Happy 13th Birthday Cameron

The youngest member of the Heinisch family became a teenager today.  I asked him last night if it was a big deal turning 13.  He said no because he already felt that old.  That didn't surprise me as he definitely has gone through some major changes this year just as did his siblings before him.  In saying that I have never thought of Cameron as the "baby of the family."  His siblings have never treated him as such.  Their expectations for Cam may be even higher than Doug or mine are for him.  I have noticed that he excepts their challenges and tries his best in everything he does.  Although he reminds me more of Doug than the other three, there is a goofy side to Cam that brings so much fun to our family.  He completes our family in so many ways and today was a lot of fun celebrating his life.

Cam had told us several weeks ago that he did not want a party with friends this year for his birthday.  He thought he'd just have his classmates over in the summer for a bonfire.  Instead he wanted the four of us to spend the day together which we were all happy about.  We started our day in Fort Wayne with lunch at Biaggi's.  It was delicious as always.  From there we walked to the Jefferson Point Mall so that he could use some of his birthday money to buy headphones for the Play Station 4.  He and his friends had spend a good part of the weekend playing Fortnight against each other and this would help him communicate with them.   We checked into DeBrand's on the way out for dessert.

After a quick stop at Target we headed to Ultra Zone for some family laser tag.  It was a lot of fun.  There were other families there with the same idea and for the first time ever I was able to actually contribute to our team.  Meg and I got a kick out one family that had little children.  They were easy targets and extremely animated when we "shot" them.  We had time to play three games before leaving for home.  Doug wanted to catch the Patriots game and Cam had some friends waiting to play Fortnight with him.

Cam picked out dinner for all of us - meatballs and queso dip.  My parents came up after dinner so that he could open gifts, play games and cut his cake.  Cam was surprised by his gifts as he hadn't asked for much.  Thus, a Kylo-Ren Lego, the Captain Underpants movie and the Seafarers Expansion for Catan were more than he expected.  He was even more surprised when my parents brought out an extremely long gift.  He wasn't sure at first what it was, but as he opened it he realized that he was a proud owner of a new driver with a bright pink grip.  A great big smile crossed his face.  The rest of the evening was spent playing cards and eating cake.  It was a wonderful celebration of the life of the youngest Heinisch.  It has been an awesome thirteen years.