Who's the NEW Teen in the House?

 Why that would be our bacon eating, Dr. Pepper drinking, X-box loving, Snapchat streakin', hover board riding, night owl Isaac Matthew who turned the BIG 1-3 yesterday!  I had originally started this post on his birthday, but time slipped away from me.  That's what happens when you have THREE kids playing basketball. The season is confusing and keeping it track of it all requires multiple bottles of wine - hah!

I have to brag on my boy Isaac though. He is the type of kid who simply..has that way.  Y'all know what "way" I'm talking about - people are drawn to him.  He's easy to be around.  He's always happy.  Kids adore him, especially Mae Kathryn who says I-yak in the cutest way possible.  You'll rarely see him have a bad day.  He's just that way, ya know.  I'm proud of his way and grateful he's mine.  There's zero doubt in my mind that he'll do something special with his life, he's cut from that quilt.  That quilt that says, "you don't have to conform, you can be exactly who God designed you to be and own those traits to the fullest."

We celebrated his birthday on Wednesday night because all the planets aligned and we didn't have anything going on with basketball.  Well, actually, Karson had a short practice, but it still allowed for us to do something special for him. AZZIP is a birthday must - his absolute favorite place to eat.  We invited all the family, shared some pizza, and got a cookie cake.

Thank you AZZIP Pizza for letting us invade your space for the evening!

 Isaac Matthew is very loved!

 

 I wanted to do something extra special since turning 13 is no-joke - you're officially a TEENAGER.  I decided to get him 13 balloons with 13 gifts attached.  Me + Balloons = Error (I should've known).  When Matt turned 40, I booked him a Balloon-a-Gram.  A gorilla dressed up as a South Warren Spartan was to deliver him a balloon bouquet to school.  The delivery went as planned, but the numeric balloon was a "50" and not a "40" balloon.  Isaac was supposed to have 13 balloons.  When I went into Party City, I selected 13 balloons, paid for 13 balloons (extra helium and a balloon storage bag).  When I took them all out that night, only 12 made it home.  Fortunately, I had some balloons in the garage and blew one up to add to the card.  My balloon game is NOT STRONG and neither were my fault so I guess I shouldn't blame myself.  I simply don't have luck with balloons.  Isaac was totally surprised yesterday morning when we came into the den.  He had lots of nifty gifties - Fun Dip, Sweatband, Bob Ross socks, water balloons, Nike shorts, new water bottle, glass Coke bottles, Juicy Drop gum, M & M's, a yo-yo, lens attachments for his iPhone camera and some wireless Beats.

He had his favorite breakfast - BACON.

 

It would've been icing on the cake had his basketball team won last night on his birthday, BUT you can't have it all.  It was hard defeat for the Bulls losing by only two points.  All was right in the world though when he got home and logged onto Xbox LIVE.  He had a great 13th birthday - looking forward to many, many more.

 Birthdays through the years.....