Killing For The Crown

Hadley is officially a teenager!  She’s known for quite awhile what she wanted to do to celebrate her 13th birthday. . . a Murder Mystery birthday party just like her cousins did when they turned 13.  The premise for her party was a pre-pageant Miss America party.  All of the contestants, judges, father of a beauty queen, private investigator and the pageant hostess made up the guest list.  Hadley played the reigning Miss America.

The girls were the perfect age for this party.  They loved getting all dressed up and acting as their new character. I was worried they may be too shy but was wrong.  They were up for the challenge of being a beauty queen-- gossiping, black mail and even killing.

Hadley decided she wanted to have a chocolate fountain instead of a cake which worked out perfectly because the guests could all mingle around the table while working on their objectives and eat lots of chocolate coated treats.

And it’s no surprise that Gavin got completely into character, accent and all, as “Daddy Big Bucks”.

Unfortunately, Miss Texas (Sylvie) didn’t make it through the pre-pageant party without being murdered.  That is when the investigation started and the clues were given.

The former Miss America (Brinley) did her best to help us figure out who murdered Miss Texas with clues and hints.  Unfortunately, no one really looked at the right hints on the clues and were unable to solve the murder of Miss Texas.

We eventually found out who did it . . . Miss Arizona (Rilee) and even she was surprised.  She didn’t know she had it in her.  Apparently she really wanted to win the pageant this year and Miss Texas was her biggest threat.

Then it was time to vote for the Drama Queen and Best Dressed Awards.  Misha won the coveted “Dressed To Kill” Award and Hadley won the “Drama Queen” and “Miss Money Bags” awards.

Each girl took home a fun and easy parting gift...framed beauty pageant picture in their dress and sash. 

The girls ended the night with one more big group photo and then they took selfies and videos as they walked the red carpet and sang, “Here she comes, Miss America.”

Hadley loved every minute of her party and said it was definitely one of her favorites.  It wasn’t too hard to put together with this kit that came with the invitations, parts, clues and awards.

In honor of her 13th birthday, here are 13 things that we love about Hadley:

1.  She is now in 7th grade.

2.  She insisted that her locker needed to be decorated and wanted shelves, rug, mirror, chandelier, etc.  I surprised her and decorated her locker while she was at camp.  She was so happy when she opened her locker and it was all decorated.  I think she soon realized that she actually didn’t need all of that stuff and it really just got in the way of being able to use the locker for her books and backpack.

3.  She still loves to babysit!  Most of her pictures and videos on her iPod are of the cute kids she is babysitting.  Ryan decided to surprise her with a babysitting iPod cover for Christmas.  She loved it!

4.  Hadley LOVES to read and the Hunger Games series is still her favorite.

5.  She made a beautiful pirate for Halloween!    

 6.  She is definitely a teenager and has mastered the art of selfies and snapchat.

7.  Loves to be busy and involved and ran for 7th grade SBO and made it!  The SBOs got to be on the news and break the ground for the new soccer field that is going in.

8.  She is the BEST big sister and is always looking for fun things to do with Morgan, Griffin and Mia.  She takes them on bike rides, bakes cookies, gets them surprises from the store, babysits, crafts.  She is the ultimate sister and we are all so lucky to have her!

9.  Hadley and her friends love to do photo shoots together.  Some of my favorite pictures are from them being silly and documenting it on their iPods.  This generation is so lucky to have so many pictures from their childhood and with their friends.

10.  She finally got her own room and got to decorate it with new (and not-so-new) furnishings.  We painted Grandma Norma’s waterfall dresser and vanity in white and added some fun Anthropologie knobs.  And decorated her room in gray, yellow and turquoise.  

11.  She still plays the piano and is starting to learn some of the Hymns.

12.  She read the Book of Mormon in a day with her Young Women’s group up at an over night cabin activity last summer.

13.  Her 13th birthday celebration consisted of a new iPod (with a camera on the front), Beats headphones and Hunger Games collector Barbies.  She wasn’t very good at hiding her disappointment of not getting an iPhone.  Just a few more years, cute girl!

Happy 13th birthday to an amazing, talented, caring, giving, beautiful girl! xo