Party Time

Oh my goodness!  Last night was so much fun!  I just had to share.....

We had 18 teenagers here.  They were SUCH good sports.


If you've never done a murder mystery dinner, I highly recommend it.  I'm convinced that the more you put into something, the more you get out of it, and since everyone who comes has to do something to prepare--get a costume--they have a great time.

If you're curious, we purchased the party here.

This party was even more fun that the one we did for my birthday years ago because it had activities mixed in.  They were all optional, but we did a few of them--create a disguise with a roll of toilet paper, Halloween movie quiz, and (my favorite) the rap contest.

This, being a teen party, didn't have a murder attached to it but a theft.  At the end, the kids had to share who they thought did it, and nearly everyone was accused.


Here's a sample rap for you:

Big Night

#2 turned 16 back on the 4th.  Before we had children, we, the Warden and I, decided that our kids'd only have a big wing-ding party every four years.  Well, 16 is one of those.  On off years, the kids can invite one friend to go with the family and do something fun, but 4, 8, 12, and 16 are the biggies.

We're doing a mystery dinner.  It has a Halloween theme.  Should be really fun.

So, today is full of preparations--cleaning, decorating, baking, dressing up, etc., etc.

My kids are an Indiana Jones type character, a country/western Taylor Swift-esque star, an opera singer, and #4 has opted to be one of Robin Hood's merry men.

Hmm.  I should make more excuses to get Harrison Ford on my blog.

Just be grateful that I passed on the pic of the woman with the shields in strategic places--very tempting.

I'll make sure to get some photos to share in the next couple days.

The Week Ahead

When I was a mom of only two small children, I asked a woman who was a teacher what I could do that would best prepare my children for school.  Her response was that I should give them social opportunities as much as was humanly possible.  I was really good at this with my first three kids--playdates, preschool, park & rec classes, etc., but after my mom passed away, I kind of shut down socially.  I've let things slide quite a bit, but as I was driving home from dropping my kids at school this morning, I got to thinking about the week.  Somewhere I must have turned a corner.

We had a friend's three kids this afternoon, so she could go volunteer at the school.  Tomorrow, #7 will be with her good friend "Kaffrin" at our house.  Kaffrin, last week, requested that we make cookies because we'd done it the week before, so I'm thinking every Tuesday with Kaffrin's going to be a cookie day.  Wednesdays, I trade with a good friend, and it's my kids' turn to go to her house to play with her kids.  Thursday, #7 goes to Kaffrin's and Friday afternoon, the friend whose kids I watched today will have mine, so I can go volunteer.  I guess, unknowingly, I'm back in the swing.  I'm loving that my kids have lots of good kids around them.

With all that fun, there are a LOT of projects going on....

I'm working on getting my school stuff all up to speed.  I have essays to write for careers and two more lessons to complete for personal finance.  I have other essays to write, but I don't really want to expose the reason for those yet.  I will eventually....just not yet.  Anyway, I have time in which to finish those, but they are sitting there nagging at me in the back of my mind.

The Primary program was yesterday, so that's a big relief.  To be honest, for that, I'm kind of a support person.  My wonderful counselor really pulled it off.  The kids did great, but I have to admit, it's nice to have that pressure behind us.  Now, to plan for Christmas and the coming year for the Primary kids.

Friday night, we're doing a big birthday celebration for one of our kids with a mystery dinner party, so there'll be decorating to do and food to prepare.

Sunday is the big Japan fireside for the ward.  I need to fine tune the power point I created for it and finish translating Sister Asano's testimony.

I still have a few cookbooks to deliver, so there'll be a trip to the post office.  I think I've come to a point in which I can release the last ten that I'd reserved just in case I'd messed up someone's order.  I've heard from no one, so they are $15 for anyone who wants one--first come, first served.  They're great for Christmas gifts.  If you want one or two, let me know.  When these are gone, they'll ALL be gone.

So, there you have it--the insanity that is my life.  I keep thinking that once school's done I'll have a blank space in my schedule, but we all know that's not going to happen, huh?  I'm sure there'll be something else to fill it up.  I wonder what that something will be....

Knight of Murder

Well, last night was the greatly anticipated murder mystery dinner birthday party. What a BLAST! Everyone showed up in the medieval best and were ready to par-TAY! Z's parents had gone to great lengths to make the food and house perfect for the event. They even went so far as to get into costume themselves. Dad wore Mom's pantyhose for the occasion, but not without some grumbling. Can you blame him? He did win best dressed, so I guess there is some pay off.



I only had two photos of myself taken alone both were pretty lame, so here's a better one with me and Christy. I played Lady Gwendolyn. Z was Lord Taylor my husband. Together we run the "manor." Originally, I wanted to be the chambermaid and Z wanted to be the watchman. Those seemed like comfortable roles for us, but in talking with Mom, we decided that we needed to be the Lord and Lady, so we could run the show. It worked out really well, and it was kind of fun to be fancy.

We bought and downloaded this game from a company we found online called Night of Mystery. This murder mystery was unscripted. We were given envelopes at two different times in the evening that gave instructions about what tasks we were to do. I wish we had done those tasks together in view of everyone else, but we didn't, so we were a little bit in the dark at the beginning, but we all caught on after the murder took place.

Christy and Rob were the first to arrive. They played the Sherriff and Sherilyn (his wife). Other guests included Matt and Tonya. Matt was the Lord and Lady's only son Baron Bartholomew. Tonya was his betrothed Lady Diana of Dunnsberry.

My brother Matthew played Wyatt Worker (a serf) and his wife Janelle played Maid Victoria. They came from the Seattle area for the party--so fun to have them!

Doug, a friend of mine from two decades ago now, played Gallant Gary, squire to Sir Cameron. His wife Thais played poor pearl, a peasant woman. Doug and Thais were at Z's and my wedding, but we hadn't seen them in twelve years until recently. We reconnected when they saw that Z was the principal at the school where two of their daughters attend. Great to be back in touch with them!

Trinka, who is our ward YW president (I'm her counsellor), played Maid Marilyn, my lady-in-waiting. Her husband Steve was Sir Cameron, a valiant knight.

We found out just after the first guests arrived that our "king" for the evening had just broken his leg falling out of the royal boat, and he and the "queen" were in the emergency room. This put us in a little bit of a predicament because those are such big roles. The rules of the game said that we could do without one or the other, but we had to have either a king or queen. Leslie was the good sport who agreed to be our queen. And a lovely queen she was too! Her husband Bruce was William the Watchman, who ran the investigation of the murder. He got my vote for best costume--Ork sword and all.

Our jester for the evening was Dave. He entertained on command--juggling, etc. Dave was the obvious choice for jester. His wife Shaila was Charlamagne (the character I originally wanted to be).

You just gotta love a man in tights. I guess it's kind of like going away for the weekend and when you come back, your husband appreciates you and has so much more empathy for your daily plight with the kids. These men who wore tights (I believe there were three of them) I'm sure have a new empathy for us women and the oppression of pantyhose. M looked wonderful as Sir Rufus, who was the winner of the "tournament" that Lord Taylor and Lady Gwendolyn had thrown in celebration of their son's coming wedding. His wife Maid Medusa (she even got "snakes" to wear) was quite the thief and ended the evening with five bags of gold she had taken from other players including the deceased.

I will not give away any secrets here just in case anyone else wants to host this party in the future. Another real gem of a connection that we found was for costumes. Many of us went to Costume Avenue on 1st and Main in Beaverton. They were very reasonable and had anything your little heart could desire. I got my hat there, and Z got his entire costume there (all but the pants).

I would highly recommend doing this kind of party. It was great of everyone to come and join in. We purchased this party for up to 20 people, but you could get them for groups larger or smaller as you wished.