Blown Kisses & Dark Chocolate: Sophia's 11th Birthday Bash

My sweet and silly Sophia turned 11 today. She is the one who would wear a cat-shirt that says "It's My Birthday." We woke her up in Warburton fashion, singing Happy Birthday and she opened her shirt, her pants, and her boots, plus a cool face and hand pin toy. We all have loved playing with that today. She then got ready for school and ate her chosen breakfast of red velvet pancakes with frosting, which was really like eating cake for breakfast:

And then, because I'm crazy, we tried biking to school in the snow. It didn't work...we won't be trying that again. But Sophie was a great sport about it, see her bike tracks?

She said her day at school was nice although I forgot to send treats, oh well, we'll do it tomorrow. Once she got home, we foregoed the DI party (I didn't want to take kids that aren't mine all the way to the DI and back) and instead did a Murder Mystery Party. It turned out so great! We had the kids (5 friends and 1 Steven) plus Sophie and Marri (who was the Detective in charge and she helped me write the script) chose their characters, then spent the first half hour getting in costume and makeup. Each character had an activity, so after we welcomed them and introduced their characters (each note said "Have fun with your part, be creative, and remember, this is just a bunch of fun silliness!" suddenly the gypsy Cecily was found dead! So we were off. Here's a bit of the silliness:

First the Sassy Soccer Girl, Taylor Robinson. We played a get-to-know you game using questions on a soccer ball (you write them all over, and then pass the ball and where your left thumb lands you answer). After the activity, the Detective popped the balloon that introduced the activity and read: Clue: "The gypsy had blotches on her head, maybe someone kicked a soccer ball into it? Sassy soccer girl, do you have an alibi?" At which point, they opened their alibi in their envelopes: "Alibi: Yeah right, I was at soccer practice when she died. Ask my mom.

Then it was the Cute Clown's turn. We played Kinect Party and Annalee was the clown:

Clue from the detective: "Someone heard the gypsy laughing before she died. The clown must have joked her to death and she died laughing. Cute clown, do you have an alibi?: Alibi: "Knock-knock. Everyone says: (who’s there?) It wasn’t me, so there."

I then taught them the elephant-deer animal game (seriously, does no one remember, you sit on pillows and do actions to get to the elephant spot) for the cat's (Ellie's) activity. Her clue: "The gypsy had claw marks on her legs, that can only mean one thing? This cat’s out of the bag and must have killed her with her claws! Cat, do you have an alibi?" Alibi: "No, it couldn’t have been me. You know how curiosity always gets the cat? Well I decided to go and see if my tongue could get stuck to the basketball pole outside. It did. I was nowhere near here when she was murdered."

Then we took a break and watched some Studio C for Dramatic Actress Sadie's activity: "It has to be someone who could trick the gypsy to her death. The best tricksters are the best actors. Actor, do you have an alibi"Alibi: "I was eating cheese. Secretly, by myself because I don’t like to share my cheese." (Random, I know. It was supposed to be Steven, but no one wanted to be the Princess, so he kindly decided to be the Prince S.)

Speaking of the Picky Prince S, Steven got to be in charge of dinner, pizza and punch. While we changed the name, I forgot the clue was pretty princess-y. Oh well, he went with it: Clue from popped balloon, read by Detective Marri: "The gypsy was found wearing poisoned makeup. Who else but a princess would own poisoned makeup. Picky, princess, do you have an alibi" Alibi: "I only like things that start with p. Pizza, pink cupcakes, princes. Unless it was pink or purple makeup, it wasn’t me."

Back downstairs for more Kinect, this time Just Dance for the Dramatic Dancer Brecken. Then

clue: "The gypsy’s legs were sweating from dancing so maybe she was danced to death! Dancer, do you have an alibi?"Alibi: "It couldn’t have been me. I have a sad, sad secret. Whenever I dance, my feet automatically make me dance away from people. There’s no way I could kill her by dancing"

We finally got to the bottom of it, when we came to the artist station, where Artist Sophie loved doing wood animal crafts with her friends. And her clue?

Clue: The name of the killer is signed on her left foot.

Sophie's alibi: Ok, I did it. But she isn’t really dead, I just gave her a special sleeping potion since I spent all last night talking to her because I was too excited for my birthday. See, she’s just fine!

It was really quite a fun way of doing a party. They were all great sports and got into their characters. We finished the party with cupcakes and ice cream and presents. Sophie got a lot of art stuff including a horse book from Steven, a littlest Pet Shop, some beautiful trinkets and a coin thing. She loved it all.

Once everyone left, we started our family celebrating, we had more dinner: pizza and sushi (yeah, weird but oddly good) and then sang to Sophie with her strawberry-lemon zebra cake and more ice cream. She opened her final presents, the candy bar card: (Dear Sophie, we may be Butterfingers, but we think you worth more than 100 Grand. We are so glad you are such a good friend and you have an uncle named Mike and a cousin named Ike, Love DMMCSJ) a beautiful black and red dress, Adventure Time Season 2 from Sara, and the 5th Grade Ski Pass with a coupon to go skiing with her mom. Yeah, I'm excited. We finished the night watching four Adventure Time episodes.