Take Your Daughter's Stuffed Animals to Work Day

On Tuesday, Jocelyn had her Daisy and Donald stuffed animals in the car with her on our ride to school.  I told her that they had to stay with me for the day because they couldn't go in to school with her because they might get lost.  Jocelyn agreed that "Daisy and Donald would go to work with momma."  So, that's what I did.  I brought them into my office with me and put them to work.  I took some pictures to show Jocelyn when we got home so she'd know that they were very good helpers.  Although, towards the end of the day they started slacking off and were just sitting around on the couch.  Who knew ducks had such little endurance.  She thought it was pretty cool and said she wanted to go to momma's work too. 

An Exciting Weekend

This was a very special weekend because Jocelyn's new cousin Addison made her appearance into the world.  She is so beautiful and just perfect.  Congratulations Mark and Amy!

On Saturday morning we took Jocelyn to the movies to see Finding Nemo in 3D.  It is one of her favorite movies.  She did pretty well wearing the glasses for the first half of the movie but then started to get squirmy.  We stayed through the whole thing and enjoyed seeing Nemo on the big screen. 

iTZ on a Saturday Night

We had a pretty lazy weekend, with nothing on the agenda (for once).  It was a nice chance to get some stuff done around the house.  Saturday night we had an impromptu play date at iTZ's in Pasadena.  This was my first time at this Chucky-Cheese meets Dave & Buster's for kids and it was fine for what it is...a place with lots of kids running around playing games that light up.  There was an area with little "rides" for the smaller kids (I think these were taken straight from the front of an old grocery store that was closing).  Jocelyn enjoyed the little carousel, of course.  We managed to round up a good chunk of tickets and Jocelyn was able to pick out a prize.  She picked out a rubber duck, plastic bracelet, a plastic crayon savings bank and a couple of little smoosh balls.  We put some change in her savings bank and she spent about an hour yesterday taking the money out and putting it back in.  

 

 

Murder Mystery Birthday Party

Last year for my birthday, I took a leap and hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner Party...it was awesome.  So this year I decided to do the same thing, but I made this one bigger and better.  We had a great time and I had so much fun planning this party.  This year was "Lights! Camera! MURDER!," set in Hollywood at an Oscar-after party.  I spent hours putting together decorations, assigning characters, organizing the sequence of events, and putting together the menu.  This year, instead of an actual sit down meal, I did more of an eclectic buffet but I labeled the food to fit the theme.  We had Chicago-style Pizza Bites, Inglorious Pasta, The DIP-arted (Spinach Dip), Million Dollar Baby Green Salad with Bravehearts of Romaine, Money (Sausage) Ball(s), and Extremely Loud Fruit and Incredibly Close Vegetables. 

 

The evening began with a walk on the red carpet!  I give props to all my guests who really got into their character and went above and beyond in their outfits.  Great job! 

 

 

 

After the guests had a chance to mingle for a while and complete some of their very important objectives, the terrible murder of Angel Wood occured.

Then, the mystery had to be solved.  But who did it?  Let the bribery, extortion, and deceit begin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course everyone was a suspect and had to have their mug shot taken!

By the end of the night, we discovered who the murderer was and no one guessed correctly.  He (or she) was that good at covering his (or her) tracks!  I won't spill the beans here just in case. 

Everyone did a great job of getting into character and mingling with people that they had never met before.  Murder mystery parties are great at helping perfect strangers became well acquainted. What an awesome birthday!  Can't wait until next year.

Sunday School

This Sunday Jocelyn went to her first Sunday School class!  She did really well sitting and listening to the lesson and coloring on her worksheet.  The teachers did a great job keeping the lesson quick and easy for the little ones who have such a short attention span. 

After church and Sunday School, we went to Gringo's for lunch with Ya Ya, Jennifer, Kenny, Owen and Thaden.  Jocelyn loves Gringo's because of the chips, avocado and ice cream!  Here she is enjoying her favorite part: