50’s Day at School for 1st grade

Posted October 23rd, 2009 by Mom | Comments (1)

To celebrate the 50th day of school, the first graders have 50’s day.  I went to the school yesterday after Bible Study to help decorate the hallways.  They looked great with paper records taped to the walls to look like a record store or a malt shop.

This afternoon, after lunch the kids got to go out on the bus loop for different stations – hula hooping, musical chairs and bubblegum blowing, hokey pokey, Bunny Hop dancing, limbo, etc.  I think C had a good time.  I did.

C getting his picture taken in the malt shop.

C getting his picture taken with Elvis.

C on the bus loop at the different stations:

Pumpkin Shaped Cake

Posted October 23rd, 2009 by Mom | Comments (1)

This is the cake I made for the Murder Mystery party at Lisa’s house.  It is yellow cake with homemade buttercream icing with almond flavoring.

A Murder Mystery Party at Lisa’s

Posted October 22nd, 2009 by Mom | Comments (0)

Jill showing off her 1980’s big hair and eyeshadow and funky shiny jewelry.  You go girl!  Jill played a 30 year old active newspaper social columnist named Cassandra Antell.  Cassy, to her friends, maintained a file on each and every subject of her columns and this resulted in her never being sued – as the dirt she had on people would cause extreme embarrassment…

Cassy has family money and they have invested a large sum of money into the fund that we will be discussing this evening.  Cassy is not to reveive her full amount of investment until age 40.  However in the case of a death of the executor of the fund, the fund may be dissolved.

Here are Margaret (dressed in her husband’s clothes) to play the part of Wirth Les Bonds.  She was a hoot with male mannerisms to a penciled mustache and deepened voice to being aggressive in protecting her character.  It was a hoot.  Most of my laughter can at Worth’s expense!  Sorry, Doll!

Lisa is wearing Mark’s sweater and tie.  She played Jon K.’s partner Abercrombie Trage, in the brokerage house fund.  Their company is a powerhouse on Wall Street!

I played  Countess Portia F. Posure Marie Emm Oilde Olio, but known as Portia to my friends and associates.  My character had been married 4 times (they were elderly and I wore them out!)  Every few days my character liked to travel to Paris and Milan for shopping trips.  Art is my passion and so is my renowned Olio’s Gallery.  I earned my shared by tolerating my 4 husbands.  I now have an abundance of shared in the fund that is to be discussed at dinner this evening.

I was once involved with Jon K., the main partner in the fund to be discussed this evening.  We produced 2 children out of wedlock.  Wirth Les and Lolita.  Neither of these 2 are aware of their complete pedigree.

Missy played her part well.  She was dressed to the hilt in a fabulous burgundy velvet gown with pearl accessories.  Marvelous!  Missy played the part of my  (Countess Portia Olio’s) daughter.  Her character’s name is Lolita A. Posure.  Lolita has been to finishing school in Paris and has a promising career in photography.  She has won acclaim with her first photography exhibit – “Surveillance and Love” that was shown at Olio’s Gallery and is currently working on “High on Love.”  Jon K is her loving god father who gave her shares in the fund that is to be discussed at dinner.

Here we are in our 1980’s finest.

L-R: Jill, Margaret, Dana, Missy, Lisa.

Sorry I didn’t get pictures of Donna and Cheryl and Kari!

The play opens up with the players arriving at different time.  It is known that Jon K. has just died, having fallen from the outdoor balcony of the PentHouse Suite, where he lives.  The company inhabits the floors below the penthouse.  Characters have been coming and going from the suite for the past 30 minutes.  The question remains – Did Jon K. kill him self or was he murdered?

The 8 of us, in our character rolls sat down to a delicious homemade chicken a la king crockpot dinner – standard fare for working women of the 80’s and we had 80’s music going on in the living room.  It was great!  I must not miss telling about the delicious homemade pumpkin cheesecake bars!  (Thanks Lisa for the recipe!)

The play worked itself out over 4 parts – each part had clues that we must reveal and other “closet” information that we could share – if specifically asked about it – or we could just use it help ourselves figure out who killed Jon K.  The only real rule was that we could not lie.  If we knew the answer, we had to answer or deflect the question.  Of course, some of us have better poker faces than other… Margaret’s poker face was PERFECT!  Mine not so good.  I guess that is why when it all came down to the murder, yes, I pushed Jon K. off the balcony – but not before 2 people put poison in his water, one person hit him in the arm with a poisoned fountain pen and another used a poisoned blow dart to harm him.  After all that, it was easy to not use the gun that was in my purse and just give a little nudge.  Over went Jon K. splat.

As each section of the play got started, we got started eating – appetizers of cheeses and crackers, then crockpot chicken a la king with puff pastries and salad, on to another section of the play with dessert of pumpkin cheesecake and yellow layer cake in the shape of a pumpkin.  On to section 3 of the party with drinks and coffee.

I left there with my stomach stuffed, my lungs sore from laughing and talking and my cheeks on my face hurting from smiling and laughing so much.  Thanks, Lisa, this was a great idea and you pulled it off fabulously!  Kudos!

Bitter Apple

Posted October 15th, 2009 by Mom | Comments (0)

April, the dog/puppy loves to chew on things… toys, bushes, shrubs, sticks, back doorstep mat, you name it.

So, yesterday B soaked the back door step mat in bitter apple tasting stuff, stuff that is supposed to be a deterrent to dogs.

When I got home today, I found April sound asleep on the back door step mat.   Maybe the smell works reverse for her?

C’s Baptism

Posted October 11th, 2009 by Mom | Comments (0)

Family Pastor Josh baptizing C this morning.

Batman Cake

Posted October 11th, 2009 by Mom | Comments (0)

C was baptized this morning (pictures later).  In anticipation for a big family lunch today, I made a cake to celebrate.  C has been asking for a Batman cake for awhile now – he has been asking for it for his birthday, which is many months away, so I knew that this cake would be very well suited for him.

I made the first cake (yes, first) yesterday afternoon.  When I went to turn it out on the cake holder, it shattered.  Ugh!  I would have liked to have thrown it immediately in the trash, but let B and J nibble in it instead.  (C had gone out for the afternoon with my parents, so J was sworn to secrecy about the cake – he kept the secret until this morning on the way to church.  I decorated the second cake while the boys were out pumpkin fetching, marshmallow roasting and hay riding with B’s parents last night.)

It was difficult to decorate the cake.  At least, it first seemed intimidating.  I used just a plain sheet cake pan.  I’m used to the shaped/character pans that have lines and markings/indentions for making pictures with icing.  This was different.  To make the design I printed out a picture of a Batman symbol, cut the paper Batman out and set it on the cake.  I took a water bottle and filled it with water and food coloring and then sprayed the cake.  Where the paper Batman symbol was on the cake, there was a void of food coloring.  I filled in the void with the black icing (yes, homemade buttercream icing) and then the yellow icing and voila!  Batman cake.

This morning in the car on the way to church, B was reviewing with the boys the plans for today – church baptism, “big church,” and then lunch with family.  J chose that opportunity to tell C, “Mom made you a Batman cake!”  To which C asked me, “Did you, Mom?!”  I couldn’t lie, but didn’t want to tell him yes, so I said, “J, did you SEE a Batman cake?”  Knowing that J DID NOT see a Batman cake, just a crumbled cake.  I still got to surprise C.

I’m glad I made you happy, C!