Scavenger Rae Party

     Rachael, the 15 year old, has developed into a social kid with a big friend group and she asked if she could have them all over for her birthday. I turned "all" into a concrete number of 12. She has aged out of the organized themed party but the idea of that many kids here without something specific to do didn't sound wise to me. So I discussed doing a scavenger hunt with Rachael and she liked the idea.

     I found a website for doing scavenger hunts and asked Emma to give me some fandom based clues, that I entered. I created four different sets of the same clues so that each team got the same clues but in a different order and on different colored paper. Megan and Jim helped me hide the clues as Rachael's friends were arriving. The prep for Rachael's party got hijacked by the blizzard when we had to reschedule for the evening after Megan's party. After Megan's guests left we baked and decorated Rachael's cake and printed and hid Rachael's scavenger hunt clues. Because of the short prep time, I didn't get a chance to test out the hunt but we hoped for the best.

     Rachael's friends all arrived and planted themselves about the living room. Rachael hugged and leaned on her friends and talked and laughed. She was exuding positive energy throughout the house. They descended on the pizza, snacks and soda. We got pizza from a different place than usual and the pizzas were much bigger than we expected so we had way too much. After food I explained the scavenger hunt and after they divided into teams sent them on their hunt. Some clues like the QR code were solved quickly, but there were some letter shift clues, and cryptograms that took them a very long time. Occasionally I gave out a clue or direction but for the most part Rae's friends worked things out, or paid attention to other groups and figured things out by watching where they went. One clue was an anagram of a Moaning Mrytle quote and they had to go to the basement toilet, where Mrylte's picture is, to find the next clue. Another clue was the quote "I find your lack of Faith disturbing" and they needed to find Darth Vader in the office for the next clue. At the last location there was a bag of candy that matched their team color. They were challenged but I think they had fun doing it. Some clues were too hard but Rachael was pleased with how it all went.

     After the hunt, bags of candy were opened while the other groups finished and then we gathered for cake. Rachael asked for a Homestuck cake so I made a cake shaped like a house and rolled and cut fondant to look like the online comics logo. It turned out just like she wanted. Her friends and family sang her a "Happy Birthday" and lined up for a slice and some ice cream. We did gifts next and I was thoroughly impressed with the homemade cards and personal gifts that her friends gave her. She is blessed to be surrounded by friends who get and enjoy her. Rachael was so cute opening the gifts and appreciating the little details of her friends efforts. It was beautiful.

     They descended to the basement and wound up playing the wii for a few minutes before parents began arriving. By the end of it Rachael was still powered by joyful energy. She is a beautiful creation.

Megan by the Dozen

Megan's 12th birthday started with deep snow on the ground, a family feast of big chocolate chip muffins and a happy birthday song.  She welcomed it with her signature smile. The kiddos all had off school but Meg and Bridge headed to hang out with friends during the day, Hanna went to the Shumakers and Jim and I worked. That evening we switched back to birthday celebration mode.

Megan requested to have a small birthday sleepover on her actual birthday so we prepared the house for 3 friends to arrive for dinner.  We hung up a few strings of pennants to set the mood and Emma and Megan had worked that afternoon to make fondant to decorate the cake. It involved a bit of trial and error and Em was still putting the final touches on Megan's game board cake as the guests arrived. The cake turned out great.

 This was a low key gathering for her 12th birthday, there weren't any big themes or prep to do, she just wanted to play games with girlfriends. It has been a year of transition in middle school and her friend group is morphing too, so instead of trying to figure out how all of the dynamics would work out with a big group,  Megan picked the 3 friends that she really likes. None are close friends with the others but all are friendly and Megan is hoping these are friendships that will last. It has been amazing to see her awareness of the social structures and float outside of the drama while strengthening the relationships she values. She has chosen her friends well because of who they are and not because of the circles they function in. Twelve is looking rather mature on Megan. 

When her friends arrived, we had chick-fil-a nuggets, salad and snacks.  Megan opened her gifts and appreciated her friends generosity. Then we sang happy birthday and shared the cake. Megan then lead her friends to the basement where she had organized a system of drawing a number to determine which board game they would play. Watching her confidently put a plan in action made me smile. She is a great hostess. They played games late into the evening and then put on the live action version of Cinderella she got for her birthday. The girls stayed up way too late and scared themselves telling ghost stories. So much so that they enlisted the help of Rae and Em to help distract themselves.

The next morning they dragged themselves up from the basement for doughnuts and then played a few more games before the parents came through half plowed snow to pick up. Megan was exhaustedly happy. Emotionally she can be all over the place some days but her smile remains her prominent feature. 

This year Megan will be getting a new bedroom, so as part of her birthday gift we will be picking up some things for her room. The plan is to move Megan into Hanna's current room and move Hanna into share the bedroom with Bridget. Megan is ready for more privacy and looking forward to the change. This year will also means finishing twice a week vision therapy sessions. Megan's vision has already dramatically improved and reading is less of a strain. She is already doing great in the 6th grade and got straight A's again in 2nd quarter and moved to the GT history section. Megan is shining and the stumbling blocks that were in her way and getting lower every day. I am so proud of her and pray for God's continued grace in her life.

Blizzard 2016

Friday just as the storm began

The newcasters were talking about the storm a week in advance, they forecast accumulations and blizzard conditions. A state of Emergency was declared before the storm's arrival, and we were told to gather a weeks worth of food (the traditional run on milk bread and toilet paper kicking into high gear) and before a flake fell schools were closed, in an abundance of caution. Then Friday night the snow began to fall and the blizzard came in exactly as forecast. Rachael's Saturday birthday party was rescheduled as were all of the other activities on the calendar. We woke up Saturday morning to a silencing blanket of snow and it snowed all day. The wind was pretty fierce at times but when it calmed down a bit, we did a bit of shoveling to decrease the workload at the end of the storm.

The girls were all thrilled to get snow after a very mild Christmas season and looked forward to getting outside in it. I pulled out the snowgear tubs from storage and got out floor mats and towels.  Blizzard conditions aren't the most fun, so Saturdays time outside was mostly to get shoveling done. Sunday though the wind had calmed down and we all went out with shovels to tackle the 30 plus inches. Jim headed out first to clear the main sidewalk so that our crew could be productive and spread out. The big girls all pitched in helped clear the sidewalks and the driveway. It was a lot of heavy lifting and my forearms protested immediately. I was last out because I was on the gear up shift. After about an hour of being outside shoveling we realized Rachael never came out. She had been distracted by a book of course and was sitting on the sofa reading. She joined us and suffered a good bit of joking. Hanna cooperated well, she was motivated to get outside. 30 inches of snow turned out to be not as much fun as it looked for her. Her boots kept getting stuck in the snow and pulling off and that is enough to make a girl grumpy, plus it was soon lunch time. Jim took Hanna in and the rest followed, looking forward to hot chocolate and lunch. Rachael and I stayed out after the rest went back in to keep working on digging out the cars. My cousin Steven showed up magically and offered to help, so we kept at it.

The Broncos/ Patriots playoff game was that afternoon and we were invited to the Arciaga's to watch, so we called the shoveling quits and got cleaned up. Jim did a reconnaissance drive over to their house and discovered a lot of roads weren't plowed yet and we couldn't get to them.  So instead we watched at home and enjoyed a great game with a great outcome.

The rest of the week turned into a blur of school cancelings and requested playdates. I worked from home on Monday along with Jim, with regular interruptions of kids gearing up and then disrobing and scattering wet mittens and boots all over the mats I had put out. Jim continued to work from home all week and the big girls helped watch Hanna on Wednesday when I went to work. By the end of the week off school no one asked to go play in the snow anymore, but they spent time visiting with friends. Emma had friends over, Bridget and Megan had friends over, and they went to friend's houses. Rachael went to Caffe di' Roma and the mall with friends. It was a lazy week with many episodes of Avatar watched and many rounds of Just Dance wii played. Johanna enjoyed it at first but started acting out by mid week. She did not get enough stimulation staying at home. So on Thursday I took her to the library and shopping. She was so much happier to be out of the house.  School wound up being canceled the whole week including Friday, which was Megan's birthday. It was a full 6 days off of school. On Friday Hanna spent the morning at the Shumakers while I worked, and the rest of the crew got ready to host Megan's birthday sleepover.

The blizzard created a lot of down time and it was wonderful to see the kiddos enjoy the unexpected unstructured time. It came to an end and I had a moment of remorse over what felt like was a wasted opportunity. I should have had them play their instruments, or practiced reading, or done thank you notes but I didn't. Rachael did sew a cat, Bridget bonded with a friend in the neighborhood, Emma slept, Megan played, and Hanna spent time with her sisters. Meanwhile Jim and I worked and kept up with the daily chores and mess. Ending the week with Birthday parties, was a great motivation to prevent the mess from getting out of hand. The Blizzard of 2016 was full of good memories and that is not wasted opportunity. My moment of remorse has been banished as I remember, One morning the girls and I went out together. Jim suggested we duct tape Hanna's boots to her pants and it worked beautifully. No more snow in her boots. We built a sled track in the tall piles of snow. That turned into a snowball fight. Em and Bridget v. Rae and Megs. Hanna and I were in the middle. I threw snowballs at everyone and everyone threw snowballs at me. We laughed and threw snowballs until we were out of breath. It was fabulous and no one cried, a new snowball feat. Then the 3 youngest made a snowman, while us old ones cleaned the sidewalks up from our battle. Em went in and got cups spoons and cream soda, so we could all enjoy cream soda snowballs. They were delicious. After lunch Rachael went back outside and built a fire in the snow. It took her a long time but she enjoyed it thoroughly. I got the opportunity to thoroughly enjoy my girls and treasure the memory.