Facilities, Catering, and Kashrut - Oy vey!

I feel like I'm totally backpedaling on the most urgent question of all - WHERE?!  Hotel?  Restaurant?  Synagogue?  Kosher?  Elsewhere?  I feel like almost all of our choices are places that our daughter has never even been to!  She's definitely not going to be very comfortable with that...  If we could figure this question out and get something checked off the list, that would be great.

Wow - I had no idea - Secular Judaism

Judaism without God, rules, or rituals...  Interesting article.
jta.org 

Literally or figuratively?!

So I took a little gander at the English translation of the Torah portion our daughter was assigned to learn and sing in front of the congregation (in Hebrew) to become a Bat Mitzvah.  *GASP*  How are we going to simply gloss over the literal meaning of some of these completely inappropriate and outdated concepts?!  For example, kidnapping, rape, justifiable murder by pelting with stones, marrying your dead husband's brother to insure the family name is carried on, stoning your own son to death because he is rebellious & disobedient, and cutting off the hand of the woman who grabs a man's private parts to break up a fight between her husband and his brother.  Oh sure, there are some great messages in this particular section of the Bible.  One exceptionally timeless message is that "finder's" is not "keeper's"; you should always try to return something you've found that does not belong to you.  After all, I am by no means an expert in religion or the Torah.  This section of the Bible contains 74 of the 613 laws or "mitzvot" G-d commanded to us.  I certainly do not understand them all, or what they should mean to me and my family.  However, I do know that our daughter is expected to learn to sing the Hebrew text of these 74 laws dictated in this portion of the Old Testament as it is written in the Torah.  I have conflicted feelings about burdening her with some of the inappropriate information it contains.  Does that make me a hypocrite?  I don't know.  I do know that there is a lot to be learned from the positive messages that this parsha contains though, so I suppose we'll try to put our focus on that.  I wonder how other parents have handled some of the age inappropriate texts their children have been challenged with.  This past Shabbat a set of twins tackled parashat Vayishlach for their Bar and Bat Mitzvot, which contains a powerful story of rape and revenge; I appreciated that our Rabbi said straight up that it is difficult, challenging, and sad to have to revisit such a tragic story year in and year out, but that we do it and hopefully learn from it.  Please feel free to comment here and share your experiences so that our family and others can learn too.
Here's a summary of the story:
http://bit.ly/6R3JYS 
and here's a detailed translation:
http://bit.ly/5zCpjY

Okay, I'll bite

I saw this on Twitter, so I guess I'll check it out...

Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah Directory: All you need to know from meaning to planning. - http://shar.es/aiKIA


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WHERE do I sign up?!

Seriously!  I can't fathom skipping out on celebrating yet another life cycle celebration at our shul of four generations...  but yes, this would be quite an affair to remember!

http://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/1027698/jewish/Caribbean-Bar-Mitzvah-a-Hit.htm 

Also, after visiting the oldest synagogue in continual use in the entire United States...  having a mitzvah to remember there would be pretty darn incredible too!

http://www.onepaper.com/synagogue/

Security

After a wonderful visit to the Virginia Beach area, I momentarily thought it just might be the most fun party ever if we could have it right there at Great Wolf Lodge!  However, it seems pretty unlikely that we would somehow be able to manage getting even a small bunch of 12 & 13 year olds without their parents across state lines to a very large hotel with a built in water park.  So I was then wondering how to manage any number of kids that age in a public restaurant or hotel where trouble might find them...  Should I be worried about this?

We're already having fun!

Centerpieces, linens, and place cards - oh my!  We're actually having fun talking about all kinds of ways to add nice touches for not much money, crafting our own centerpieces, and creating unique place cards too!  We are throwing around ideas for changing the candle lighting into something that everyone can participate in, possibly.  We're looking forward to hearing more about what you are planning for your celebration, or what you've seen recently...