And She's Twelve

It's official. I'm no longer the mother of small children. This month, my youngest turned 12 and 'graduated' from elementary school. Is there a support group for this kind of thing?

Actually, I'm pretty okay with it. I know a lot of moms mourn the advancements of their children because it means their babies aren't the same adorable little people that they once were. However, I've never been that way. I'm just glad to see that they are growing and developing into the adults that God intends for them to be.

So...I'm not sad, but I do confess that it's all a little weird 'cause time is flying!

We started Delaney's special day with one of her favorite treats:


Look, she really loves Oro Blanco grapefruits, okay? She will seriously eat three or more a day if we let her.

She did eventually get a cake:


(It didn't turn out quite as cute as I had hoped, but it's alright. That's a fruit roll-up tongue, in case you're wondering.)

We played a game at her party that I absolutely love. It's sort of like a game of Telephone but with drawings instead of whisperings.

It's called Mixed Messages and it works like this: You make little booklets of blank paper and hand one to each partier. Sitting in a large circle, everyone writes a sentence or phrase on the front page and then they all pass their booklets one person to the right.


The next person silently reads the sentence or phrase, turns the page and draws out what they just read.


Now, everyone passes the booklets one person to the right again. The third person to hold the booklet does NOT turn back the pages to read the original sentence/phrase, but only looks at the second person's drawing and tries to determine what is taking place in it. Then they write out what they think that is. (Is this confusing enough for you? So terribly sorry. It really is a FUN game.)


The booklets are again passed one person to the right and the fourth person does NOT look at the original sentence nor at the first drawing, but creates their own drawing based on the third person's sentence.


(Obviously, some people are going to draw better pictures than others. We had three amazing artists at Delaney's party: Delaney, Jeff and this fabulous girl named McKenna. Of course, good artists make this game more fun, but even weak links such as myself enjoy themselves.)

So on and so forth, the booklets keep getting passed one to the right and added to with only the previous addition as each person's guide. This booklet continued like so:


(The spelling of some entries can get you giggling, too.)


(This artist mistook the misspelled "geyser" for a "guitar".)


(Consequently, the hippo was mistaken for a beaver so the next artist drew that.)


(I love the worried look on the beaver's face.)

Once all the pages are filled, you get to read through the whole booklet and then pass it around for others to guffaw over.

So you see, the "hippo in the tree" morphed into "a beaver who is lamenting the presence of a guitar in his rectum". (Sorry, if you're offended by that. Some of us base creatures think this kind of stuff is hilarious. :))

Okay, here's another complete example without my annoying commentary running through the whole thing.













Anyway, some booklets end up way more funny than others. I hope at least some of you will benefit from this convoluted explanation of one of the most amusing games I've ever played.