we ourselves ended up having some friends of our own over for a bonfire while the kids jumped on the trampoline, played cornhole, and otherwise occupied themselves celebrating Alayna's not-at-all 14th birthday.

And this is how all that crap went down.  Enjoy. . .

Alayna and some of her squad:  Tobi, Cristina, Ava, the Cannonball, and Lexi.

Getting some use out of the new boards in the backyard.

We're running low on wood this summer - it's hard to come by right now for whatever reason - but we have enough for maybe two more fires after this one.

The Johnsons and Colliers showed up for a chill fire night (along with Mitch, sans Kelli), and we used by JBL speaker for music.  At one point in the evening, however, Abby called me from the Johnson's place where she was hanging out with Ella.  Unable to disconnect it from Bluetooth in time, I had to improvise. . .

As you can tell, everyone found this utterly hilarious.

Typical Cannonball.

After a couple hours, we brought the kids inside so they could do presents and cake (our family's go-to Cheesecake one from Costco, the same that Abby got and that Cindy got for the girls up at Eight Point for their combo birthday thing over Memorial Day Weekend.)  Stick with what works, folks.

She's thrilled to have parents like us.

Shortly after this, the kids went back outside to jump some more on the trampoline, and Cristina (at far left) landed on her ankle wrong and it swelled up like crazy.  After awhile of icing it and the pain not going away, Kris contacted her parents and they picked her up.  Later on that evening, they would ultimately take her up to an urgent care where they found that it was broken, and that she would have to wear a boot for the rest of the summer.  So no swimming, all summer long.  We felt pretty bad about it, and eventually the girls all put together a care package for her, but her parents were cool about it, since it had been a freak accident and everything.

Ryan, Mitch, Erik, Mees, Kris, and Courtney.

These kids are into some really weird shit.

At the end of the night, Courtney - a HUGE Disneyphile - walks Kris through how the parks' new Genie+ system works.  When in doubt about upcoming Disney trips, consult the expert.

- Brian