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

Big Sister

It was one of those nights . . . I couldn’t wait to have all of the kids in bed, a quiet house, and finally have a minute to sit down on the couch and relax while I watched some mindless show like The Bachelor.  Mia loves to read a story, sing a song and say a prayer before bed.  I was having a hard time thinking about tucking her in let alone spending 30 minutes to do it.  As I was walking Mia and Morgan upstairs for bed, Morgan grabbed her Pinkalicious book to read in bed.  Only Morgan doesn’t have any light in her room (we took the light bulbs out years ago so she couldn’t wake up and play in her room in the middle of the night) so I told her she could read her book in Mia’s room instead.  They climbed into Mia’s bed together and I realized I didn’t have to be the one reading the story to Mia-- Morgan and Mia could read the book together with Morgan’s help.

I’m not sure why I’ve never thought of having them do this before.  I was honestly filled with love and overwhelming gratitude that I get to be a mother as I sat on the end of Mia’s bed and watched two of my daughters help one another succeed.  “Awesome, Mia!”

Morgan doesn’t get very many opportunities to fill the "big sister" role or be a teacher to her younger siblings but reading is one area where Morgan excels.  I love that we almost always have our phones with us so that these moments can so easily be captured.  Morgan tries so hard to be patient with Mia but sometimes just can’t wait and blurts out the whole sentence before Mia even has a chance to try.

And one more tip . . .  always video your kids when it’s bedtime and they know they’re on borrowed time.  Behavior is always at it’s best!

Lalaloopsy Birthday

Finally getting a minute to post about Mia's Lalaloopsy 6th birthday party.  She loves to read all about her birthdays and loves scrapbooks.  The scrapbook will take a little longer than a blog post so at least I can come through on the birthday post before she has another birthday. 

Lalaloopsy Birthday Invitation

I surprised her on her birthday with the Lalaloopsy costume, Pillow, to wear to her party.  Seriously, how cute is she in that purple wig?  So cute that I convinced her to wear this costume 10 months later for Halloween.

It’s always a rush to open presents, eat breakfast and make it out the door in time for school.  She got lots of Lalaloopsy dolls, roller skates, loom bracelet kit and a few other surprises.

The birthday girl

The party decorations were pretty easy since she loves Lalaloopsy dolls and her room is full of them. I brought out all of her Lalaloopsy dolls and toys and used them as the centerpieces.  I made the cake with fondant buttons, ribbons,  quilting tool and Lalaloopsy candle.

Hot glued colorful buttons onto fake flowers and made candy button lollipops to give to each party guest.

Hadley read a Lalaloopsy book as we waited for all of the guests to arrive then we divided into three groups to go to different craft stations.  

Station #1:  Button Bracelets

This was a great activity for this age.  They each picked out their favorite button colors (I picked up all of the buttons at Michael’s in the dollar bin section) to make a pattern for their bracelet.  I used clear, stretchy string for them to string through the button holes and then tied it off to make a bracelet.

Station #2: Picture Frames 

I took a picture of each party guest with Mia as they arrived to the party.  I used that picture to put inside the Lalaloopsy frame they would make at the party.  I used $1 wood frames from Michael’s and painted them in several different color options a few days before the party (I learned the hard way from Hadley’s American Girl party that it is best to have the frames pre-painted so the girls can start right away on decorating the frames and not have to wait for paint to dry).  The girls chose the frame with their favorite color and started decorating them with gluing buttons and mod podging a Lalaloopsy picture on them.

Station #3: Shrinky Dinks Necklace
I grew up doing Shrinky Dinks and thought it would be fun for Mia and her friends to witness the magic of Shrinky Dinks.  The girls traced and colored their favorite Lalaloopsy onto the special magical paper and then cut them out and put them on the baking tray to go into the oven. Only a few minutes later, a cute little charm came back out of the oven, ready to put on their chain for a necklace.  For this project, I bought just the Shrinky Dinks paper at Michael’s (much cheaper than buying the whole kit) and used regular colored pencils and bought a bag of chains for the necklaces.

Birthday girl and cake.  

Love how she looks up to think about her birthday wish before blowing out the candle.

After the presents were all opened, they finished up the the party with a Lalaloopsy movie (rented from our local library).

Parting Gifts:

Mia helped me pick out what she wanted to to put in the gift bags.  Each girl took home her picture frame, buttons, Lalaloopsy hair clip, coloring book, button bracelet, Shrinky Dinks necklace and a button lollipop.

Mia loved every minute of her birthday and started planning her next birthday party that night.  I, on the other hand, wasn’t ready to start thinking about next year quite yet.  One party is enough for me in one day.

In honor of her 6th birthday . . .  6 random things about Mia:

1.  She started Kindergarten this year and loves school and learning.  She spends most of her free time drawing, coloring and writing.

2.  She lost her first tooth on Thanksgiving morning.  She wasn’t eating very much for several weeks because she said it hurt too much with her wiggly tooth.  I wanted to her to be able to feast with us on Thanksgiving so that morning I surprised her by pulling it out when she thought I was just checking to see how wiggly it was.  She wasn’t ready to part with her tooth quite yet and shed some tears over the missing tooth.

3.  After begging me to put her in dance for several years, I finally enrolled her in a kindergarten dance class.

4.  We found out at a routine dentist appointment that Mia was tongue tied.  They numbed up her mouth and then lasered under her tongue.  She was so brave even though she could still feel a lot of the pain through the numbing.

5.  Mia is my little lunch buddy.  She goes to morning kindergarten and I pick her up at 11:20 each day just in time for lunch.  Her favorite lunch spot is a Vietnamese restaurant and her favorite food is Pho without the meat or veggies--just broth with noodles.

6.  She loves roller skating and spends most of her time roller skating around the house.

Happy 6th Birthday to our little Mia Kate!  We love you!

Christmas

We had a very Merry Christmas!  It was filled with food, gifts, love, family, games, a movie and lots of boxes and wrapping paper!

Jack got just what he was asking for-- a Zagg iPad keyboard, Polo Red cologne, clothes and a few Xbox games.  I guess Santa didn’t get the memo about moving him to the naughty list for speeding  46 miles over the speed limit.

Ryan got a skateboard, black bear hamster, Disney Infinity figures, clothes and a watch.

Hadley got a new iPod screen, makeup, clothes and shoes, Katniss barbie, snow boots, Frozen soundtrack, necklace, books, scarf and hat.

Morgan got Elsa, Anna and Kristoff barbies from Disney Frozen.  She also got all of the barbies from her favorite show, Barbie In The Dreamhouse.  She spent the entire day singing Frozen songs with her new barbies and reading her new books.

Mia must have been really good because Santa brought her the American Girl doll (“Merragirl Doll”), Molly.  She’s her favorite doll because “her glasses make her look so cute” but unfortunately her glasses were broken when we opened up the box so now she is anxiously waiting for the replacement pair to arrive.  She also got Lego Friends “Mia's Magic Show”, all of the fairytale mini lalaloopsy dolls, Wizard of Oz mini lalaloopsy dolls, shrinky dinks and Wreck It Ralph Infinity figure.

Griffin got the new Disney Infinity start up pack and lots of playing figures.  He also got Skylanders for Xbox and a target for his bow and arrow, the game, Quirkle and the book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  Some of his presents didn’t get here for Christmas so he got to open them the day after Christmas--a Kwanzaa miracle- a new tennis racquet, basketball and hexbug.

Gavin made his favorite Christmas breakfast meal -- overnight cinnamon french toast and we all enjoyed some before heading up to my parents’ house for another Christmas brunch and more gift exchanging.

Grandma and Grandpa spoiled their grandkids once again.  I guess that’s what grandparents do when it’s Christmas.

Grandma and Grandpa with all of their grandchildren (always miss out on having the Rushings)

And as always, I’m always relieved to have Christmas over.  It’s just a little bit more stressful as a mom than it was as a child.  It will be nice to get the Christmas stuff all put away and get ready for a new year!