We hosted a murder

For awhile N and I have been trying to decide a fun way to have a parent's only night with the young families group at church. A few months ago I had the idea to host a murder mystery party.

I found a kit for a Mardi Gras murder and actually found decorations for Mardi Gras in June. Which is 3.5 months after Mardi Gras.

We had a fantastic response to the party and I got to work on making our house look like a Garden District chateau.

Most people have some kind of mask during Mardi Gras. I had the brilliant idea to make masks. With feathers and some craft glue.

Zoe loved the feathers and insisted we each put a blue and pink one in our ponytails as decorations. According to her it is "pretty."

Shortly after that my mom picked up Zoe for a slumber party at her house. N and I got to work transforming our house into New Orleans.

The masks and name tags.

Another big thing during Mardi Gras is the King Cake. It's a cinnamon cake with cream cheese frosting and the colors of Mardi Gras. There is also a tiny baby baked inside. Whoever gets the baby has to host the next party.

I decided to order a King Cake from a bakery in New Orleans. It was totally worth it. It came unfrosted and with everything I needed.

After I hung several decorations inside and out, we were ready.

The owner of our new Garden District worthy chateau, Mr. DuPre was murder in the billiard room (aka Zoe's room). All we needed were the suspects.

Here's our cast:

Connika Gothika - the eccentric, gothic writer who lives next door. She is not amuzed by anyone.

Bourbon DuPre - the deceased nephew and jazz musician in the Quarter. He was working on his smoking drawl for weeks!

J. Stephen Peek (our former pastor Ryan) - the attorney (and murderer!) and Matthew "Gator" Crovitz (our friend Shawn) - the poor swamp rat turned rich.

Melissa DuPre (the pastor's wife, Katy) - a Vegas cocktail waitress who married the deceased 3 months ago. She was 50 years his junior.

For some reason I didn't get a picture of Alexis DuPre (Shawn's wife Becky) - the beauty queen daughter of the deceased.

It was a great time. Everyone played their character and came dressed for the party. I couldn't have asked for a better cast. Each of them made the party so fantastic.

After dinner we cut into the King Cake. I was pretty sure the baby would be big enough for us to see it.

Not so much. It was basically the size of your pinky's top knuckle.

Fortunately Kate had a keen eye and noticed it before she ate it.

We can't wait to find out when the next mystery will be Katy.

Whether Portland or Seattle, we'll be there.

We may need another tissue

I've mentioned before that I don't like the term "terrible twos." I don't find my child or the age to be terrible.

I prefer the term Intwopendence.

We are definitely in that. In the last month or so there has been a real change in Zoe.

She is starting to understand how she feels and her likes and dislikes. She has also inherited my need for routine and rules.

She likes to know what's going to happen each day. She also has rules about what shoes she'll wear, how to eat mashed potatoes, how to play tea and what colors we should color with.

It is expected we know and follow her rules.

Fortunately she's also growing her vocabulary as she's growing her list of rules. The learning curve for N and me isn't too bad.

The one thing that has happened the last month is how sensitive she is. If we're watching a cartoon and something sad happens (like Pooh can't get any honey or Tigger loses his shadow) we get tears. Massive amounts of tears.

Plus a pouty lip, puppy-dog eyes and slumped shoulders.

We also get this if it's time to come inside, time to change her diaper, time to get in the bath, time to get out of the bath, etc.

In the last week she's been able to convey her feelings to me. No less than 10 times this week I've heard,

"I'm sad Mom. Mom I'm sad."

I can't help but feel bad for her. Her little world has been crushed and she confides in me how she's feeling.

It's part preparing me for puberty.

The best part is that it's also setting the foundation for our relationship. I only hope over the course of my life she can always feel comfortable saying, "I'm sad Mom."

I also hope that I can always be the mom who can comfort her, tell her it's going to be okay and pray with her.

Or try to distract her with a cookie and bubbles like I do now.

Showin' how funky, strong is your fight

It’s no surprise that I would post a Friday Five Fave post about Michael Jackson. Our history goes way back. I grew up on MTV. I can remember watching the Go-Go’s sing My Lips Are Sealed while my grandma prepared pancakes for me. Since I can remember MTV has been a part of my life.

It was not uncommon for me to watch at home, in the evenings. I liked having a little DIVO and WHAM! on in the background while I cut my Barbie’s hair. Didn’t everyone?

In December of 1983 the biggest thing to EVER happen to MTV occurred: Michael’s Jackson’s debut of his video epic Thriller. You cannot even imagine my excitement that I would get to witness music history like this. 14 minutes of history to be exact.

We had just bought our Christmas tree and we were going to decorate it, while watching history in the making.

There was promise of drama and lots of dancing, plus a new Michael Jackson song. Honestly it was like Christmas came early that year.

We had got the tree mostly decorated when Thriller started to play. I was loving the dialogue, the dancing, the suspense of Thriller’s greatness.

My mom had left the living room to put away some of the decorations. I was circling the tree placing just a few strands of tinsel on each branch, dancing to the beat.

Then I saw the screen. It was the exact same moment that Michael Jackson brought his head up.

AS. A. ZOMBIE.

I dropped my tinsel, ran from the room and began to cry.

The only real movie I can remember from my childhood was Grease. I didn’t even like Goonies because of the fire surrounding the entrance to the jail at the beginning. That could totally happen if some bad guys came into my house, stole my teddy bear and then wanted to get away.

Now, now we have Michael Jackson turning into a zombie.

It was too much for my 6 year old mind to fathom.

For years I had an odd fear of Michael Jackson the zombie coming into my room. Which actually prepared me for later in life when the zombie look was a better look for him. In honor of Michael Jackson and his contribution in music, a Top 5 of my favorite songs:

1) Billie Jean – I loved this song. Mainly because he could totally walk on a sidewalk and it would light up. If only we could all experience that when we walked to school.

2) Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough – What’s not to love. A sequined outfit, disco lights coming from behind him. I could never get enough.

3) Smooth Criminal – The beginning bass line is so smooth you can listen to it again and again.

4) Scream – At the height of Janet’s career and as HIStory was being released, we got to witness two of the younger Jackson’s collaborate. I love this. I would watch MTV for hours just trying to see this video.

5) Unbreakable – This track collaborated with Notorious B.I.G. and Brandy. It’s from his last album and a song I listened to over and over and over again.

I could name more, but it’s a Top 5, so I’ll limit my list.

However, while Jackson struggled to deal with fame, there is no doubt he made significant contributions both in music and in choreography. He even has a patent on a move in the video for Smooth Criminal.

For a girl who grew up on MTV and hoped to be a dancer, Michael Jackson will forever be remember as the zombie who scared the tar out of me before Christmas 1983.

We like body art

My mom bought Zoe some bug stickers. Like 5 pages of bug stickers.

They are Zoe's new favorite evening activity.

We put bug stickers on paper, on our hands, on our legs and even on our face.

This was only the beginning. We finished with no less than 4 each.

Zoe insists on butterfly stickers and mommy gets the yucky spiders.

I love playing on Zoe's level. Any excuse to be a kid.

Call us Ward and June please

For D's & E's birthdays we bought them bikes. They have been asking for them for awhile and now that we have a house we were able to get them some.

They spent probably 45 minutes on their bikes this weekend. For girls who usually only spend 10 minutes on each activity, this was huge.

They even rode down the street and met a new friend.

We were like the Cleavers - kids on bikes, daddy mowing the yard and mommy helping our youngest rider.

She's so close to using the pedals all by herself.

Daddy's Girls

On Sunday we celebrated N. He spent some time with the girls playing Ladder Ball and Bocce Ball.

He let them win.

As you can see, they had a blast.

Whatta blessing it is to have a husband who loves our girls with everything that he is. He is exactly what I prayed for.

Thank you N for being such a loving father, Godly man and my partner in crime. I couldn't do this life without you.

Roller Derby Redefined

On Saturday we spent 2.5 hours at the rollerskating rink. I'm happy to report only minor changes have taken place. Instead of decorations in browns and oranges, it's blues and oranges. The food counter has extended into a toy counter. They play music from SpongeBob SquarePants. Which had me the most confused since I don't watch a sea sponge. All the kids really enjoyed yelling his name as loud as possible. Our ears are still ringing.

Some things have remained the same. It does have a distinct odor and the skates are the same ones I wore 20 years ago.

The morning started out with some presents from G.G. She got the girls new rollerblades, which they eagerly wanted to take with them.





D's are pink.

E's are purple (and a little blurry - sorry!).



We got to the rink and it wasn't too packed. N got his blades on and convinced me that only 30 or so small children would witness me falling. I got some skates on too.

N took Zoe for a lap, but he got in trouble for carring a child. We decided to find out if they had some in her size.

Apparently the roller rink caters to the toddler crowd.

Zoe was so excited that she would get some skates too. Then she stood up and realized she had wheels on her feet. This led to much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Her skate lesson only lasted 15 seconds. Everyone has to start somewhere.

I ran around the rink trying to take pictures of D & E with their friends. I could only keep up with E and her friends who were sitting down. As my nephew T-Dog said, "I skate like a girl."

Here is E with her friends Sierra and Savannah.

Apparently not only SpongeBob is a must at the rink, but so are blinky pacifiers. All the girls HAD.TO.HAVE.ONE.

Zoe got a huge kick out of the fact that her older sisters and their friends had binkies too. They bonded.

D & E had a blast. After 2.5 hours, they were a sweaty, tired mess. Along with all their friends.

You know a party's a hit when you have binkies and sweat running down your face.