A Really Great Thanksgiving with a Really Great Family.

We spent Thanksgiving with Michael's family, in a church building on their property. It was the only place big enough to house ALL these people! We missed a few of the cousins who couldn't make it, but it was still a great time. This is the happiest family ever...

Nana and Baby Susie

Papaw and Susie and the TRUCK. The truck story will be one of my favorite Thanksgiving memories for years to come... 

Morgan and Jaxon.

Aunt Jennifer looking completely gorgeous. And thin! I would hate her except that she's just as beautiful on the inside.

Baby Kendall. She slept through the entire Thanksgiving dinner, poor darling. 

Susie doing what she does best... reaching for more food.

Girl loves to eat.

The only picture I got of Aunt Dora! 

Uncle Buddy entertaining.

Hey! There's me!

And Susie with... how many rolls DID she eat?! I lost count.... 

The truck again. 

Coconut pie, courtesy of Aunt Dora.

And chocolate pie. Dora is famous for her pies... 

And Italian Cream cake!

The boys. Nothing good can come from this.

My devastatingly handsome boyfriend. I am lucky... 

Papaw and his girl. 

Pretty baby.  A few extra chins after all those rolls she ate... 

Papaw's hands that are an older version of Michael's. And an older version of Baby Susie's. 

The fam. 

Yes, he's mine. 

Susie is pleading with Aunt Jennifer to let her play with the ipad, because her mean parents won't buy her one.

And Aunt Jennifer was suckered in.

She'll be walking on her own in no time. And FYI, that outfit was long enough when I bought it a month ago. Slow down Susie! 

Favorite cousins.

Oh yeah, the truck story? Susie picked up this truck belonging to one of the triplets and played with it until he noticed, at which point he snatched it away from her. Papaw was NOT having that and he went after the truck and gave it back to Susie. It's a picture of things to come I'm afraid... if Susie wants it, she'll only need to ask Papaw.

Great pose, Drew. :)

Sherry and Baby Susie

Uncle Tommy

The happiest family ever.

This should be their Christmas card pic. 

Lysa and Roger and fam.

If you liked this post PLEASE share it with your friends! ~ Melissa Beene Taylor

I'm reading: A Really Great Thanksgiving with a Really Great Family.

A SPooKY Fun Twelfth Birthday Murder Mystery Party.

I have a 12-year-old now.

A TWELVE YEAR OLD. Gah! I know, every single birthday post begins with a big lament about years passing quickly, so I'll spare you this time. (But you can go here if you want to see twelve years of pictures of my sweet wittle honey punkin in her younger years...)

As cute as she was then... as much fun as I've had being her mom... I love her now more than ever. She's turned into exactly what I wanted my daughters to be... sweet, kind, smart, a hard worker, a good friend, funny, happy, and beautiful. And I don't think I'm biased because I'm her mom; she's always been a cute little freckle-faced kid, but sometimes lately I catch a glimpse of her and it just hits me: wow, she's so pretty! Like, grown-up pretty. And I'm so, so proud of her and the person she's becoming.

So this is how we celebrated...

So many fun girls!

Since her birthday is November 1st, I've always toyed with the idea of a Halloween-themed birthday party. Except that we're Christians, and I've gone back and forth on how we should 'do' Halloween because I'm bipolar like that. Is it wrong? But it's so fun to dress up! But will people think we're big fat sinners if we have a Halloween party for her birthday??!? But costumes are fun! I DON'T KNOW!! I was raised NOT celebrating Halloween. I never went trick-or-treating, ever, and then I grew up and rebelled and take my kids trick-or-treating every year. But still, we don't do demons, or corpses, or deathly things like that, and... good grief, I'm digressing.

To make a long story short, Katie wanted a murder mystery party where the guests dress up and act out parts, and we figure out who the murderer is at the end. And I was nervous and scared that nobody would come because, you know, Halloween, and murder, and being Christians and all... and if they came, would they even WANT to dress up? IS THIS A LAME IDEA?! 

I worry, ok? 
But they did! They came, they DRESSED UP, they turned it OUT, y'all! AND IT WAS SO INCREDIBLY MUCH FUN! ~ So much fun, that several of the girls said we should do this again every year... and so we just might!
The invitations were SO cute, if I do say so myself, and invited twelve guests to the EVIL LEAGUE OF EVIL CONVENTION, where, as it turns out, Lex Luthor was murdered. 

And one of these scary people did it... 

The Villians

The beverages... Blood Punch (aka cranberry juice and ginger ale). With floating spiders. Creepy!

Dad and baby, aka Cruella Devil's puppy, after baby got hot and had to lose her puppy costume, and before she got loud and dad had to take her home to go to bed. She was terrified of the Wicked Witch and let EVERYONE in the building know it... 

The cake. Cookie cake is ALWAYS a favorite.

At one point the villians left the party to go get some attention from the boys playing basketball in the gym below. Middle school girls will be middle school girls... 

Dr. Horrible holds Cruella hostage.

Professor Moriarty and the Wicked Witch of the West

Darth Vader, who forgot her costume

Add caption

The birthday girl, Cruella Devil

The villains 

The Grim Reaper <<<<< shiver >>>>>

Dr. Horrible

The Grim Reaper in one of her less-scary moments

The Conniving Cat Woman

Pretty Cruella :)

Poison Ivy reading her script

The Queen of Hearts. This girl was AWESOME! I loved the heart-shaped lips. 

Annie was Old Man Biff from Back to the Future, and had on a track suit before it got too hot... 

Professor Moriarty revealed as the MURDERER. *gasp*

Cat Woman and Captain Barbossa 

The party favor bag contained wax fangs, among other villainous goodies.

Cat Woman and the Riddler

So much silliness.

So much fun. I can't wait to do it again next year. 

Oh, I bought the script for this super-fun party from imakieper on eBay! She writes all her own murder mysteries, and they're all clean and wholesome.

If you liked this post PLEASE share it with your friends! ~ Melissa Beene Taylor

I'm reading: A SPooKY Fun Twelfth Birthday Murder Mystery Party.