Life of Christ #24

Day 24

Mary and the Resurrected Lord

GAP #233

Mary Magdalene found Jesus’ tomb empty on the third day after His death.  She turned and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not recognize Him.  She thought he was the gardener or caretaker and said, “Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou has laid him, and I will take him away (John 20:15)

Jesus said “Mary.”  She turned and recognized Him and cried, “Rabboni” which means Master (John 20:16)

25 Days of Christ #25

My friend told me that every December she does a timeline of the life of Christ, complete with pictures.  I did it a couple years ago and it was really cool.  I learned/reviewed a lot.  I'm going to do it again this year, but a shorter version of each day.  I'm also going to go backwards so the story and picture of the Savior's birth will be on Christmas.   Just in case you are interested, I will post each day on the blog (hopefully)

Day 25

The Second Coming

GAP # 238

As Jesus Christ ascended into heaven at the completion of His mortal ministry, two angels declared to His Apostles, "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11).

Jesus Christ ascended into heaven at the completion of His mortal ministry, two angels declared to His Apostles, "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11)

 

Elle's 16th Birthday Ball

Long, long ago, (like last year or something) Elle wistfully said it'd be so cool to have a ball like in Jane Austen times.  I mentioned this to my BFF Kristen and we decided we must do it for Elle's sweet 16 birthday!

Kristen said she would sew dresses for all the girls because she believes all girls should have the chance to look beautiful without paying a fortune.  (she's so nice!)

A lady in the ward mentioned that she was a dancer so I asked if she'd be willing to teach a bunch of teenagers how to dance different dances from the 1800's.  She said if I could find videos of people doing those dances then she could probably figure it out.  She did.  It was pretty impressive watching her instruct the kids.

I asked another woman in the ward (who always has her hair done all fancy) if she'd be willing to do Elle's hair for the ball. 

I asked my friend Sara if we could use her ginormous backyard for the ball.  (Actually Kristen asked her because I was afraid to impose)

With all the pieces set in place I began to plan and prepare!

side note: During the party one of Elle's non-member friends asked  who made the dresses, did Elle's hair, taught the dances, and owned the home where the party was.  When Elle told her it was people from church, the friend said "Does everyone in your church have a special talent?!"  She also realized the she was one of two guests that was not LDS, but that's OK.


Thanks to my Silhouette I made props for the photo booth:

and cut shapes in paper bags for luminaries 

and cut out pillow boxes for the party favors

It says "I survived Elle's 16th birthday ball" get it?  Chocolate ball, gum ball. . .

Thankfully, Chris's parents happened to be in town to help.  Mike took pictures and moved tables and chairs while Nola and Chris cooked everything. (Except the desserts.  I did that--mini cheesecakes, mini pecan pie bites, and brownie bites)

Elle got her hair and makeup done:

She looked gorgeous and all grown up in the amazing dress Kristen made

Oh yeah, Kristen gathered all the guys too.  

Don't they look like handsome gentlemen ready to dance with the ladies?!

They were so great!

Elle and Connor

Aw!

Kristen sewed a lot of the guys shirts, vests, and cravats too!

I tell ya, that woman is TALENTED!

Sara and Me!

This is the best picture of the food, unfortunately because I forgot to take one of everything all laid out  :(

Croissant sandwiches, potato soup, mac and cheese, and veggies.

We borrowed lights from another friend and Chris strung them along the palm trees in back

We played reverse charades (it's like Head's Up) and Telestrations with animated movies as the subjects.

The woman in the hat taught them to dance.  

She was awesome.

video:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/I3XFKe8kcAwOOlss2

It was so fun!  It went just as well as I was hoping!  

I think all the kids had a great time too.

I had so much help and couldn't have done it without everyone!

Elle loved it and that made it all worth it

:)

Elle's 16th Birthday!

I cannot even believe Elle is 16 years old already! What the heck?!

Chris had passes to Universal so we spent the day doing all the fun things you do there

 

Like. . .

Harry Potter Land!



We got butter beer, which was delicious, and we rode the Harry Potter ride, which made me nauseous.  It was probably because I had to close my eyes during a good deal of it on account of all the spiders! EW!



We went out for sushi and Chris and Elle enjoyed raw fish and stinky seaweed while I enjoyed my bento box :)

Elle's second choice of birthday dessert was carrot cake, so we totally cheated and bought a big slice at the local pizza place.

It was scrummy!

Then presents:

Elephant earrings

And an elephant necklace!

And a NEW phone!

 

Elle is so glad that it takes seconds instead of minutes to load applications now!

It was a happy day indeed!

Murder at Camp Harvey

I made another murder mystery party and begged Elle to invite some friends over to enjoy it.
This time it was camp-themed and took place at Camp Harvey.  The host/wilderness tour guide  (Elle) invited everyone for the reading of the will of a man they all had connections with.  After a picnic dinner Elle revealed that there was another reason she invited them all: one of them murdered the guy and they would all have to find out who!

Elle helped me decorate.  We had wildlife

And signs:

And trees

I totally forgot to get pictures of everyone!  I didn't even get a group shot! :'(

The characters were

1-Elle--the host and camp tour guide

2-The older son of the deceased who was vice president of his dad's media company

3- The younger son of the deceased who was a lowly mailman

4-A woman running for congress that the deceased was supporting

5-A girl's basketball coach who was a long time friend of the deceased

6-A pretty Jr. News reporter that worked for the deceased

7-A top investigative reporter who also worked for the deceased

8-The housekeeper/cook who worked for the deceased

Everyone talked to each other individually and found out what they knew about someone else that might incriminate that person as the murderer.


Then they all got together to use the evidence they collected to accuse each other and deny everything about themselves.


Finally, they read their confessions one by one until the murderer confessed!

It turns out that Elle was the murderer all along! (She didn't even know until confession time)

The will was written in such a way that any living relative of the deceased's wife would get 50% of everything.  No one knew, but Elle was the sister of the deceased's wife and killed the guy to get the 50%.

This incriminating photo of Elle and her sister was pretty damning evidence though.  (Chris does photoshop every time to make the party more interesting and funny)

We ended with s'mores on the BBQ which was a complete fail, but they ate them anyway.

I think everyone had a great time!

Ol' Pegleg

Since it's hot we decide that Jake should have a haircut.  It costs $50 at the groomers where they lock him up for 3 hours then bathe and trim him the last half hour. 😢

Well, we didn't want any of that so we sent away for a do-it-yourself-dog-clipping-cutting-hair kit.

Since Chris is the artistic one I decided to let him have a go at it first.It was tricky and he kept saying,"Do you want to try?!" 

I didn't.

He trimmed Jake's back with scissors and it looked pretty choppy.  It's been a couple weeks and it looks fine now.

Then last week we decided that Jake should have his little legs and feet trimmed.

Again, Chris had the first go.

For some reason Chris channeled his inner "little girl with some scissors."

He kept cutting a little bit of hair on Jake's leg, then cut a bit more to even it out, and just like a little girl cutting her bangs, he chopped and chopped "trying to even it out" until all the hair was gone and all that was left was sprigs.  In this case it was a shaved leg.

So now poor Jake looks like Ol' Pegleg:

(his back right leg, if you can't tell, is considerably less fluffy than the front legs)

Chris started in on Jake's other back leg but I made him STOP!

Santa Barbara

Now that we have a puppy we have to rethink our vacations.  I looked online and found that Santa Barbara is a great dog-friendly area.  We found a dog-friendly hotel and everything!

Jake could walk along the pier with us:

And he could visit Chumash Painted Cave

And Knapp's castle

 And we even found a dog-friendly beach!

Jake was chasing Elle around (while on the leash) and she led him right into the ocean!  

He wasn't quite sure about that.  

His favorite part was digging holes :)

Isn't he cute?!

He could walk around the beautiful botanical gardens too!

The garden was cool because it was divided into sections that represented the different climates of California.  For example, they had poppies, and a section of redwoods, and a desert area.

Jake was able to walk around Old Mission Santa Barbara, but not inside.

 He couldn't share our delicious Cuban sandwich from Pickles either.  But that's OK!

I think it was a fun and successful vacation!