Lethal Luau

It all started one fine day when Dieuwke took me into a wonderful, magical, and slightly mystical world called "Hooked on Toys" Hooked on Toys has everything! And I do mean everything. Whilst we were meandering around the toys and weaving in and out of the aisles we happened to stumble upon an aisle that had countless murder mystery dinner games. Oh, I was in heaven! I've always been intrigued by that game- ever since we had a done a Book of Mormon murder mystery in YW/YM when I was 16- and in fact Pam and I almost threw one once titled, "Burrito's Bandito's" but we were unfortunately halted by the shocking lack of fake mustaches to be found in our home town of Ogden.

Anyways, Dieuwke and I solemnly swore (in our hearts at least) that we would one day throw a fabulous murder mystery (hereby shortened to MM because I'm really tired of typing out murder mystery) dinner. So in the beginning of August I set aside a certain amount of my paycheck and we went down into Wenatchee to check out all of the different available MM games.

There were quite a few that seemed like they would be absolutely hilarious! There was a winter one (which I unfortunately can't remember the name of) a western one (Honky Tonk Murder) one set in the 50's (Iced over the Grill) one with an Italian theme (Pasta, Passion, and Pistols) and then there were some made by a different company that had a little bit more, innuendo shall we say, than the others games did, but this company had some fabulous titles (including Grounds for Murder-set in a coffee shop by the by- Roman Ruins, and An Affair to Dismember) So after looking at all the titles and story lines and everything and taking a catalog of things we'd have to buy versus things we already had at home, and taking into account the fact that it was summer Dieuwke and I went with the MM game titled Lethal Luau.

We bought Lethal Luau on a Monday and we decided that we'd just throw all caution to the wind and host the party that very Saturday. (Saturday the 21st) So the week was a busy whirl of getting out invitations, planning out what we'd make, what we'd need to buy, how we'd decorate, etc....We did all of the major shopping on Friday afternoon and we tried to plan out exactly how Saturday would need to go.

Saturday dawned bright and early and so did Dieuwke and I, well, Dieuwke did. I only dawned bright and early if you consider 9 bright...and early.... One of the ladies that we had invited is severely allergic to cats and dogs so the day began with an EXTREMELY complete cleansing of the house. We dusted, vacuumed, washed, swept, mopped, and well, pretty much anything that is in the realm of cleaning? We did it. After that we began to decorate-- and here we shall let the pictures commence.

Please disregard the corn dog box in the corner-- we had to make the kids lunch but it had to be something unmessy :-D Anyhow, this was our lovely centerpiece!

Close up on a side decoration

In an effort to set the mood (and because we couldn't find a real parrot that big) we found a window covering. You're starting to feel it now aren't you?! Welcome to Hawaii!

By the way- Sarongs make the BEST cover ups while still being decorative! It rocked my socks off

Because nothing says Luau Party like the actual words "Luau Party"

Add in some snorkeling gear and we've really got a theme going!

Get some extra seashells and, well, you've got some extra seashells (I didn't want to say anything akin to "You've got some good decorations" again....)

So then Dieuwke and I had a brilliant idea! There was a dead body right? (Hence the whole title Murder Mystery...) and how would we know that there really WAS a dead body unless there was a tape outline of one?! So what did we do? We taped an outline of a dead body! *Many thanks to Jake for being our dead body dummy*

And our dead body came to be that way by drinking a poisoned drink- so of course we had to have an outline of the offending mug!

Ok, let me just give a little background before the next 10 pictures or so. During our cleaning spree one of the things that we cleaned off was Dieuwke's fridge. Well, without any pictures or papers or anything on it it looked horridly bare. So Dieuwke hit on the amazing idea of drawing on it with dry erase markers! (Definitely something I'd recommend to mothers with kids- it was something that kept kids enthralled and it was easy to clean off) What started out as just a silly idea to cover up some space soon became a master work of art!

Let's start with the basics, sun, coconut trees, and a beach

Add in some water life and of course some plants and coral (and our real clay fish-- the only fridge decoration that we left on the fridge) and we've really got something going

Then we put in a fallen coconut-- his name is Bob, Bob the Coconut

Suddenly we realized that it would just be so much more realistic if we had a volcano erupting on our fridge! Way off in the distance

And of course every beach on Hawaii is packed with beachers and towels and umbrellas, why should this be any different?

Say hello to our wonderful artist- adding in some birds and clouds as we read

Unfortunately we got carried away on one of the birds and then it looked like a mustache-- ah yes you say, the infamous Mustache Bird! (Not often found in the wild but fairly commonly see on household fridges)

Then we had just a little bit of empty space at the bottom

Our finished product! Isn't it beautiful?!?!

Then we set the table (doesn't it look so festive? I was kind of proud of that)

The living room! Or...the murder scene!

The dish washer! (I know, we covered that well didn't we?)

And our drink area! The little pamphlet wanted us to have Mai Tai's and beer available for our guests-- we decided to be really boring and just have fruit punch and Izze's- but we still tried to make it look awesome!

Ok, so let me give you some more background. The unfortunate dead soul was Chase Diamond- Ace Detective (Steph, Val- are you thinking what I'm thinking? You'd better be...) and Maui's chief womanizer. He was having a birthday party on his lovely Hawaiin property but danger (who was no stranger to Chase) was lying in wait for him and somebody poisoned his Mai Tai!! The guests to his party were the following people:

Leilani! (Dieuwke) A hawaiin dancer who has known Chase for a few years and occasionally entertained for him....privately...

Birdie Putt (Bonnie) a professional golfer who happened to be in Hawaii for a huge golfing tournament (She actually wasn't invited to the party- she was just the first responder on the scene who tried to give Chase CPR)

FORE!!! (Except, it's with a croquet mallet and not a putter, 'cause that's all we had...)

Joey Breakers (Tom) Known as Bo-Jo (Bodacious Joey) to his friends he's been Chase's best friend since college. He did all the dirty work for Chase (breaking in, planting bugs, finding evidence, etc...) but Chase always got all the glory

Les Baggs (Jared) a clumsy tourist who lost his bags and hired Chase Diamond to find them for him- to the tune of $500/day, was there something important in them perchance? And Nadia Seymour (Kimberly) a top model who had been dating Chase but wanted to get serious- and he wanted to stay light

Holly Day (Mary Lou) An eccentric millionaire who was sailing around Hawaii in her 70 foot yacht. Known for her boy toys despite her husband Howard's disapproval, she had only known Chase for a few days- or so it would seem

Chief Wiki-Wiki (Mike) Like a father to Chase he was also Leilani's employer and he worked for the Museum of Artifacts on Maui

And there they were- our 6 suspects and our 1 witness. What would they find? What would the night foretell for them?! One of them is a murderer *dun dun dun* but which one?!

Nadia and Les reading over their characters

Haha! Ok, so about 1/3 of the way into our evening Leilani got an unpleasant surprise! She had to perform a native Hawaiin dance for all of us! And not only that- she had to explain the symbolism behind all of her gestures and hand movements

It started out peaceful, and serene (I really wish all these pictures had come out better)

But quickly it turned to violence, anger, and accusations

And then she brought out the shotgun!!

I really really wish I had more to follow but the camera started giving out. Just know that after the shotgun was removed from the dance it came to a slow, peaceful ending. And by the by- total kudos to Dieuwke for doing her dance on the spot- she SO totally rocked it!

And Les was absolutely brilliant that night! He played his part of the bumbling tourist SO well! He had all of us in stitches

Discussing the murder, possible suspects and facts gathered

All in all the evening went of absolutely swimmingly! The food was delicious, the guests were hilarious, and when the final secret was uncovered and the murderer revealed some of us were surprised, some of us were victorious, and of course one of us was in jail! I'd love to tell you who it was but that'd totally ruin it if I ever throw this one again (and believe you me, I plan on doing this again)

There were of course a few hitches since this was the first time that Dieuwke and I had ever done this but all in all it went over much better than we'd hoped and our blunders were either overlooked or just laughed about with our company. That was the main reason that we had invited the Baileys and the Meyers- knowing they'd be ok if it wasn't absolutely perfect and that we'd all have a great time anyways.

After the party was over and the guests had left Dieuwke and I cleaned up the dinner, some of the decorations (although the fridge and the taped body stayed for a few days) and collapsed gratefully onto the couch. It was over, it was a success, and we were dead tired! Would we do it again though? Oh I would say yes! :-D

Adventures in Leavenworth-- River Walk and Munchen Haus Edition

One fine day a gal named Bonnie woke up and realized that it was a blissful Monday- her day off. With a song in her heart (and let's be honest, coming out of her vocal chords) she got up and began to get ready for her day. With her wonderful little outfit and fun matching accessories she went out of her camper only to be greeted by her equally happy sister. It would seem that the little girls next door had Strep Throat (which these gals were of course not happy about because that would be heartless and bad) and as a result Dieuwke had the day off as well (which these gals were very happy about). These facts were then combined with the fact that Ethan was off gallivanting with his Auntie Valerie and there were only Dieuwke's two little darlin's to be watched. As often happens in these situations 1 + 1 = 2 and a glorious day began to form.

As you may have already guessed (and as I'm certainly hoping you already HAVE guessed) I was one of those gals and Dieuwke (which you BETTER have guessed since I named her by name) was the other. As we were throwing around different possibilites for what we could do with our sudden freedom I suggested walking around Blackbird Island which has always been one of my favorite- if indeed not my very favorite- walks around Leavenworth. Dieuwke was amenable to this suggestion and thus our adventure began.

I LOVE the fact that Aurora has already started practicing flirting with a fan! (And the fact that it's an Avatar- The Last Airbender fan just makes everything that much better)

Arrival at the beginning of the trail!

We saw a park...and then we got distracted for a good 1/2 or so....

And Aurora our ever social butterfly would cheerfully stop her swinging or sliding to call out a greeting to whatever passerby happened to be, well, passing by

This was her "I'm finished sliding and I am now going to pose a super cool pose" Pose

Have I mentioned that I love swinging? 'Cause I totally do. Alot. In an episode of 'Bones' (which I also love alot) there is a date where they go swinging.  I saw that and fell in love with idea. I figure that I now will be able to tell which man I should marry easily because he'll be the man who takes me on a date swinging.

Then we made it to the river (which by the by is where our journey effectively ended- we had so much fun at the river that we spent all our time there and never actually finished the walk- but we had tons of fun with rocks!)

EPIC picture! Aurora was skipping rocks and someone (read ME!) got this awesome photo not only of Aurora skipping a rock but the actual rock in the very act of skipping! I was pretty stoked....

So then of course I had to give it a try

And then I had an 8 year old giving me instruction on how to do it and watching me to make sure I did it properly (I'm telling you, my ego takes so many bruises from these kids)

I'm fairly certain this is the only picture we have of me actually skipping a rock (possibly because it's the only time it happened...I had some pretty fancy splashes though!)

And then- we found the PERFECT skipping rock! (How's the look on my face? I was going for reverential...I think I managed to hit 'odd')

And then I kissed it for luck. Because if it works on dice it should work on skipping rocks right? Yeah only problem with that is that it doesn't work on dice....there will be no follow up picture because the follow up was disappointing- because of me, not the rock :-D

Isabelle, looking mischievously adorable

And then Dieuwke decided to fish for a rock!

Making the grab!

VICTORY!!! She has the...rock...wow, that was really anticlimactic to write. In real life though it was totally awesome

And Isabelle was TOTALLY packing her pockets full of rocks (all I could think of when I saw her was that Dr. Seuss book "There's a wocket in my pocket") She was uber disappointed when we told her she could only take one home

And THEN Dieuwke found a rock that looked like a battleship! (You can totally imagine where this is going can't you? Yeah, we're total 5 year olds)

After playing around with it in the water for a while we safely docked it into the shore where it's fighters could safely disembark

And then we found the Ice Cream Sandwhich Rock! (I'm telling you this river had THE COOLEST rocks in it!)

And honestly, what do you do with an Ice Cream Sandwhich rock but eat it? Or at least attempt to

And then we made friends with Mrs. Duck who came by to play with Isabelle

But after she started playing that fun splashing game Mrs. Duck made a speedy exit

So finally after about 1 1/2 hours we decided that we were done at the river and that the idea of walking around the whole island was dismissed in favor of food. We were quite hungry and today was our day to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted (we of course drew the line at all things illegal...maybe...or at least as we will admit) so we decided to jet up to Munchen Haus and have so freaking amazing sausages for lunch!

Me (well, obviously), perusing the menu while we waited in the forever long line

Hahaha! This bag of chips totally cracked us up! Who knew that New York Cheddar chips could get EVEN Cheddier! (Cheddier? Is that a word? Should I say cheesier instead?)

Isabelle, very begrudgingly giving her Mom exactly 4 chip pieces

I know! It's like bigger than her face!

Getting ready for her scrumptious first bite!

Oh yeah, that's some good stuff Maynardette!

And me getting ready for MY scrumdidliumptious (that's right- my first bite was better) first bite!

Oh ho it was SO good! (And very hot- as may be obvious by the picture...)

Isabelle didn't want to sit with us- she had to be all cool over there on her own

And then we all got some pretty amazing ice cream cones!

And Dieuwke and I did a 'scumps' toast to each other and our day with out ice cream

I would like to now introduce 2 very important new additions to our family. The one on the left is Calico- Dieuwke's new pet rock that we picked up at the river (we were each allowed to take one after all) And the one on the right is Cinnamon, my bet rock. Cinnamon and Calico are BFF :-P

So there we have it-- the adventures and decisions of two lovely girls who awoke to a brand new week and discovered a degree of freedom in their day that had been unanticipated! Isn't life grand?!