Jessica's Murder Mystery Birthday Party!!!

A few weeks before her party, we got an invite from Jessica to her Murder Mystery Birthday Party!! About a week before the party I was able to solidify our plans for the week and RSVP that we would be there!  

Then, Jessica invited us (Billy and me) to participate as characters in the event!!!  I was even more excited!  We'd never been to a party as suspects that wasn't at our house!  It was set in 1850s New Orleans and was a masquerade theme!!! 

In the days leading up to the party, her "Mardi Gras" RTIC cup came in.  It was so beautiful*!  I put her character name on it, so that she could remember her party, where someone(s) died for a long, long time! ; )

Just a few days before the party, we found a stash of beads at a church sale! = )

The party was AMAZING!  They had a photo op wall, homemade crepe bar (savory and sweet!), masks for those who didn't have one, and craft ones for the kids!

And, in an unexpected turn of events, we got to sit with the birthday girl and the rest of the Stepp family!

I was a hypochondriac who loved the social scene, but not my husband = ( and Billy was a judge who sleezy politician.  We were double excited to wear our masks that we procured for our upcoming murder mystery dinner in October!

In between narrations, we were to move about "in character" and answer questions to the best of our ability (given the two or three paragraphs about our character we were provided in the email.) = )

Spoiler: Billy died.  He wasn't the murderer. lol. (And Emily was not thrilled that her daddy was dead)

Spoiler 2: Jessica was a double murderer!!! What an excellent birthday gift! lol

Somehow Emily and Grace ended up with the "dead" sign and wanted a chance to imitate the message.

Juliet spent her time collecting all of the strands of foil that fell from the entrance cover of the door, and ultimately making up a shiny skirt. = )

It was a wonderfully fun time, and I'm so happy that we were invited to celebrate in Jessica's special day! 

later days

 *I'd seen it on the website so many times, but it doesn't look that good in the picture, and Mardi Gras season is such a short time, that I never even considered it.  But, since the party was set in New Orleans at the end of Mardi Gras, it seemed just perfect!  And it was even better than I imagined!

edit: written 6-15-23 backdated for continuity.

Emily's 12th Birthday

We started Emily's birthday celebrations Wednesday night, by baking a round of cupcakes for her to bring to school on Thursday.  She ended up sharing them with her teachers, since she didn't have enough for all of her classmates, and she didn't have anywhere to store them until lunch to share with just her friends.  

That night we took one final picture of Emily as an 11-year-old. = )

Friday morning, we woke up and celebrated our newly minted 12-year-old with cake and gifts!  The three little ones had school that day, though the big girls were off, so I got to spend the day with the birthday girl!

Friday night we were hit with a snowstorm, and Saturday morning we woke to a heavy, wet snow, that needed to be shovelled.  Luckily, we'd made the (third) birthday cake for the party the night before, and cut the vegetables, so we shovelled while Billy went to get the chick-fil-a! = )

Grace helped hang the packing balloon butterflies, that Aunt Rocky made, on the porch. = )

Emily got to invite friends, new and vintage, and I think they had a fun time playing games, visiting and snacking. = )

I must admit, I am liking this 'middle school' style party: I put out food, and they entertain themselves! 

I think our Emily had a lovely day visiting with her friends and playing with her siblings.

Happiest of Birthdays to my favorite 12-year-old!!

later days

you can see her party crafts post here.

and her 12-year-old survey here.

3-24-23: backdated for continuity.

Emily's 12th Birthday Preperation

Emily's birthday is quickly approaching, but starting just after Billy's birthday, we began crafting some fun things for her party!  I ordered some 'special' m&m's whose colors have become the color scheme for her party.

She started by painting some box board from the recycling.

The next morning, we were able to trace a large butterfly and a small butterfly onto one half of the board, and just a large butterfly on the other half.

With an exacto, I painstakingly cut out the smaller butterfly on each board.  Emily made sure that the same number of m&m's were present in each favor.

She placed her selections in a plastic sandwich baggie.

We placed the top over the baggie and the back, then I took them up to my sewing machine and sewed them closed.

I, personally, think they came out super cute!  There were plenty of leftover m&m's so people can eat mini Emilys at the party, then have some to take home too. = )

We tried making butterflies from dough with limited success.

But her origami butterfly invitations were quite pretty when finished!

She did have to wait over a month before it was close enough to pass them out, but now she's been able to pass them to all of her friends, and we are concentrating on the food already!!

I'll post a few more posts in the coming days, to be sure, to show our birthday girl before, during and after her celebration!

later days

Life and Leisure

Summer temperatures in Michigan come with an overwhelming number of things to do.  There are festivals before, during, and after festivals!  With that, you have to choose what to do each weekend, and last weekend we decided to head up to the town (village? hamlet?) of Laingsburg for their spring fest.  We were pleasantly surprised by the size of the event.

We parked close enough that we were able to run to the car for supplies as needed, so we spent several hours riding rides and eating carnival food.

The bumper cars were a big hit for Alice, Emily, and William, sadly the twins were too short to go.  Billy and I bought some tickets so that they could go once, but they sure felt the pain of being the little ones.

We stayed for several hours, but left before it got dark.  The kids were pretty tuckered out when we got home.

I had expiring sour cream, and half a lemon, so I made a lemon pound cake!  It was really good, but really didn't need the icing.

Juliet drew a picture of our family.  Can you tell that Alice is just a few months shy of being a teenager?

And Emily finally (she's been asking for years) got her ears pierced!!

We wanted to help Coyt celebrate turning 16, so we made him a cake for us to eat on his birthday. Grace and Juliet decorated it with our new "Fun Gun" cake decorating kit!

Emily took her ballet photos, and while I had made plans to be there the day through, they rearranged the schedule to make it much more convenient for everyone. = )

During the extra time, we were able to meet up with Avia and use Emily's extra leotards so that the girls could play at one of the lake beaches in a Lansing park.

We watched a funny baking show called "Is It Cake?" and in the final episode one of the contestants made a baklava flavored cake.  I love baklava, and pistachios, so I tried my hand at making it.  It came out really well.  Even the kids ate it!*

Grace wanted to buy "her own" fabric at a yard sale, so that she could make a dress.  The one she made came out cute, especially for a first attempt!  (I haven't seen her wear it a second time though, so I don't think it was quite as comfy as she wanted.  Seems like true fashion to me!)

I read some gardening books, and talked to lots of gardeners, so I tried following all the advice for our garden.

Sarah gave me some starters, which I used at the end of April when it was really, really cold.  The only plant that actually started was on cucumber plant, which the chippunk has now dug up. =- (

I made a path with some scrap boards (what good advice!) and used some milk jugs as "mini greenhouses for the seeds I started outside.

An attempt was made to clip the bag shut.  It was not successful, but someone did try.

The only flowers we could track down for our nature study, even the dandelion was hard to come by as cold as it was in May!

Grace bought a 2 pack of Chicken Coop shortbread houses (think gingerbread kit) one for her to make, and the other for Zoey.

Emily and Grace also spent some time sewing a Charmander and Pokeball as part of a gift for Andrew's birthday.

Playing party games!  My crew had fun, I hope the birthday boy had a great time!  The cake was amazing, I'm so sad I didn't snap a picture!

Grace made a bow and arrow set from recycling and found objects.

William drew for our Murder Mystery Party Roles this summer.  Should be a fun time!

Emily forgot, and since she forgot, I didn't think she cared about crazy hair day in ballet, so we did what we could with the hair ties and bows and random objects we had on hand.

This was the big girl's recitation poem at the end of the year, and I absolutely love it!!  Now, every time we go to a park or even on a walk, I can't help but thing how wonderful it is to have some leisure time.

 

We dropped Emily off at ballet, then collected Avia from the bank, and she treated us to ice cream at a plant nursery!  We swung back by to get Emily, who  told me in the morning that she wanted to go to a park to stick her feet in the water.  There is a trail that runs all through Lansing, and passes by the zoo.  Since we have free parking with our membership, we parked there and walked to the nearby boat entry port.  Well, Grace needed to go potty, and I was the only one in the party who brought water (my 20oz RTIC tumbler) but not near enough to share 5 ways.  So we ended up at the welcome center/gift shop for some water.

We did eventually make it to the river.  Our path crossed right next to a family of geese, who left us be, and we did the same for them.

On a totally different day, we went to Horrocks to get some loose leaf  Scottish Breakfast Tea, since they were out the last time we went.  They were still out, but we went up to a park we'd never been to.  It was sooooooo pretty!

The water called to my children here too, and was clear enough that even I stuck my feet in!

We took the .75 mile path turn around, but since we had walked there from another park, I think we walked closer to two miles.

As we were leaving, I saw was I thought could be a fairy throne, or maybe castle in an old story.

Even in our own yard, you can watch the weeds "unfurl."

"What is this life if, full of care, 

We have not time to stand and stare?"

later days

*this really surprised me.  I had already started planning in my head who I thought might like to be surprised with some baklava, but there was none left to gift!