Evan's 12th Birthday

Evan is our little social butterfly in the family and has always loved having lots of friends to celebrate his birthday.  In the last few years of moving twice, it became more difficult to put on big parties with family so far away and leaving so many friends behind.  I am glad we were able to give Evan a little party for his 12th birthday.  He was able to enjoy his birthday with some of his very special friends here.  Sadly, one of his best pals would soon be moving away because of the army so I am glad Evan had this special experience with him. Evan doesn't care as much about presents, but we had gifted him a laser tag set so that he and his friends could play a fun game of laser tag (a.k.a. running around in the yard pretending to shoot one another).

We had a little family celebration first.  Evan picked out a black forest cake at the local grocery store bakery.  It was pretty good.  

Yep, 12 candles on the cake! Mattox wanted to help him. 

Brody helped too. 

I can't believe my first baby is 12 years old and about as tall as me now.  

Can you tell how much his little brothers love him?

All of the boys enjoyed the cake. 

I just made some simple football cupcakes for his little party.  There were some gift bags for his guests.  The laser tag guns were ready. 

First, the boys enjoyed some pizza. Evan invited Canon and Coby, his church friends; Lee and Davis, his neighbor friends; Jamin, his best school and church buddy; and another school and sports buddy, Gabe, who hadn't arrived yet. 

Gabe did arrive in time for cake. 

Lee and Evan are more like brothers (and twins just one week apart) than just friends.  They have been inseparable since we moved in across the road.  They have so much in common, including their light red hair. 

Gabe, Evan, and Davis teamed up for laser tag while Lee and Canon teamed up.  I don't have a picture of the other team, Coby and Jamin.  They are not as cooperative.  We split up all the siblings on separate teams to make it interesting.  Haha! 

A nighttime game of laser tag sounds like an adventure. 

 12 YEARS OF EVAN

Our sweet baby boy has grown up into an amazing, kind, sweet, caring, smart, strong, and ambitious little man.