5th Grade Band Festival!

At the end of April, the fifth graders got a fun treat for band...a full day Band Festival at the middle school they would be attending next year! Annabel was very excited for this for so many reasons, which was awesome. I even got to chaperone, too!!

I was among five parents from our school to chaperone, complete with taking attendance at the elementary, getting the kids in groups, riding the bus, documenting seats (for close contact tracing and all that new COVID jazz- oh how times have changed!), and herding the kids in the building and all. Once at the middle school, the band team pretty much took over the kids' part of the day- starting with snack and the moving into three different mini "band clinics" which was basically instruction from each of three band directors (Mr. Silder from the elementary, Mrs. McCann- the 6th and 8th grade director, and the 7th grade director Dr. Carroll) in smaller instrument groupings. The incoming band is HUGE, I have to tell you. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming years for Annabel and even the band directors.

While the kids were off having a blast basically playing music all morning long, the parents had the fun pleasure of setting up hundreds of chairs for the full band practice that would follow lunch shortly in preparation for that night's concert. Like I said, it's a huge group, so we had a map of how the chairs should go, with how many in each row as well as the names to label the chairs. Lots of work and had I known I would be sweating like crazy, I might just have worn something different, haha. But really, I was so glad to be of great help and it was a lot of fun. Mrs. McCann was so very appreciative of all the parents' help, it was so sweet. We ate lunch with the kids and then got to listen to their rehearsal for the concert that night. After a couple hours of that (I said it was a full day of playing music!), it was back to the bus and back to school to get ready to go home. Busy day and so much fun! Annabel loved every minute of it! She was flying high when she got home!

Mr. Silder thought it would be fun to have a slide show that night of the day's pictures, so the chaperones all took tons of pictures throughout the day and then shared them with me and I made the slide show and sent it off to Mr. Silder by mid-afternoon. It was so fun to see it on the big screen that night at the concert. It really was a fun day for the kids and one they'll remember.

The concert was wonderful! We got to hear from the 5th grade band and the 8th grade band, as well as the 8th grade Jazz Ensemble. So fun to hear how the 8th grade band sounds and how talented they are. Our family celebrated afterwards with ice cream at Andy's and Aggie's family even joined us, too. 

Whew- such a fun day! Enjoy the pictures!

On our way to the middle school!

Waving hi to Mr. Silder via photo!

Group picture outside the middle school!

Snack time.

Mini-clinics.

Even Daniel was spotted helping with the mini-clinics! (Each grade level got their turn to play with the 5th grade during their normal band hour.)

Lunch time!

Full band rehearsal time!

Ready to head out...but first a few pictures...

This next picture is our elementary school's band plus the other elementary school's band- a big group for next year!

Heading back to school!

Annabel shows us her certificate at the band concert that night!

Ready for her last concert as a 5th grader!!

Annabel just LOVES band- she's so proud of playing and loves the music and everything- I love her smile!

Annabel and Aggie!

And Mr. Silder, too! He was an amazing band teacher and we're going to really miss him!

Celebrating with Andy's ice cream- yum!!!

The Great Cake Breakout Party!

I've shared some behind the scenes already and now it's time for the big reveal...

Welcome to The Great Cake Breakout Party!

The day of the party, I banished Annabel from the family room, where I was setting up the Escape Room. It had to be secret from her, too, after all- she couldn't know anything about anything for this party, so that she could be a full participant with her friends. Actually- it really bugged her that she couldn't help me, haha. She kept trying to give me ideas- ooh, mom, you could use a clock for a number clue, or you could...I said Annabel I can't do that if you know about it, it HAS to be a surprise, all of it. It kinda drove her nuts. She asked nightly how my planning was going and I was so very annoyingly vague all the while.

Cute flashback notes...Two years ago when I was first planning this (and she was 8 going on 9), she kept asking how it was going, have I thought of all the puzzles yet. She even went so far as to say, "I wish I could trade places with you so I could plan my party!" It was so darn cute. I also LOVED when she said, also two years ago, "I can't wait to be a mom and plan fun things like this!" Oh these things float my boat! I love this girl so much!

Anyway, back to the present...party day. I spent a good hour bringing everything into the room, hanging streamers across shelves where things just didn't matter to the overall puzzle, taping cabinets shut to indicate that again things in there weren't part of the game, and just setting up in general. Ben and I had already emptied a couple cabinets and shelves so that I could use them fully for the props I needed. You can see in the first few pictures how things looked. 

At first, I freaked out because it looked kinda sparse and empty- I worried that it wasn't enough of an escape puzzle after all. My goal was for this whole thing to take about a half hour to 45 minutes and I worried it would be too quick once I looked around (I mean, a quick breakout isn't exactly fun, right?). But really- there were lots of things to find, lots of things to look in and under and so forth. I had boxes, blocks, game boxes, game boards, cabinets, drawers, shelves, backpack pockets, sweatshirt pockets, pencil holders, trays, bookends, book pillows, and so on holding all manner of clues and items needed to solve the various puzzles. And then of course there were the locked items just hanging out on various shelves- two tubs locked (one with cupcakes and one with plates/napkins), a blue cash box, a dictionary book with hidden lock, locked scissors, a piece of cardstock paper folded up and locked. There were balloons thrown in, one with a clue in it even! And then props, like game pieces, a mini lite brite, giant Uno cards, a tower of plank blocks (with a yard ball hidden inside), Stitch holding a "dictionary," and then various papers with mysterious clues on them or holes in them. Little pictures of Stitch doing different things were taped all over (this was for a puzzle). High on the walls (but not high enough in a couple places- oops! these were not to be moved!) I had taped letter postcards I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby (two years ago, mind you- so much stuff had been stored in a little tub in my craft closet for someday...good thing I'm organized!) that were to be used for a letter lock (the order of the letters needed was revealed using a map of the room where the spots were numbered...this was probably the hardest puzzle and the one needing the most guidance from me, but I liked it so much and they actually did work very hard at it and tried lots of different combinations, just not the right one until they worked at this map some more!). The room came together wonderfully and I just couldn't wait to see it all in action!!!

Annabel was so excited for the party to start! When the girls arrived, they took their stuff straight up to the playroom where they would be sleeping. It's the biggest room in the house and we figured it could fit up to six sleeping bags, so that was cleared up and ready for a night of fun. Annabel had invited a handful of her friends- Aggie, Mia, Elizabeth, Anni, and Zeynep. Mia ended up getting sick the day before the party and couldn't make it, sadly. But the five girls truly had a blast and it was a really perfect party!

The girls started with games up in the playroom- we had rounded up a bunch of party games for them to play and they were up there laughing and having fun. Then we did dinner since it was getting to be that time. We used the dining room for eating (so no peeking into the family room!). And then after dinner, we started The Great Cake Breakout! My "story," because everyone said I had to have a story, was that I locked the cupcakes up to keep them away from the boys in my house and the girls had to break them out in order to eat them. Honestly- the story got lost in their whole excitement to just get started, they just didn't even care, haha- but whatever. It was how it got started in my brain anyhow and I went with it. (I'm just glad Annabel didn't say there were extra cupcakes in the fridge in the kitchen, haha!) I did tell the girls a few rules- like nothing behind the streamers was important, nothing in cabinets blocked by blue tape was important, nothing was under couch cushions, nothing was high on the fireplace mantel, etc. And then they were off! I sat on the couch just watching and observing, staying close by in case they needed clues and help.

And oh. my. goodness!!! It was SOOOOO fun to watch them look around and find everything and chatter about it all and what went with what and so on. I just loved watching alllll my hard work be this fun for them! I was beaming the entire time. And taking a ton of pictures and videos. I had a clipboard with a complete cheat sheet and all my notes of how the puzzles went (which, honestly, was another let down of mine- when I'd typed it all out, it literally amounted to not even a half a page and again, I freaked out! It didn't look like enough! Turns out it was of course) in case they needed help and I needed help remembering how it all went...but of course I never needed this sheet- I practically had it all memorized, as much time as I had spent with it all week and agonized over the details all week. But it was there, safe with me the entire time, just in case- something I would definitely encourage any would-be-escape-room-planners to have. Ben hung around and watched, too. He's much better with clues than I am- at least the verbal kind, plus he has better hearing so he can help along those lines if I miss something. I had to chime in only a couple times, like when the girls hadn't found the thing in the backpack though they'd gone through it multiple times, or when they still needed to find a few more things, or when they maybe hadn't resolved a couple puzzles they'd found, and so on- just a few gentle reminders to use what they had or still keep looking, that kind of stuff. The girls were so busy the entire time. There were very few lulls in the whole game and when there were, that was when I'd chime in with a gentle reminder. Very few hints were needed. Sometimes they just needed a break from a puzzle, and they'd move on to another one, and then come back to one and go oh yeah let's try this. 

It was incredible to watch the 5 girls work together and puzzle things out- I really just couldn't get over how fun this was. Aggie paused at one point in the middle of the whole thing and said "This escape room is so awesome!" That totally made my day! Gah- I was just so excited and I can't stop gushing about it, clearly. So so fun!!!!

Of course the girls solved all the puzzles and freed the plates and napkins and then the cupcakes and then they were off eating them! I did have to help with the right-left-right locks (a la high school locker locks) because they weren't well-practiced in using those yet (good practice for junior high though!). The whole thing took about 45 minutes for the girls, which was absolutely perfect. Not too short, not too long. It went exactly how I hoped it would! I immediately wanted to talk to Annabel alllll about it but of course I couldn't because her friends were all there, but she did tell me it was the best thing ever and give me a big hug!! (We talked a lot the next day- it was so fun to rehash it all! And tell her some of my secrets! Like, it never occurred to her that the dining room table was covered allll week because I was figuring out the puzzles under there and didn't want to keep moving all my post-it notes.) 

After dessert, Annabel opened her presents. She got so many fun things! Her friends all know her so well- books, games, Harry Potter and Stitch were part of every gift- so fun! Then the girls played a bunch of Minute-to-Win-It style games that Annabel had chosen and that was a ton of fun. Very interactive and filled with lots of laughing! The girls made a Scrabble tile coaster for the craft after the games- those turned out so cute. They got their jammies on next and set up their sleeping bags. Then it was time for the Snack Bar that Annabel planned for the movie portion of the night- filling bowls with all manner of candy, popcorn, chips, and so on. They grabbed their snacks and went downstairs to watch the movie Parent Trap (the new one) on the big screen; some of the girls had seen it and some hadn't which was fun for them. By this time it was after 11 PM so they all headed upstairs to hunker down and chat until midnight when it was lights out. 

Breakfast was mini cinnamon rolls made by Ben (which were a big hit). This was followed by another small craft- covering mini clipboards with washi tape! These were so fun, too. They played some more games up in the playroom, and then the girls had to pack up and they all got picked up around 10 AM. It was such a FUN party! The girls were just all so wonderful to have here and I'm so glad it went as well as it did! Annabel already said she wants a sleep over party again next year! We shall see, but really, it was pretty awesome all around and definitely a party to remember!!!

On to the pictures! 

Setting up (with kitty company) the Great Cake Breakout...

I loved when Anni said at some point, "Guys, why is Stitch suddenly reading the Dictionary?" and Annabel immediately hopped up and went over to where there were random books set up and pulled out the dictionary and whoa it's a LOCK BOX you guys!! So sneaky!!

Starting out with some games in the playroom!

Pizza time! (Oh and can I just say the girls consumed SO much water?! They were so active all night long that they just kept needing more and more water! We refilled our fridge countless times. Now we know for next time!)

Ready for The Great Cake Breakout!!!

Finding and reading clues...

This Scrabble board was a clue to look under the drawer (I'd taped a map clue for the letters on the wall under the bottom of the drawer). The girls must have looked at this three times before they finally figured it out. And it's funny because they read, among many words mind you, the clue "look under drawer" right away and they did look at the shelf under the drawer, but then they'd get distracted and take off. The third time Anni finally got allll the way down and looked up at the bottom of the drawer- AHA! So fun to watch all this happen!

Unraveling my cute little yarn ball!! Tons of fun and I loved how interactive this was!

Working together!

Checking pockets...

Using the black light to read invisible ink...

Finding all the Stitch pictures to help cross off the wrong numbers...last one left was the code for the dictionary lock they had to open.

Red sunglasses found! I was beyond excited these glasses worked for the red/blue code I made! I just loved the glasses- so fun! Best find!

Scrabble board clue figured out finally!!

Figuring out what to do with the pattern blocks...

Aha- they go on this paper they finally found! One spot left- was a number they needed for a lock.

They finally figured out they had to open the Twister box and get the game out (also there was a paper with clues on it under the Twister box, too). And that the Twister game went with the letter/number clue sheet they had, too. I'd marked the side of the Twister mat with letters and the top with numbers so they had to find A1 for example, B2, and so on. (And here was the ONLY mistake I made in the whole set up- when I copied the numbers for the clue sheet, I'd missed one and copied it down wrong, so one combo was written twice, and there were two numbers left instead of just one...the last one left was a number they needed, too- I had to step in and say whoops this one is missing). The first time they did this puzzle they just wrote all the numbers down- like A1 was 13, B2 was 24, so in the end they had a giant string of numbers that made no sense. They had to come back to this one a second time of course and then they figured out that they had to COVER the numbers (a la playing Twister!) not just figure them out, and this way the clue was left behind. Again- so fun to watch them think this through.

Backpack clue finally found! In there was the cute rainbow pouch with the numbers they needed to open the cryptex (a number wheel lockbox) you see on the couch there (the number order was revealed with the black light and another cipher, as seen in another pic above).

Trying to figure out the word lock on the scissors...they needed to figure out the map (from under the drawer) first which took a little nudging from us. For now, they were trying various words they could make from what was available- very clever.

NOW they've got the Twister clue figured out! This was a LOT of fun! This one was entirely my creation! (I found a cheap Twister game set at Goodwill that I didn't mind writing on- perfect for this purpose!!) I was SO proud of this puzzle. I just really wanted the breakout puzzles to be really interactive- hence the pattern blocks, the Twister, the yarn ball, the Stitch cross off, and so on. I wanted them to really have to put things together and work at it and interact. It all worked out so well!! Twister was so fun!

This guy, this little alien, was just hanging out in the tray by the fireplace, oh so innocently, and they kept passing him by. But yes, he was definitely needed! He was the answer to "You have 2, I have 3, No way, Yes weigh." You have two eyes, he has three eyes, and you had to weigh him. They figured out that something needed to be weighed with this clue, but they didn't know what. Annabel finally had a light bulb moment where she was all AHA this guy has THREE eyes, we must have to weigh him! Yep- his weight (in grams) was 39 and that was another number they needed for a lock. (You have no idea how hard I worked to find something that would weigh exactly 39, haha!!) I loved this clue idea- using the scale- so clever!

Now they figured out the scissors word! And they needed the scissors to cut apart a nonsense puzzle to rearrange. This puzzle told them the sequence of numbers for the cupcake lock.

Now we can finally open the cupcakes!!! (Not pictured- they had already by now opened the napkins and plates tub as well.)

YAY!! Cupcakes!!

Let's EAT!!! These were fun pinata cupcakes Annabel made (filled with mini M&Ms) and they were delicious!!!

Present time!

Minute-to-Win-It Games!

Scrabble tile coasters! (Did you know you can buy these in bulk online?! So fun!)

I LOVE the words Annabel came up with...she has such a wonderful spirit and heart and soul!

Movie time, complete with snacks!

Ready for bed! Whew, what a FUN night!

Sunday morning:

Mini Cinnamon Rolls made by Daddy! BIG hit!

Washi tape craft fun!

So cute! (Clipboards because notes a la solving puzzles and making notes...from the breakout game...we tried to make it all sort of related!)

More game fun in the playroom!

And then it was all over. Annabel had THE BEST time! She loved every minute of the party!! We're so glad her friends could join her to celebrate. I think they all had a great time! 

And me- I'm still thinking of puzzles I could have done, I see things I could have used for the breakout room literally everywhere I go, it's insane, lol. I might actually have enough to do another entire breakout game, haha! Maybe someday...