Fourteen!

The first born is fourteen! It’s weird realizing we only have a handful of years left before he’s off to college. Although, Brian and I have made guesses as to where he’ll end up for college. One of us thinks he’ll go away; the other thinks he’ll go to UW and live at home. Whatever he wants is fine with us. Except no red state colleges.

Blaise is such a great kid (perhaps I’m a bit biased, all of our kids are great!). He checks all the boxes on what it takes to be a wonderful human. He’s kind, empathetic, funny, smart… to name a few of the unlimited qualities. Sometimes it’s hard to believe he’s already 14. Time does go fast as a parent. Not the day-to-day but man, 14 years already?! Crazy.

For Blaise’s birthday this year, we celebrated at home on his actually birthday. For once, he wasn’t sick! Poor guy, he’s usually sick on his birthday. It was a quiet celebration at home. The standard dinner of choice followed by cake and then presents.

The kid is still into LEGO which was his big gift.

For his party this year, he kind of struggled to come up with an idea. Maybe two weeks before the day we set aside for his party, he decided on bowling. He really wanted to have all of his friends at home—which we are totally fine having kids over—but we needed an activity for rowdy teen boys. Bowling sounded perfect.

Because we live in a tech salary bubble, of course the closest bowling alley was more expensive than the bowling alley up in Lynnwood. Even though they’re the same company. We opted for the Lynnwood bowling alley, and it was super smooth. I selected the party package online; I picked the day and time, and all the extras like food and arcade cards. Super easy. Although, by now we have the birthday party thing down. Everything was set for the Saturday night after his birthday.

The party was a success! They bowled. They ate. They arcaded. Blaise had a great time and Brian said all the boys did also. I stayed behind because the sisters weren’t going and Brian was picking up a few of the boys on the way, and we can only fit so many bodies in our car. Blaise has a great group of friends and Brian was complimentary of all the boys. Of course they were rowdy and Brian was amused because, teenagers. Haha, it’s a fun age and phase of life to observe.