Mojo turned 13 today! Isn’t she beautiful?
I am working mainly weekends now, but I was able to get my nights switched to Thur & Fri this week so I could be home tonight for her birthday. Even so, after working the past couple nights and sleeping today, we just planned for her to have a few friends over to enjoy some burgers and cake and maybe movies or something.
In typical Mojo fashion, a couple days before her birthday, she issued a challenge. (Remember the Star Trek party?)
“You know what would be really cool, Mom? A Sherlock-themed party.”
Oooooh. That really would be cool. The possibilities for a Sherlock-themed party are great, and I couldn’t really do it justice with such a limited budget and time. But I couldn’t resist playing with it. I planned and schemed last night in between caring for my patients, woke up at 1:30pm, made a mad rush to the grocery store for food and supplies while my oldest daughter googled and printed and made a phone call to her law-enforcement Grandpa, and we started the party around 5pm. Here’s what we managed in that amount of time.
We changed our address to 221B Baker Street, and our house became a crime scene. Thanks, Papaw Bob, for letting us borrow the police tape! As I was unloading the truck from my shopping trip, I noticed a police cruiser in front of our next-door neighbor’s house, and the officer was speaking to our neighbors. He walked over to our yard to inquire about the police tape, and I explained about the party. And then I updated my Facebook status so that our local friends wouldn’t be wondering. Word travels fast in a small town. hehehe
I saw a few ideas online for some Sherlock-themed games, but Mojo said “I’m 13, Mom. We’re too old for party games.” Well, alright. But I would’ve gotten a game of Clue if I could’ve found it on my hurried shopping trip. I did print out and laminate Sherlock’s wall so that we could shoot at it with Caveman’s nerf gun.
Other than that, we put out a few simple decorations…
(Folding our black napkins into origami lotus flowers was a fail, but I did make a neat rose.
And I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say “We can’t giggle—it’s a crime scene!”)
…served tea & biscuits and fish & chips…
…decorated cupcakes with Sherlock images…
…and watched the Sherlock Holmes movies and the BBC Sherlock episodes.
(We rarely buy store-bought birthday cards anymore. They are more fun to personalize.)
Yeah, this was probably more fun that just plain ol’ burgers and cake. I may revisit it in the future with more planning. Petri dishes with jello in them? A skull on the mantel? Scones to go with our tea and maybe some meat pasties or cottage pie for dinner? A good ol’ murder mystery to solve? Some Bach violin music playing in the background? Lots of fun possibilities!
