Last Saturday, Davey turned 13! We normally have small family birthday parties, but he had requested to have some families over for dinner and some guys to spend the night, and we gave it the green light. You only turn 13 once, right?

I forgot about the camera until it was time for cake, but we had a mini Mexican buffet at Davey’s request: Beef enchiladas with green ench. sauce, beef and chicken ench. with red sauce, and chicken ench. with chipotle cream sauce (oh mercy, that was the crowning glory of the evening, at least, as far as my tastebuds were concerned), black bean salsa (mmmmmm good), chips, and applesauce. I was reminded, mid-afternoon on Friday, in the midst of making over 40 enchiladas, of just how much I love to cook – I had a blast!

Here’s Davey careening around the corner, headed somewhere fun, I’m sure. Grace is curled up on Mike’s lap in the background, next to Ellie & Maggie:

The birthday boy had requested a chocolate cake, and I made a pineapple upside down cake as well to be sure we’d have enough. I think everyone had sufficient dessert!

Some other fun pictures of friends and family. I didn’t do as thorough a job as I like of making sure I had pics of everyone, but I guess we were too busy having fun to worry about it!

And this one of Davey with his buddy Nate was too good to not show by itself:

We’re not much for sleepovers, and most of the families we’re close to here aren’t either, so the fact that Davey got to have a sleepover was a big deal. Sleepover is definitely a misnomer, though, because I don’t think any of the boys got more than a couple hours of sleep. They camped out “in” a tent out back, and they also got to move out our little firepit. They enjoyed roasting some marshmallows, and they sat around the fire talking all night long!

I played short-order egg cook Saturday morning, and Barak and I made some biscuits. I thought it was a good sign that the guys all were having a great time when they jumped up and ran back outside for more fun as soon as they finished breakfast.

It was noon-ish before we loaded everyone up and took off to take the fellas home. We enjoyed sweet fellowship with their families when we dropped them off. As you can see, we were all pretty tired when we headed home:

I think Davey thoroughly enjoyed his birthday celebration, and we felt blessed to get to celebrate with precious friends. Happy Birthday, Davey! You are truly a blessing to our family!