Mystery night

We had a great weekend recently.  We got to visit our friends from BlmNormal and attend a murder mystery dinner.  We had a blast.  We really got to maximize our hang out time b/c grandparents were taking care of the kids the whole time.  It was tough keeping up with the late nights since I'm preggers, but it was worth it.  I really thought we might get kicked out of the restaurant we ate lunch at we were such a rowdy group of adults.  The mystery was set in 1930s Britain, but we look a bit gangster, too. Here's just a few photos. 

 

We were all assigned a character.  Scott, a lawyer and golfer; me the wealthy man's secretary; Bree, a sexy American starlet; and Stan, a doctor. Stan's bag was magical.  He had it stuffed full of premade shots and mini-liquors.  He would say, "Anyone have an earache?" and pull one out.

 

The whole crew. The other guests were, a wealthy businessman, an heiress/eyeshadow model, the host's bastard son and avid mountain climber, and a famous author. 

this picture cracks me up.  this was at the very end.  not one person guessed the correct murderer.  we were all fooled.

Giving Thanks

I found this project/board on Pinterest that I fell in love with.  Really it was 2 ideas.  The one was a board with all 30 days of November with a pocket to hold a blank card to write on each day something you are thankful for.  I felt this was too advanced for C to come up with 30 things or to write.  I loved the concept though.  Then I found this sewn project with a similar idea, but it provided ideas in each day of things kids could be thankful for and an accompanying activity.  I melded the two ideas together, and here is what I came up with.

 

I plan to make my activities more uniform in size for next year b/c they keep slipping into the pockets, but other than that I'm really happy with this.  I also had to handwrite a couple b/c I only found 22 stock activities, so I added a few.  We are having so much fun each day remembering to be thankful and doing something fun or kind.  

 

Here are the links to the ideas I used. 

 

http://jellybeanjunkyard.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/tuesday-tutorial-give-thanks-gratitude-board/ 

this is what I followed for the exterior. I used a canvas instead of plywood b/c I was too lazy to go to Lowe's.  I decorated mine slightly different, and I couldn't find very large letter or # stickers, but oh well.

 

http://angbrimwil.blogspot.com/2007/11/thankful-activities-for-calendar.html 

these are really good with quite a variety.  i added a few activities that added some things i wanted to do.  it would be so easy to adapt these activities to different ages. Some are simple, some require an act of service, and some are just plain fun. I feel like these are definitely geared to 8 and under. 

Thanksgiving decorations

We love Thanksgiving at our house, so I like to decorate for it just like Halloween. I leave up all my generic fall stuff, but switch out the holiday-specifics.

 

 

Had a hard time finding a place for my sign, but settled on the dining room window

 

I found this vintage-inspired turkey votive holder.  I bought 2...love.

 

my entry way

mantel

 

funky stick turkey

 

outside shot--to the right is a little give thanks sign

Halloween

At school ready to party.  He left his mask on for 5 minutes or less

 

Ready for trick or treating with lots of clothes on underneath.  It was chilly.  He only went to maybe 10 houses b/c he was cold and tired.