This birthday girl knows how to party!

Kassidy's birthday was exactly one month ago. Here she is with her brother and sister a few years ago. Kass is the peacemaker in our family. She is thoughtful, kind, and the ultimate "big sister". Watching her grow is awe inspiring and overwhelming.

This year for her birthday she wanted to plan her entire party. She came up with the theme, the menu, all of the ideas and basically told me exactly what she needed me to do. She wanted to have a "Mystery" party where all of her guests showed up in "gowns" and had to solve a mystery that occurred during the party.
Each invitation gave every guest a character name for the party. Caleb was her butler and checked off each guest as she arrived. The girls showed up dressed to play their part. It was so much fun to watch them come in dresses, with their hair all done and jewelry on.

The first activity was decorating masks that the girls could wear throughout the night. Yes - she even convinced her little brother to wear his suit to the party in order to look more like a butler.

The dinner was served in the dining room. Kassidy wanted everything to look "fancy" as they dined on pizza, watermelon, jello and strawberry lemonade.

Kassidy with her maid & butler :)

After dinner, a charity auction was held in our living room. This was pretty much the only part she allowed me to plan. Here are all of the guests waiting for the auction to begin.

Kassidy held up the first item up for auction. It was an "expensive" necklace inside a satin jewelry box. She fainted (which was hilarious btw) when she opened the box and realized the necklace had been stolen.

Thankfully the cook (aka - the mom) recognized that this must be the work of the "sticky fingers bandit" after seeing the signature sticky fingerprint inside the box. A sticky finger print was often left by this thief after he or she had stolen something. Thankfully I happened to have "mystery kits" right there to allow everyone to keep track of clues.

The first place the guest wanted to check for clues was in the kitchen. I mean, that's probably the best place to get sticky treats if you want them. I had a picture here showing the kids finding the next clue but somehow deleted it and I'm too tired to download it again. As they entered the kitchen they found the tv remote for the tv downstairs with another sticky fingerprint right on it. After writing down the clue, we all ran downstairs. I love Kassidy's face here. Her shock looks so lady-like as they find the next clue. Downstairs on the couch in front of the tv they found a bunch of mail with sticky fingerprints all over the envelopes. There was even a half eaten doughnut on top of the mail

The kids all ran to the mail box only to find Kassidy's grandma's car keys. The keys had sticky doughnut fingerprints all over them. Here are the kids literally sprinting to the garage to look for the next clue.

After searching through grandma's car, Kassidy found an entire doughnut along with her grandma Kathy's "To Do List" that had been left on the driver seat. The things her grandma had to do were: 1. Buy doughnuts, 2. Steal necklace, and 3. Watch "The Price is Right". This is Kassidy realizing that her grandma must be the sticky finger bandit. Oh, the horror!

Next, everyone rushed down to grandma Kathy's room. As they entered they found a very guilty looking grandma wearing the auction necklace, eating a doughnut and watching "The Price is Right". It was so much fun - even for the cook!

Here are "The Grandmas" enjoying the party.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl! I'm grateful for every moment that I get to spend being your mother! Even after 11 years, you continue to amaze me every day.

Too vivid of an imagination

I went to IHOP with the kids and Grandma Kathy yesterday morning. There was a lady walking from table to table making balloon shapes for all the kids - working for tips. As we ate our breakfast Kaitlyn & Caleb asked nearly NON-STOP, "Can I have a balloon Mom?". "How come she isn't here yet Mom?" and "What kind of balloons do you think she makes Mom?". I was about ready to scream at the balloon lady, "WILL YOU JUST GET OVER HERE ALREADY SO I CAN EAT MY BREAKFAST IN PEACE!?!?". Instead I said calmly to my children, "You are going to have to be patient, there are a lot of kids who want balloons, okay".

Just a side note - One of the most difficult parts of motherhood for me is calmly saying one thing while my mind is SCREAMING something else. Still haven't quite mastered it. But being kicked out of IHOP for yelling at the sweet balloon lady was a good deterent.

Fortunately, the balloon lady finally made it to our table before the kids and I had a major melt down and happily pumped out a black weiner dog (for Caleb), a red kitty cat (for Kaitlyn), and a pink humming bird (for Grandma Kathy). Kassidy quietly insisted that she simply did not want a balloon animal, even after several attempts by miss balloon lady to convince her.

After the balloon lady left, I thought to myself, "Darn it. My baby is too old for balloon animals". The sadness stuck in my heart until we reached the car. As soon as Kass sat in the passenger seat beside me she looked at me and said, "Do you know why I didn't want a balloon Mom?". I tried to act all casual as I replied, "No sweetheart, why didn't you want a balloon animal?" while inside I was thinking she was going to say they are for babies, or that they are so lame, or heaven forbid that she just flat out admit that she is too grown up now for something as frivolous as balloon animals. Once again I was able to control my inner voice and just wait for her to answer. And do you know what she said? She said, "I really like balloon animals. But as soon as I saw the lady making them I made up my mind that I wasn't going to get one. I didn't want one because I love them so much and I pretend like they are my real pet and then when they pop it's like my pet has died and it makes me really sad."

I was dumb founded. What do you say to that? I've always encouraged my kids to develop their imaginations and obviously they've done a fantastic job. But a balloon animal as a pet? Had I pushed them overboard? Had I turned my child into the BACKYARDIGANS on steroids? After pondering her comment for a few moments I finally said, "Yeah, that must be really sad honey" and then screamed inside, "HOORAY! She's still my little girl!!" The imagination is here to stay, hopefully for a LONG while, and I'm certainly not going to worry about it.