11-11-11

We celebrated Grace's 11th birthday yesterday, on 11/11/11.  Since it was such a special birthday, and since my shy little 'new kid at school' has had some difficulty making new friends at middle school this year, we decided to throw a huge party.  (Yes, she is in middle school now.  Hand me my dentures.)  Most of the kids that came were from church, but two of her new school friends came out, and that is a start. 

Three hammy girls: Katie, our neighbor, and Grace

We had a murder mystery party, thanks to my friend Kyla's recommendation, and it was a huge hit.  The kids all dressed up as different characters, and they got to ham it up throughout the evening, accusing one another of a crime while having to defend their own innocence.  It was so much fun.  We used the Mansion Mystery kit from dramaticfanatic.com, and it really worked out well.  The only downside was that a few of the kids struggled to read the lines, and that combined with the silliness that took over toward the end caused them to miss a lot of the clues to who the killer was.  It was fun, though, to see their surprise when the killer was revealed.  Even the culprit himself had no idea what was coming.  We had a great party.