12th Birthday Party

Luke wanted to invite to his birthday party all of the 6th grade boys in his school - that is 21 boys.  To my great surprise 18 of the 21 had permission slips to ride home with our family.  This would not have been a problem because Casey had lots of fun games planned outside in our neighborhood park.  The problem began at 2:50 - rain and lots of it!  At 3:30 we had a game time decision to make, and we chose to go to Laser Tag in the mall and then to our house to eat hot dogs, chips and salsa, watermelon, and cupcakes. 

Hooray for Laser Tag!  Here is team 1.

and Team 2.

As if the rain had not complicated things enough, we have Pico y Placa on Fridays.  We cannot drive our car in Quito during certain hours on Fridays, so we could not drive home from the mall and had to keep our car there.  The party would not have been a success without the help of our wonderful friends, Rich and Elisa Brown.  They took half of these kids from school to the mall and we took the other half.  While the kids were playing Laser Tag, the Brown's went and got our ministry van to pick up all of the kids from the mall.  What amazing friends we have!

The announcer calling out the scores and handing out the score cards after their game.

and discussing who shot who and how many times...

I wish I had taken a picture of the white Inca Link van rocking with a bunch of 6th grade boys.  This party was C.R.A.Z.Y. but overall a great success.  Luke and his friends had a blast together!

Also, did you notice all of the red and blue shirts?  Luke's birthday party was also the same day as the Quito Celebrations at school and everyone had to wear either a red or blue shirt.

What a fun group of boys!  Luke's 12th birthday party was not what it was supposed to be...but hanging out and laughing with all of your friends is really what matters.  The rain could not stop this party.  And I would like to write one more time - thank you to Rich and Elisa for stopping what you were doing to help us with Plan B; it even involved them walking in the rain to pick up the van.  Again, so thankful for great friends who are like family to us.  Here is a lovely picture of their family.

Once the last boy was picked up from our house, our gate buzzed and it was my friend Mari.  As we went to the front door we could hear beautiful singing.  It was a group of our friends who dropped by to spread a little Christmas cheer to our family.  A sweet and wonderful ending to a crazy and busy day.  Happy Birthday Luke!!