Holding the World in a Paper Cup

Showing posts with label 11 years old. Show all posts

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Charley's Room

Charley wanted a gypsy room. Actually she also wanted the whole family to turn INTO gypsies. I figured I was pretty dang gypsy as is and we could never imagine Chuck is gypsy garb. So. That was another child dream she had to let go. :( BUT, her room, well, it wasn't a caravan, but I did the best I could.

Fabric makes a HUGE difference. In a room, at a party, anywhere! Fabric is key.

Even though these prints weren't exactly gypsy, I thought hanging them together without frames looked totally gypsy-ish. Thanks Mom and Craig for always asking me before you let things go.

You can count on me to hoard it up and put it to good use.

e.g. The drafting table! The table once belonged to Charley's Granddiddy. Prior to that it belonged to Leo, Craig's Dad. Now it's been passed down to the youngest artist in the family.

Charley has, and continues to, use it well.

I blogged about the chair long ago. I found two of them at a thrift store in real ugly state. I painstakingly taped all the wood that wasn't concealed under ugly gray pads, and spray painted the metal. I pulled off the tape and pads to reveal the most beautiful natural wood ever. And for some reason, I let one of the chairs go when we moved to Alaska. :( I regret that decision.

And it doesn't get anymore gypsy than this original painting that Craig was going to PAINT OVER until I guilted him into giving it to me.

I love, love, love this painting. He painted it from an actual scene down in New Orleans.

Ok so this HUGE buffet is missing and knob and has an obvious scrape down it's entire length because Charley continuously RAKED her chair along it (when it was in another room)

but it's ok because...

#1 Who really cares?

#2 It's very functional and holds all of her art supplies.

#3 It's a gypsy room! Anything goes!

And when I say anything goes, I also mean this dresser that was shabby chic'd to death.

(I bought it that way, and NO I didn't feel like changin' it.)

Charley found the pictures of the gypsy children (they really seem like legit paintings of gypsy children) and painted the frames a beautiful maroon. I was so proud.

Charley has always been an animal girl. When she was little she was ALL about animals. She'd straight read non-fiction animals books all the time. She's perfected every every wild cat roar.

I'm serious. She'll make you jump with her wild cat calls. I bought this coyote face for her at a yard sale in Virginia and somewhere along our way she talked me into a thrift store mink. I don't like him because he's gross and his feet keep falling off but she loves him. I suspect the old footless thing will be with us for a long time.

Charley is a child with many interests. (Did you see the Ivan Kolaff picture hanging on her mirror and the boxing gloves under the buffet?) It was hard for her to say goodbye to Virginia and all the friends she made there, but I left feeling confident she'd make her way just fine in a new place. She's a confident, charismatic, kind, loving, talented, interesting, hilarious, precious child. To know her, is to love her.

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Sunday, February 19, 2017

Mystery Party: Charley's 11 Year Old Birthday Party

Y'all want me to tell you who's insane? Me. I am. Charley and I decided a mystery party would be the way to go for her 11th birthday (friend) party. Y'all know we already had a "family" party.

Like I said, crazy. So I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off planting elaborate clues using Chuck's script as a guide.

Y'all want me to tell you who's an incredibly awesome writer? Chuck is.

Opening Scene

· Dining room decorated for party. Birthday cake visible on table. Party guests are gathered around table. Attention is naturally drawn to cake (with some encouragement from parents, Hayley and Chuck). Parents talk to guests about school etc…

Act I

· Chuck explains how cake is his favorite food. But, because he is training for a marathon he says, “I’ve been on a diet since the beginning of the month and haven’t been able to eat cake… “Hayley here keeps a close watch over me. So, I won’t be able to sneak just a little taste today. She knows how important running the marathon is to me….got to stay in shape you know….”

· Guests are distracted and shuffled into Charley’s room.

o Hayley says, “Charley, show the girls your keyboard (or something) while we set up party games.” [We remove cake from table and hide it in a safe location. Location=cabinet above refrigerator.]

· Guests are called back to the dining room to discover the missing cake.

o Hayley calls out, “Girls come back into the room, time for party games”. (Chuck is in living room watching T.V.).

o Hayley notices the cake is missing, is surprised, and questions Charley why she took the cake into her room.

o As girls explain how they know nothing about the cake…. Hayley looks to the living room to ask Chuck if he did something with the cake. Chuck says, “No, but I think you need to come in here and see this.” Chuck is watching the news and a report comes up about the Mathews County cake thief being on the loose. [The report is prerecorded maybe by, Sunny and Ethan. Using Sunny and Ethan adds complexity by creating more characters. Might get dull if we are every character. Too, if they are willing to do it, I bet it will be really good.]

Aunt Sunny was willing and very capable. This is what she sent us...

· :

Having an acting aunt and uncle has its benefits. Wasn't that incredible??

Act II

· Chuck and Hayley are surprised and gather the children together to figure out what to do next.

o Hayley says, “I can’t believe this. That was a perfect cake, just exactly what our little birthday girl wanted.”

o Chuck says, “I’m so sorry, this really stinks, I think we have some candy corns and tootsie rolls left over from last Halloween. The paper is melted to the tootsie rolls. But, if you put them in the freezer for a while I bet you can pull most of the wrapper off”

o Hayley says, “No! That will not do. We need to find Charley’s cake. I have a degree in Criminal Justice and have watched a lot of Scooby Doo. We can do this. Come on girls! (Chuck goes back to the TV to find more on the news. Hayley prepares the girls to locate the cake.)

· Hayley leads the girls on a cake hunt, Chuck comes along.

o [Hayley, you first introduce the girls to the tools that will be used to find the missing cake. Tools are relevant to the scavenger hunt clues you will have placed prior the party.]

So from there I organized the mystery hunt...

I packed clearance backpacks with all the tools needed to complete the mystery.

Plus cotton candy

Smeared cake icing on the wall and bathroom doorknob led the crew to the first clue in a dark room.

The light switch was taped so they needed their flashlights.

The message was written with icing from (supposedly) another cake.

This is the work of a "cake monster" after all. He's crazy about cake.

The girls ran outside to the minnow trap led by the "little minnows" statement.

The minnow trap was tied to a tree so they reeled it in. They found a clue in a waterproof container that said, “If you were smart you’d spend more time on the mainframe. You’ll need to take a chance for the password.” That led them to the computer where drinks were set up with letters at the bottom of each glass.

They had to drink them all to discover the letters then put together to make the password they needed to log onto the computer.

One was poison (that was the "chance" they had to take).

Here's where they entered the password.

"TASTY"

Which opened to reveal a message written in wingdings.

Once translated their next clue was revealed.

Notice the letters in bold. The girls realized they'd have to piece them together to get to the next clue.

When they figured it out they ran out to SLOW CHILDREN sign.

The clue was backwards (they used their mirrors) to see that it said, “Pink boxes are for girls.” They ran to Charley's room and looked under her bed.

(Chuck gives up as says he is going to the store to get another cake.) The clue read, “I’d ask you what 48 X 22 is but your brains are peanuts.” So they run to the pantry and pulled out their calculators. 48X22 was the combination to the lock.

Inside the peanut container the clue says, “You’re only 6 feet from becoming very heated.”

So they pull out their tape measures and in the oven they find...

Drawers belong to the coffee table with the cats that live on top.

Eventually they find glasses that have messages inside lens ("SEE for yourselves").
Once pieced together the message says, “You’ve made Papa angry."

There was a tiny message in Papa Bear’s hand that required magnification. “Gidean glade breaden catomuont? Black cloak Mr. Thorne forest FOREST? Mr. Vanderbilt!" This sounds crazy but it's actually a code using a key Charley created months earlier after she was inspired by a book. Charley leads them to the key which is still on the bulletin board. They use it to decode the clue to find it actually says,“What could you do? Go in the Forest. Yes.”