Men and Lasers

Owen has wanted to laser tag birthday party for years. And we've tried: We actually booked Owen's 10th birthday party at Ultrazone, only to have them contact us the night before to say they forgot to pay their rent so, "oops."

We made due with climbing and ultimate warrior and baseball. But despite the intervening years, Owen still really wanted lasers, so we booked Ultrazone's competitor, Shadowland, invited ten 13 year old boys and Grandpa Don (plus Nora and Mirabel) for a rumble in the suburbs.

The first game started out slow -- a couple of people (Grandpa Don) weren't paying attention during the pre-game briefing and picked the wrong equipment and may also have been hampered by being color blind -- but Owen made a respectable 5th, Grandpa Don managed to defeat Adinath to get 11th and Allen just lost first place to Max.

For the second round, Owen really wanted to just team up with his father, but Allen was not again to be defeated by a bunch of teens. So while Owen struggled to find Allen and join a welcoming team (sometimes the equipment is a little slower than the intent, which is why as Owen was in the process of joining the green team, they all shot him), Allen turned things up a notch, using all his cunning to dominate a bunch of kids at a birthday party, resulting in him getting first place (take that Adam and Max!).

In the end, it was a good party. The venue was solvent, Allen demonstrated his mastery and Owen finally got to play laser tag with all his friends.

(click here for all the pictures)