alice in wonderland

It's been four years since all eight of the siblings in my family have been home. And it's likely it will be another six years after this. So, we've been making the most of our limited time together and doing all sorts of fun things.

My favorite was our Alice in Wonderland Murder Mystery Dinner Party.

It

was

EPIC.

For years, I've wanted to have a Wonderland themed party, and it turned out so well. It was so very fun - Everyone laughed, enjoyed the company and ate way too much. 

I had a blast decorating and setting the scene.

Everyone was assigned a different character. I altered a game I found online, added a few characters, made sure everything was family friendly and went from there. My family did an excellent job of finding amazing costumes. Some of them were so elaborate, yet I think between all of us we spent less than $20 on costume supplies.

First, we had Tea. The Mad Hatter opened with a speech - 

And Tay could not have given a better performance. 

[Ha ha - We actually made him do it twice because it was so hilarious!]

We had five different kinds of 'tea' [read: koolaid] in fun colors.

And our Tea menu consisted of:

Mini Quiches

Cucumber Sandwiches

Egg Salad Sandwiches

Crumpets and Jelly

After tea, we played a rousing game of croquet with flamingos and hedgehogs.

We had to be authentic, you know.

And after croquet, we had dinner and continued our investigation -
asking and answering questions, accusing, laughing...

 The menu:

Bread and Butter-flies
Strawberry Mushroom Salad
Carrot Bottoms
Mad Hatter Rice
Absolem Catepillar Chicken with Avacado
and Rainbow Parfaits

I boiled the rice in my neon food color gel to get the bright colors,
and broiled the chicken in lemon juice and sea salt.

And for dessert:

Wonderland Cake
Queen of Hearts Tarts
Cheshire Cat Tails

The cake was six layers - each a different neon color. I decorated it with white roses, in the spirit of playing cards painting them red [with red sprinkles].
And the Cheshire Cat Tails were made out of marshmallows and chocolate.

So fun.

 [My mom was an exquisite Queen of Hearts - in character the whole time. It was so funny to see my mom so very different from her usual pleasant, gracious self. At the end of the night, she said, "It's exhausting being so grumpy all the time!"]

 [Can you see the eyes on the daffodils?]

 [Bryson was a perfect White Rabbit. He was so fidgety, and the way he ate his food was hysterical! He would take these little tiny bites, scrunch his nose, and chew everything with his front teeth. Awesome.]

Later on in the evening,
Executioner Ace did his duty, and upon the Queen's request,
[OFF WITH HIS HEAD!]
Held an execution.

It was so very much fun.
It was so entertaining, and extremely hilarious.
It's been a couple weeks since we did it, and still we all want to talk about it.
Memories were made for sure,
And a new family tradition created.

My family really is the best.
No question.