A Delayed Celebration

Tuesday night we finally finished Clark's 15th birthday celebration.   Because Clark's birthday is so close to the 4th of July we always seem to have difficulty scheduling his celebrations.  I think he's had pretty good birthdays over the years, and he would mostly agree--except for his 12th birthday when he insists that all he got was a new suit.  I'm sure there was some other festivity or gift, but he feels quite strongly that it was a complete fail of a birthday celebration. 
Ungrateful?  Perhaps, but since I had a Christmas wherein I was gravely disappointment with a pink bathrobe and forever referred to it as "The Crap Christmas", I can't judge too harshly.  Anyway, because of the 12th birthday fiasco, I have some residual mom guilt.
Lucky for him, it means he gets really great birthday activities for the rest of his teenage years in an attempt to make amends.  He wanted a to invite a lot of friends over to our local park for dinner and night games.

Lots of friends-- check.  He invited friends from the ward, the neighborhood, speech and debate class, Shakespeare class, and his robotics team.

An initial singing of "Happy Birthday".  A much worse rendition was to come at the end of the evening when everyone was loosened up.

 Abe was on the grill to feed the masses.

A simple, fun game called squirt.  Good to let the food settle.

A game called gator-ball.  

Otterpop break.  Thirty five people went through about 350 Otterpops.

Some sort of timing-singing game.  

Here was the final "Happy Birthday" singing.  It was really, really bad.  Clark made a funny little speech at the end that somehow seemed quite appropriate to the geeky crowd gathered. 

It was a great night and I think I am free to forever put away any guilt about that 12th birthday.    Clark, you'd better not bring it up next year!