just between you and me: Emilia is 11 years old

Emilia turned 11 last week. As usual, we celebrated her birthday all week. First with the extended family, then on her actual birthday and lastly with a friend and cousin Mystery Birthday party.
This lucky girl got to not one, but three birthday cakes for her birthday.

Her 'big' gift was a purple digital camera, which she has been using a lot to document her days. The family gettogether, was also to celebrate grandpa Humphries' 71st birthday. Emilia and her grandpa are exactly 60 years apart.

I usually plan a fancy friends party for each of my children. I feel like Emilia is getting older and is getting to the point where a theme birthday party is no longer needed. But then, I come across a fun idea, and I end up organizing a party again. This year we chose to have a mystery escape room themed birthday celebration.

It was one of the easiest parties I have organized. We had two groups of kids locked into rooms, working to solve puzzles to escape the room they were locked into. The puzzles were all pre-set escape room games so there was no preparation on my part.

The decor was a 1950's detective scene, including a dead body's chalk outline and a suspect's mugshot photo booth.

I have an amazing sister in law, who likes to collect a lot of interesting things, and family heirlooms. She lent me a lot of the decorations that were on the food table. The party wouldn't have looked nearly as authentic if it wasn't for her help.