All of Liana's birthday parties

So Liana's 14 now. Her birthday was last Saturday. My mom friends shudder when the topic of Liana getting older comes up. I've gotta say: so far so good. The roughest Liana period so far has been ages 8-11ish, and that was probably due to all the changes in her family life at that time. She's a pretty good cookie.

How to Host a Murder Mystery

Liana had been asking to host a murder mystery party since Halloween before last. I had stupidly pitched it as a possibility for a Halloween party and then retracted the offer when I realized how much work was involved. I also didn't want the end result to be at the mercy of a bunch of 12 year olds following a script. When Liana suggested a murder mystery for her birthday party this year I initially groaned but my perspective changed when I found Deadly Ever After: A Fairy Tale Murder Mystery on Etsy.

Purchasing a script was a huge time saver but purchasing an independent one had its downfalls. The writing/grammar made me cringe. The formatting was super basic. The listing didn't actually advertize a minimum age so I ended up dimming down some of more risque things (sleep with -> kissed, in love with -> has a crush on, sexy -> cute). The story was tight and the characters well-developed so I still gave the seller a glowing recommendation.

Pre-event work included the invites, casting, distributing pre-event clues, and preparing envelopes for every character for each of three rounds.

Big thanks to Kevin and Becka for sharing instrumental music that suited an "enchanted forest" setting. Becka also set up a photo booth and took (many, many) candid shots of the party while wearing her Miaou! Photography hat. Chrissy from Cici & Co made vegan chocolate/raspberry cupcakes with blank toppers and complimentary edible markers for the kids to doodle (and doodle they did).

Liana and I decorated. Mostly we cleared stuff out, like we couldn't have our abstract space painting in an enchanted forest. We cleared out some of the furniture in the living and dining rooms. We made a big tree on one wall from brown paper towels and Dollarama shrubbery. We hung up her fairy painting.  We placed sparkly flower vines here and there.

I had a blast setting up the food. After shutting down many complicated thematic appetizers I could make, I went with a cheaper and less time-consuming route of purchasing general snack food and giving it thematic names. 

The tape lessened the effect but obviously a glue gun was out of the question

Oh there were prestigious awards for best acting, best costume, and best investigative skills (trophy, thematic gift, and $10 gc to the movies) - essentially how I displaced the loot bag budget

The wands had little sandwich bags with Skittles attached to them

There was also chocolate fondue, mmm

The vegan ones

You can't really see but at the ends there are pickles with toothpicks for ears and wrap for bodies

All the little artists

Proof that she still talks to me with her friends around!

 

Lunch at the Green Door

Sunday we met up with Casey at the Green Door for a birthday lunch. Unfortunately the heavy snowfall deterred the Mountain Grove family from making the drive (will winter never end?!). Glad Casey took some photos!

Dinner at my parents'

My parents had us and my cousin over for a birthday dinner. The final celebration of Liana's 14th!

My mom's cousin is visiting from Portugal :)

Auntie Loo cake I picked up melted a little...

All the cousins

Still no cake for this baby

Portuguese jewelry ooooooh

New apron

More things from Mod Cloth

Entertaining debate with Darcy on the merits of a transparent raincoat

And this is why we usually do lunches and not dinners

Beaver buggies + Terra 20 Adventure + Princess Toadstool

Beaver Buggies

Every year at Beavers the Cubs set up race tracks for the Beavers to race buggies they make.Caleb's buggie was called Candyland since, as a ploy to get him to get rid of his leftover Halloween candy, I suggested we hot glue gun candy to it. Candyland won some races and lost some.

There were also two army men shooting at lizards (lizards trying to steal candy)

Terra 20 Adventure

The problem with having gifted Liana a Terra 20 gift card for Christmas was that she wanted me to drive her to Terra 20 (near the Ikea) and I hate winter driving. After having rescheduled a few times, I committed to taking her Saturday before last. As has been a frequent occurrence this winter we woke up to a snowstorm and bad road conditions. I didn't want to bail on her so I proposed we bus (while secretly hoping it would dissuade her from wanting to go. Anyway, a few buses and cold/windy walks later we made it, she shopped, and had coffee at Starbucks afterwards. It was her first caffeinated Starbucks beverage, because she's getting older.

Princess Toadstool

Can you say modern parenting meme waiting to happen? We bought Evelyn a safety helmet. She falls a lot, gets hurt, and we worry. The helmet was $20, it's super light, and there's some patting on the front that also prevents her from face-planting and hurting her face. It's saved her from head falls pretty much every day she's worn it so far.

Miscellaneous

Caleb and I went to see the LEGO movie and it was quite good! May just pick up the DVD when it becomes available.

Liana turned 14 (!) and weekend celebrations took place. There will be a separate blog entry to cover her parties once we receive the photos taken.

Initial babyproofing (turns out baby is attracted to xbox and floor lamp)

Trying to get Caleb's attention while he plays Minecraft

Visiting grandmaman

Grandmaman getting the baby

New flower toy

Hat hair after a going out for a walk

Month 9 Milestones

This was an eventful baby month!

Some of Evelyn's former favourite things are now her least favourite. Diaper changes (aka naked wiggle time) were the bees knees until about three days ago when they became the worst thing ever. Bath time and diaper changes are a challenge because she does not want to lie down - she wants to stand up and move around. Playing with toys on her playmat? Been there and done that. Though at times she still enjoys car rides it's no longer a sure thing. She prefers to play in awkward spots of the house than on her play mat with toys. Hallways  and staircases have an appeal, apparently.

Evelyn's new favourite thing to do is explore. These last few weeks she's started crawling, climbing and assisted walking. With this has come a few falls including one resulting in a fat/bloody lip, baby proofing the house, and more frequent arms-length presence. As soon as she figures out one thing she moves on to the next and it's a lot of trial and error. Practically the same day that she could crawl she started climbing/standing, and now she pretty much only crawls in order to get to somewhere she can stand. She just started being able to steadily walk along furniture and yesterday she started doing it while moving her hips all dance-like. She makes new sounds, tries to mimic syllables we say, and tries to say "dog" and "banana". She's also learned how to clap her hands.

Food-wise, Evelyn's enjoying new tastes and textures. Three meals a day is now a regular thing. She still favours bananas and cereal but also enjoys avocados with cream cheese, pears, yogurt, and small pieces of cooked vegetables (broccoli, carrots, peas, parsnips, sweet potatoes) and pasta. I was sure she'd like cream of corn baby food. It's nutritionally void and we mostly make her food so I hadn't ever offered her any. I thought it would be such a treat due to its sweetness but to my surprise she hated it! Like, cried when it made contact with her mouth. I tried again the next day and same reaction. Then I tried a sweet potato puree and she cried but I feed her pieces of sweet potatoes and that was a hit. We've deduced she thinks purees are for little babies and decided to no longer insult her by offering her little baby food.

So she's basically fast-tracked into this older baby all of a sudden. It's exhausting but it's also a blast! Here are the pictures. Obviously nearly impossible to have her just sit still as per above so she's just doing her thing.