Happy 15th Birthday to this beautiful girl of mine.
I can't believe my baby girl is 15 years old.
For her birthday breakfast she wanted cinnamon roll pancakes (these are HARD to make so I ONLY make them for her on her birthday every year.), sausage, orangies, & a cupcake.
She got a lot of fun presents from my friend Nancy & from family.
Nancy always sends a big selection of shoes & clothes. She was very excited to get 2 new pairs of sneakers & 2 sets of high heels. She got a lot of clothes as well as some lotion, nail polish, as well as a horse & an umbrella. It was really fun.
The kids got her a fidget ring (to spin when she gets bored) & a poster from her favorite book series "Mistborn" by Brandon Sanderson. Her favorite characters are Vin & Elend so I couldn't pass up this beautiful poster. I knew she'd love it.
Trek & I got her a Mistborn shirt as well as a mini-printer to print her artwork out to make stickers out of it. She is my digital artist & loves to draw. Now she can print it out, make a sticker out of it, & give it to her friends.
Opa & Oma & Mimi & Baba had the same ideas this year. They both got her some fun things for tennis. She loves her new tennis skirts, shirts, & her new blue tennis visor. She plays tennis every Saturday so she can't wait to wear these.
For her birthday dinner she chose potato cheese soup, watermelon, & rolls. She was SO happy.
Happy birthday to my sweet Taya!!! I love the amazing young woman you have become.
Taya's 15th birthday party was a HUGE hit. We did a murder mystery party for her (like we did for Cadence & Lorien's 15th parties) & this one was a blast to put on.
She picked a storybook character themed murder mystery so we found one & assigned characters to all of her friends. We invited everyone in her early morning seminary (religious) studies class. There are 30 of them total & 27 of them were able to come. It was a house FULL of all our favorite storybook characters.
Taya wore my dirndl with the red cape I made for Halloween a few years ago. She was "Scarlet Cloak" (aka Little Red Riding Hood)
When each of her guests arrived, we gave them a name tag to wear so that everybody knew who they were, then they took some mug shots. (Not all the kids wanted mug shots, but a lot of them did.). The mug shots turned out adorable.
I also had out a ton of fruits, vegetables, & snacks for them to munch on as we started round 1 of the mystery.
For round 1, we gathered them all together & explained the rules of the game. They were SO excited to get started. Each of them was given a "part" with clues they could & others that they couldn't divulge to the other guests. They all got up & started talking to each other fully in character. I still can't get over our "Captain Hook" who maintained a full pirate accent for the entire duration of the party. These kids are so much fun.
After Round 1, we took them all upstairs & did a dance off. We put the kids into groups of 5-6 kids each, then had them draw the name of a storybook song out of a hat (Lost Boy by Ruth B, Love Story by Taylor Swift, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, etc.). Then they drew out a style of dance (Irish, Boy Band, Hip Hop, Fortnite, Ballet, etc.). They had 20 minutes to go choreograph a dance to their song so they could perform 30 seconds for everybody. A lot of the quiet kids even got into it. Their dances were hilarious & SO fun to watch.
After dancing, I handed out Round 2's scripts to each kid. They had about 20 minutes to talk to each of the other characters to reveal clues & secrets. After about 15 minutes, the Evil Queen was discovered in the bathroom "DEAD!" (not really dead, but pretend dead for the party). She even had angel wings & a halo. She was such a good sport. Cinderella was found in the hallway holding the murder weapon.
While we waited for the "forensic report" to be completed, we went downstairs to have ice cream sundaes & root beer floats. Taya was excited to have something other than cake this year for her birthday. Ice cream was EASY for me so it was a win/win.
While they ate ice cream, we read over the fingerprint & forensic reports. They narrowed the suspects down to 5 people. The kids started chatting again trying to see if any more clues would pop up that would help them discover who killed the Evil Queen. They even asked me for paper & pencils to take notes as they investigated. It was hilarious.
We were playing music in the background & some song came on that the kids LOVE (Run Away From Love) & they all grouped up & did the most hilarious dance EVER. Did I mention that I just love these kids? They put off the best energy. I can't help but smile when they are around.
We continued sleuthing & finally got ready for Round 3 where the confessions took place. This was my favorite round of the night. Everyone had their own idea of "who dunnit." And EVERYBODY was WRONG! Nobody got it right. They all had it narrowed down to 2 people, but it wound up being someone they weren't even thinking about.
The confession round was hilarious though. ALL the secrets & clues came out during this round including who was in love with whom, who was related to whom, & much more. These kids are all best friends so this made these confessions extra hilarious. They had way too much fun teasing each other afterward.
In the end, they all hung out for a few more minutes until their parents started arriving to pick them up. It wound up being one of the best parties I've ever done. . . not because of me, but because these kids made it an absolute blast. They are the best.
