A "Killer" New Year's Eve Party!

This New Year's Eve, we were invited to a murder. Well--a murder mystery party, anyway. Our good friends, Jody and Dan hosted it, with Dan participating in the drama, and Jody making sure everyone was well-fed...organizing the entire event, and keeping everything running smoothly.

It turned out to be the most fun I've had on New Year's Eve in a very long time!

The setting was in the Wild West town of "Roadkill" in the Wyoming Territory in 1881. We were all invited there for a good old fashioned hangin', but first...we had to determine who the guilty parties were...

Here's the cast of characters:

Left to right, back row: Yours truly, as "Dee Adela Muerte" (which apparently means "Day of the Dead" in Spanish), a Mexican beauty, who is plagued by bad luck and has been thrice widowed. Her first husband was a local politician, but since her second and third were the town pastor and the undertaker, she now performs both of those duties for the citizens of Roadkill, in her husbands' absence.

Next, (played by my husband Ray) is the former sheriff of Roadkill, "Wyatt Hertz" who is now retired, ever since a shotgun blast caught him in the "tender parts." He now runs a lucrative "Rent-A-Horse" business. What? You never heard of Hertz Rent-A-Horse?

On the other side of Ray, is my friend Lisa, (of QTPies fame), playing "Helena Handcart" matriarch of the Handcart clan. Sadly, Helena lost all 13 of her sons in a shoot-out at the "Parkay Corral."

Here's a close-up of "Elvira" and "Butch."

"Elvira Lynn Fection," played by none other than our own Sarah (Sassyfrazz), is the famous madam of The Pigeon Ranch, the best litttle you-know-what in Roadkill. Next to her, in the dungarees, is Anna, who is Moving Forward as the legendary "Butch Chastity. She's known for many train robberies, and can drink her fellow outlaws under the table, and has been known to kill a man, just as soon as look at him!

"P'Elvis Swagarin," was played by Donnie, (Mr QTPies). P'Elvis is a mysterious lone gunslinger, who recently rode into town. Solemn, poker-faced, and bowlegged, he's a cowboy's cowboy. Born Peter Elvis Swagarin, he's known to his friends as P'Elvis.

This is, (of course), the famous " Chief Breaking Wind" of the now apparently extinct Cowpai tribe. The Chief, is played by Terry, who is also known in bloggyworld as "Mr. Sassyfrazz." Don't you just love his braids?

Last, but certainly not least, is "Elias Truist Heath," (say that name out-loud a couple of times to catch the meaning), played by our host, Dan...also known as one of Jody's Joys. Elias is an up and coming heartthrob gunfighter, who was orphaned as a boy and raised by the honorable judge Waylon Payne. Ain't he handsome??


We were each given a booklet at the start of this adventure, and were instructed not to turn the page until we were told to. There were four "rounds" in which our booklets told us certain facts to keep hidden, unless we were asked directly about it, (in which case we had to tell the truth), and certain facts that we had to reveal about the other residents of Roadkill before the end of each round. This wasn't always easy to work into the conversation...but it was fun nonetheless.
I don't want to give away any more of the story, or reveal who the murderer (of Judge Waylon Payne) was, in case anyone wants to get it and do this murder mystery party game. Jody said she got it off of Amazon.com, where I see there are others available too. This one was called, "The Good, The Bad and The Guilty." if you're interested.

Thanks, Jody and Dan, for an awesome party and a great way to ring in 2010!

What's Black and White and Red All Over?

A "blushing bride" (or maybe a little sunburned?) in a black and white dress! My niece, Crystal is getting married on 9/25/09. She and her fiance had a combination shower/golf outing/bachelorette/bachelor party on Saturday. The guys went golfing, while we women were told to wear our "little black dresses". Alternatively, we could dress in black and white with red accents. Since I do not own a black dress, (and it certainly would NOT be little if I did), I wore the black and white sun dress that I got for my other niece's wedding in May.

Here are a few of the "little black dresses" All the ladies looked lovely.

One of the games we played, was to design wedding dresses out of really cheap toilet paper, that would rip if you looked at it too hard. We split into 4 teams by the tables we were sitting at:

This is my sister-in-law, Rose and my mother, Lenore working on my niece, Holly's dress. Holly just wore her REAL wedding dress a few months ago, in May. Looks good so far!

Above, was my team's model, my grand niece, Desiree. My sister, Connie is putting some of the finishing touches on her creation. I didn't do anything but watch, laugh and take pictures.

These are the 4 finished products. Don't they all look stunning in their new gowns? Crystal was the judge, and chose the 3rd one from the left. I believe it is her SIL-to-be. Maybe she was just making points with her new family?? BTW, those are rose petals on Holly's dress, that they took off of the table decorations...she's not actually wounded!

And then of course, there were gifts to open. Here, she's opening the "Slap Chop" that Jessica and I gave her. Now she can remember us every time she chops onions...but she won't have to with tears in her eyes!

After the games and gift opening were over, the guys joined us back at Crystal's for dinner. There were alcoholic, and non-alcoholic versions of punch to choose from at the shower...
My brother Bob, decided to wear the "alcohol" name tag from the punch. He also stole the clothespins that we had been using earlier for a game...Looks like he'd already had enough alcohol while out golfing, don'tcha think? JK, Bob is always kinda silly like that.

We took a picture of my mother with all of the granddaughters that were present, those that are pictured here range in age from 32 down to 12. L to R: Jenny, Mom, Holly, Crystal, Lacy, Jessica, Molly and Amber. Molly wasn't actually at the shower, she and her cousin Tanner were watching CJ and Shelby at my sister's house a couple of blocks away, and then they all joined us for dinner along with the guys.

Here's one of me and my sisters, sisters-in-law, and my mother. Unfortunately, two of my sisters couldn't make it. L to R: sisters, Connie and Sue, me, Mom, my sister Kathy and SIL's, Lori and Rose. Notice how Rose is standing on her tippy-toes. I didn't even see that when I took this picture.



After dinner, the "party bus" showed up. Some of the guests decided to participate in this part of the day's activities. We opted to play it safe and take Molly and Christian home after dinner.

Here, Crystal and Kathy pose in front of the bus. I'm pretty sure this is one of those things where, "what happens on the party bus STAYS on the party bus"... and I'm not even sure I WANT to know...so I'll just leave it to your imaginations ;-)

The Slumber Party's Over ~ Well Almost

It's 7:45 AM and there are three girls in my kitchen eating ICE CREAM, because it's NOT just for breakfast anymore! We ended up with just 2 of Molly's friends here last night. The third girl that was invited was not at school yesterday, so we're assuming she was sick. So we had a total of 3 girls, 2 dogs and one 4 year old boy. After finding out how much noise 3 twelve year old girls can make, I was glad we hadn't invited anymore.

They were all pretty good though, and actually DID slumber last night! I went upstairs at 1:15am and they were all fast asleep. The DVD was still playing, so I shut it off. I had my suspicions that they were only feigning slumber, but I never heard another peep out of them. Unfortunately, I had to wake them up early this morning, because one of the guests is exactly one day younger than Molly, and has her own party to get ready for today. That's why I didn't protest when I found them helping themselves to ice cream for breakfast. I drew the line at putting 12 candles in Nevynn's ice cream though.

Here's Molly's birthday cake. Molly had picked this one out quite a while ago, but I couldn't find the flip-flop cake set anywhere. Finally, last weekend , I won one on ebay. The auction wasn't over until Saturday, and I was afraid we wouldn't get it in time. Luckily, it arrived yesterday, just about the time I was going to decorate the cake.

My back-up plan was to use these little Hawiian figurines and palm trees. Since we didn't nee them for the cake, Jessica used them to garnish this lovely fruit tray that she'd created.

Here's Christian, modeling his new Hawiian shirt, and trying to snitch fruit off of the tray.

Jess also decorated the upstairs family room for her, and bought this scary-looking lovely balloon boquet and banner, along with some pineapple-scented candles, to set the tropical island atmosphere up there.

Molly had a special lei to wear, that had a "happy birthday" sign hanging from it. She wore it to school, just to make sure everyone there knew that it was her birthday.

Here are the three girls and CJ enjoying their strawberry daiquiris (NA of course), complete with umbrella straws, also provided by Jessica. They each had a name tag with their Hawaiian name on it, and received a lei and a new pair of flip-flops as party favors.

For some reason, "Mana'olana-Ana" was avoiding the camera all night. Perhaps she's practicing to be a famous rock star some day???

Or maybe it's just because her mom, Lisa is a blogger too, so she's used to covering her face every time she sees a camera lens pointed in her direction. We did catch her here, but the picture is a bit blurry.

"Moli", "Newine" and "the future rock star" eating cake and ice cream last night

And last but not least, Jake or "Iake" had to get in on the act too, complete with Hawaiian name tag and lei. Jessica's dog Bart, "Palaka" had one on too, but I caught him sneaking a cold drink of water out of the bathroom, and then noticed he'd left his calling card. His name tag was floating around in the toilet. All in all, it was a pretty good party.