Abby's Birthday, Pt. II

What's up, Internet.

Well, now that it's Saturday - and Yours Truly is finally back from his trip down in to frickin' Ohio - we can finally observe Abby's 14th Birthday. 

As in previous years, Abby was beyond indecisive with what to do for her big event. This is almost an expected hurdle we have to overcome when figuring how her birthday every year, so Kris and I weren't surprised at all. See, she usually comes up with an idea for her birthday months in advance, then a month or so before her birthday she says 'nevermind,' then begins to go down this weird anxiety spiral for weeks. How many friends does she want over? Will her friends from different friend groups get along with one another? Will they not have a good time at her party and stop being friends with her as an immediate result? (because that's a thing that would totally happen.) Would it be safer to just skip inviting friends all together and just keep things low key with her family (like SHE DID LAST YEAR?!)

Anyway, salvation came this year in the form of the Cannonball, who asked to plan Abby's birthday for her (she's a nerd for organizing things - she comes by it naturally.) Abby agreed, and so Alayna took care of planning everything for Abby's big day this year, which took a lot of the stress away from Kris and I, we just had to finance things. 

She invited five friends this year: Ella (obviously), Addi, Emily, Kiersten, and Nica (from the Pom team.) We said she could invite more if she wanted but the was adamant that adding more would cause drama between multiple friend groups. 

Whatever you say, kid. 

Kris would shuttle this group of girls over to the newly-reopened Midland Community Center (it's been closed for months) and let them hang out for the afternoon: swimming in the pool, relaxing in the sauna, hitting up the other new amenities and crap, etc. 

While Kris and the teens were away, Alayna and I would decorate the house - especially the basement - and get it all set-up for when they got back. Set up the karaoke machine, buy a bunch of the usual party food (pizzas, ice cream, pop, snacks, whatever), decorate everything, etc. Then, after cake and presents, the kids could just hang out downstairs out of everyone's hair and stay up until all hours of the night.

It's a win-win for everyone.

So, in the end, the day was great - Abby and her friends had a good time, Kris and I were about as opposite from stressed as one could get, and there weren't any major disasters whatsoever.

We need to seriously consider Alayna as our party-planner from this point forward. Make all of our lives way easier, for sure.

Check it out. . .

Once all of her friends had staggered in throughout the early afternoon, Abby had Kris (making whatever the hell this face is -  WTF) shuttle them over to the Community Center.

Clearly they had gotten into markers while in the basement.

Addi, Kiersten, Emily, Nica, Ella, and Abby.

The newly-renovated swimming area at the Community Center.

Kris grabbed some lunch platters and staked out a table in the area adjacent to the pool so the girls could graze whenever they needed to.

This pool has its own lazy river, which is pretty damn awesome.

Not sure if they have a cache of these noodles lying around there or else the girls hijacked these from some other kids - we definitely didn't bring 'em.

The peace sign is back in style now, guys. Just so you're aware.

Trying out the new sauna room. I've never gotten the appeal of these things, who enjoys sweating for Christ's sake?

They installed a water slide in this joint, too. Nothing you'd find at, say, Aquatica, but not bad for Midland, Michigan.

Ella

Abby

Screwing around in the kid play zone area. Whatever the hell you call it.

While they were away at the Community Center, Alayna and I set up the basement where they'd be hanging out for most of the night.

(I hate balloons. I blew up dozens of these stupid things.)

Kris suggested I set up the karaoke machine for the girls, something else for them to do once they got back to the house. You can imagine how well this sounded.

Meanwhile, back at the Community Center, Kris walked a couple laps around the indoor track, taking pics of different areas of the complex that were visible from her walk.

Apparently, they redid the outside, too - the old courts didn't look like that.

After a few hours of swimming and sauna'ing, the girls played volleyball for a bit.

More peace sign selfies with Ella and Nica.

All ready for cake and gifts. . .

(Abby's a fan of daisies, guys. Hence all the white and yellow.)

Upon returning home, Kris herded all the teenagers into the dining room so we could to the whole cake-and-song thing.)

Ella asked to light the candles, which we honestly should have seen coming - that kid loves playing with fire.

Making wishes.

(We didn't take any pics or video of Abby opening up her gifts from her friends, Kris only took this one of Abby reading a note from one of the girls.)

After they gorged on cake and ice cream for awhile, they retreated downstairs into the basement and spent the rest of the evening snacking, watching movies and Youtube on the projector, singing karaoke, and God knows what else (we tried to avoid going down there.)

So there you go, folks - Abby's 14th Birthday. Let's hope 15 goes just as smoothly.

- Brian

The Teenager

How's it goin', folks.

So we've finally entered the Teenage Years as a family:  the Cannonball turns 13 this week (on this Wednesday, coming up), which is scary to think about.  Time definitely speeds up as your kids get older.  As we did with her sister before her, we realized Alayna didn't want anything this year for her birthday (because she didn't need anything for her birthday, the kid's spoiled), so we went with the 'experience' route once again.  Instead of repeating the hotel room ploy we did with Abby, Kris decided to rent out a gigantic, 20-ft tall waterslide bounce house instead.

No, seriously.

(L to R: Ellie, Amelia, Ella, Cannonball, Alivia, and Halle.)

We got our hands on a voucher awhile back, and while the rental was still pricey, it wasn't too much above what we'd drop on birthday presents and the cost of a venue-centered party once the discount was factored in.  

Originally, we had thought of this idea for Abby, but realized that Abby, being an introvert (like her mom), is more comfortable with one or two close friends, while Alayna (more like her old man) feels better when surrounded in a large group of friends.  If we were gonna be dropping the money on a huge-ass waterslide in our backyard, we wanted it getting used.

All-out chaos.

Cannonball Run.

So the morning of the party, around 10am, Yours Truly ran out to Meijer to pick up ice, the birthday cake, and last-minute party necessities - as well as to knock out a few errands - while Kris began receiving now-8th Grade girls.  By the time I returned around 11:30am, there were about a dozen screaming girls in the backyard, running around.  This continued, unabated, until we did cake and presents, around, like 1:30pm, then picked back up and went until 5pm-ish, when a huge thunderstorm descended on the area and forced everyone indoors for about an hour and half.  Even then, despite the much cooler, post-rain temperatures, girls were getting back onto the bounce house.

It wasn't until 10pm that the last of the party-goers finally got picked up by their parents, and by then everyone was exhausted.  But the Cannonball was happy, now a teenager and having spent a long-ass day with a shit-load of her friends.

If anyone needs me, I'm going to be in the other room.  With some whiskey. . .

Alayna loves it when her mom takes pictures of her.

Just like Nana used to make. . .

Squad, assembled.  L to R: Kendall, Alivia, Ellie, Amelia, Lexie, Cristina, Halle, the Cannonball, Gabby and the infamous Maddie.

This is why I hid indoors for the majority of the day.

Playing volleyball (they hit the side of the house more than I'd like.)

Mom stopped by to drop off a couple presents, and Alayna walked her around to show her the bounce house. . .

I can't believe the Cannonball talked her into this.

After a couple hours or watersliding, sunbathing, and running about screaming, it was time for the Cannonball to open up her gifts. . .

Some handmade anime paintings.  This whole crew of Alayna's is really into this Japanese anime crap - something, as a middle school teenager, I've seen every year since 2007.  I forget which of her friends painted these, but the girl clearly has some talent (these paintings are now hanging up in Alayna's bedroom.)

Cards are hilarious.

Homosexual night lights.  Whatever.

Sunbathing dogs.

This kid and her tissue paper necklaces. . . 

Abby, in a rare non-rage mood.

Alayna and Gabby

More sunbathing dogs

More anime shit. . .

Kris recorded, like, an 8-minute video during this whole process.  Hence me not posting it (thanks, Blogger.)  Just know that there exists a video of Alayna opening up all this crap.

Alayna got a couple sweatshirts from Mom to open today (I think she's dropping off her other gifts on her actual birthday), all of them anime-themed (of course.)  This black and orange one is from some show about volleyball, and multiple girls at today's shin-dig all had different players' sweatshirt (as you can spot in the pics if you look closely.)

#9.  Not sure who that is.  Someone with a Japanese name.

See?  Abby and one of the girls in the background (think her name is Amelia) are both sporting the volleyball team hoodies.

#5.

Wife close-up

Kris went with the orange-and-black color scheme of this graduation cake due to the aforementioned volleyball anime thing (see: sweatshirts.)  When she ordered it, she requested they take off the '2021,' since it wasn't a graduation cake.  Meijer neglected to do so, and so this cake states the year in which Alayna celebrated a birthday.  You know, for reference.

Assembling for cake.

13 Candles

Calling dibs on different parts of the cake.  I got a lot of shit for how I cut this cake, Kris said I made the pieces way too big.  As if a kid can have too much cake at a party, sheesh. . .

Letting the sugar digest and enjoying more waterslide.  The girls enjoyed straddling the side of the slide and kicking kids as they came down.  Teenagers are weird.

Frickin' Johnson kid.  Ella was on hand to keep Abby entertained during the day's festivities.  Fortunately there was minimal drama today.

Storm's a-brewin'.  We quickly brought everything that wasn't rain-proof indoors around 5pm, just as it began to downpour.  For two hours (-ish), we were forced to hunker down inside while it thundered and poured outside:  Kris worked on dinner and visited with her mom (who showed up, albeit late), Yours Truly whittled down and edited pictures, and the girls occupied themselves in the basement playing videogames and listening to their collaborative playlist (Alayna took a page from her old man and had each of her friends submit 10 songs for an ultimate birthday playlist - I've never been so proud.)  When the rain let up, despite the chillier weather, most of the girls ran right back out to the waterslide again.  At least we got our money's worth. . .

- Brian