We've got a mystery to solve, gang!

 And here it is, our next birthday boy...Wyatt Houston Davis!  His birthday was actually at the beginning of this year.  The very beginning.  January 1st to be exact.  Our family has lots of cool patterns when it comes to dates and I think it's pretty interesting so I'm gonna break it down for you.

First of all, Wyatt's is January 1st and Zayke (my nephew on Ryan's side) is January 2nd.  Then we have Sophi on May 20th and my niece Jadyn (one of two on Ryan's side) is May 21st.  Speaking of the 21st, Ryan is January 21st, Jadyn is May 21st, Jack is June 21st, MiMi is August 21st.  Then there's Kara and me--we share October 19th just 10 years apart.  And then Kara and Karma have the exact same anniversary which just happens to also be Jonah's birthday, March 31st.  And it turns out Ryan's parents and my Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Richard share the exact same anniversary, July 12th, 1980.  Speaking of years, my dad (1942) turned 70 this year, my sister (1972) and I (1982) turn 40 and 30 respectively, and if my granddaddy (1922) were still alive he would be 90 this year.  I believe that's all the date quirks...

So back to this mystery...who is Wyatt portraying in the picture below?

Not sure?  What if he's paired up with Sophi...now can you crack the code?

Okay, now that Marci's joined the gang it's a dead giveaway, right?

Did you get it right?  Velma, Freddy and Daphne all ready to party! 

 Christmas 2011 was a Kentucky year and since Wyatt's birthday is so close to Christmas we celebrated while we were all together at Mom and Dad's.  Wyatt is a diehard Scooby fan and Kara and John wove together the perfect Scooby Gang Mystery party you ever did see.

 You can see that Marci really got lost in her role as Velma:

We're so lucky that all of our husbands get along so well.  Mark, John, and Ryan were the villains in this scenario.

 Pretty scary if you ask me:

Getting some practice in before being hunted down by the gang:

Here's Kara, explaining "The Case of the Missing Party Loot" (she used much more clever Scooby lingo that I'm not so familiar with).  She had footprints  taped around the house and clues that led to riddles that led the gang on a ghost scavenger hunt.

It was actually supposed to take place outside around the house and the treehouse but the weather was pretty crummy so inside the house it was.  Luckily, Mom and Dad have a great house for ghost hunting.  Here are Wyatt and Sophi ahem, Freddy and Daphne looking quite concerned as Kara explains they must have their shoes on for the adventure.

 One clue leads them to the computer where they have to decipher a code to move on.:

 And here they are searching the tree for another clue:

 The older cousins take charge of the reading.:

It looks like the mystery solving gang has their weapons in hand for ghost handling:

And they're off...to the booby-trapped basement (and I gotta say, this basement is pretty creepy.  A totally believable ghost habitat):

 And the silly-string ghost attack ensues!!!!:

Here you can see Jonah battling on behalf of his brother's goody bags:

Ahhh, at last the caper is over and the loot has been successfully retrieved.  Here, Velma digs into her cache:

 Freddy looks satisfied...and a year older:)

What a smart, sweet, handsome boy!  And growing up fast:

The whole gang (minus their napping backup):

This makes it official:

And these next three pictures tell the story themselves:

Happy Birthday, Bud...we're just around the corner from SIX now!!!