The Harrowing/Heartwarming Parent Moment of the Week

 

Sweet Boy #1 had his 13th Birthday last week. It started with the first dusting of snow the day before, which Princess Leia Freyja enjoyed as well as the boys who came up for a paintball and pie celebration.

Grandma Judy came to visit bearing gifts. A homemade bathrobe in Sweet Boy#1’s favorite colors.

Then it was time for paintball! Even with snow flurries adding a nip to the air, the boys managed to shoot each other and The Hunky Hubby with alacrity and determination.

It is difficult to procure good pictures of paintball in action as one must wear a mask to protect one’s face and stumble about the field chasing one’s subjects all while attempting to focus the camera and not be shot or trip over a random log. Here are my best attempts at capturing young teenagers in the wild.

 

 

 

Of course the brothers of young teenagers don’t want to be left out. In fact, Sweet Boy#3 took the hardest hit of the day, right in the back of the head, by the birthday boy himself. He swears he was aiming for the back of his coat. We will give him the benefit of the doubt as his brother rallied and went on the play every round. Sweet Boy#2 arranged to be on his older brother’s team and was hit in the shoulder “really hard” by one of Sweet Boy #1’s friends when he shot “right though a crack in a bunker.” Sweet Boy#1 relished the chance to attack his friends and especially his siblings in a legal and enjoyable manner.

The Hunky Hubby successfully wrangled all of these enthusiastic young men and everyone walked away a bit painty but happy. Although, The Hunky Hubby was certainly shot more than his fair share of the time as he was called upon to become a “zombie” who ambled toward the entire group of heavily armed boys, being shot at by anyone and everyone with wild abandon. A Happy Birthday to our oldest, the thirteen-year-old. Wasn’t he just a baby yesterday???