Harry Potter Extravaganza

As a family we've been reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I knew we were on track to finish it this weekend, so to spice up an ordinary February Saturday, we started planning a Harry Potter party. With just minimal prep, and keeping things relatively simple (like, not going all out on decorations that no nine year old would ever appreciate), we managed to have an amazingly magical good time! One of the best parties we've thrown, actually, for anyone involved. In case anyone wants to follow suit and do the same (and to document it for myself for future adventure camps, birthday parties, etc) here's the details. DISCLAIMER: the only thing I came up with on my own for this party was the love potion, pumpkin muffins and wand play. The rest I owe to the brilliant minds in the blogosphere world who share their numerous talents!

Each kid was allowed to invite one friend (only Sophie wanted two, because she and her little friends are just getting in to the Harry Potter thing). Spencer invited Hayden Telford, Sophie had her little groupies Chacie and Emma, and Maggie had Eliza Hibbard. Six or seven kids was ideal for this kind of a party as it kept things intimate but still fun. Spencer was six and Maggie's eleven, and that age range was perfect. Everyone enjoyed everything we did.

As each kid arrived (at about 2:00 PM) we took them to the computer where online sorting hat games abound. Once they knew their "houses," we took them wand shopping = everyone got a chop stick that we decorated with glue gun details and then painted. This was probably the funnest thing we did - I got the chop sticks at a Chinese restaurant, then molded the hot glue as it dried to make the handles, scallopy details, and crystal balls at the base of the wands. Now that we've done a few we're better at wand making, but the initial prototypes still turned out okay. Of course, Gary's wand was the coolest. It always is - he's so creative. And crafty!

 

Some of the early wands, above. Gary's, below. You can work with the glue with the tip of the gun until you get the results that you want.

While the wands finished drying, we had Potions class. The first experiment was a love potion: acting as Professor Melinda McGonagall, I put about 1/2 cup unicorn tears (vinegar) in a vase, some dragon blood (red food coloring), and had the kids take turns one at a time adding a teaspoon of powdered skeleton bones (baking soda). If the potion fizzed, that person had a special little crush... and it always fizzed! The kids loved it. Keep adding vinegar if it stops fizzing with each addition.

The second potion was sloth slime. For seven kids, I used 1 cup bug juice (water) and one cup flesh eating slug slime (white glue).  You add the water to the glue, add a bit of acrylic or craft paint for coloring, and stir. In a separate cup I had one cup warm water. To this I had the "students" add 1 teaspoon Borax powder. Stir until it is mostly dissolved. Then pour the warm water/borax mix into the glue/water mix (but don't pour in the remaining undissolved Borax crystals left in the bottom of the cup.) This magically creates slime almost instantly - it is so cool! Stir until mixed well, then pour/squeeze out the remaining water drizzles. Give each student a handful, along with a baggie with their name on it to store it. Be careful that they wash their hands afterwards though, because Borax is poisonous if consumed.

After Potions class, we colored Hogwarts crests and did HP crossword puzzles, found here:

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/hogwarts_crest_colouring_page.htm

Then it was time for afternoon tea, consisting of pumpkin pasties (pumpkin chocolate muffins), chocolate frogs, and fortune telling cups. This was really fun. The night before, I took seven plastic cups, dropped a drop or two of various food colorings, and let them dry overnight. You hide the drops with ice before letting the students pick their cup. As you pour water into the cup, it turns a color. Yellow meant fame and fortune; green meant good health and long life; red meant you live beloved and die happy; and blue meant you would be a leader of men and a doer of great deeds. The kids's faces totally lit up as their cup turned their fortunate color!

 

And then came the great Bertie Botts Ever Flavor Beans challenge. I got these from a party store (Zurchers). Each student picked two or three jelly beans from the bowl and took turns popping them into their mouths. It was a hoot to watch their expressions turn sweet or sour, according to the taste of their bean. The overall favorite was cotton candy - while vomit and boogers ranked dead last.

Chocolate frogs made from a borrowed mold - you can get one online.

Now that they were all sugared up, we decided to have our Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I reviewed the simplest spells (expelliarmus, stupify, ennervate, protego, and petrificus totallus) and they spent the next 40 minutes zapping each other with their wands. No body contact allowed, of course. (I love how Sophie made herself a "Head Girl" badge - she and her friends really got in to the spirit of the day!) Spence kept cracking us up b saying "stupid fly" instead of "stupefy" and "potato" instead of "protego" - maybe I wasn't speaking very clearly while giving the instructions.

Next was my rather lame attempt at Quidditch. I wasn't planning on doing quidditch, but they needed something else to do to kill time before dinner. So we wadded up pieces of paper into balls and they got to take turns throwing them into boxes. The next time I do this party, I'll take a big cardboard box, cut out three holes in it, paint the gold goals around the holes, and have a keeper to try to block the paper balls as kids try to throw them in. I just didn't get there this time.

This was a very leisurely party - we didn't rush anything and there was plenty of time between each activity to savor the results or rid themselves of the wiggles. Which was nice - I didn't have to boogie through each activity and have the next one ready to go. While they were playing with their wands and the balls, I finished up making up dinner: chicken (which had been slow roasting since 11 AM and therefore required no prep) and "chips" (fries), fresh veggies with dip, and butter beer (cream soda with a mixture of half and half, butter flavoring, and vanilla Torani syrup).

After dinner I did my only real "cutsie" touch to the day - the broomstick popcorn and pretzel bags. With a gold galleon (chocolate coin) hiding inside, of course. I confess, I loved these bags. They were so cute! You take a paper bag, fill it half way up with popcorn and the coin, then take another bag and cut it to shreds along the top and bottom, leaving a swath about 2/3 the way up the bag intact. That's where you tie the string to close it all up, after inserting the popcorn bag and the pretzel stick for the broomstick. Thank you Pinterest!

And then it was movie time (we covered up the scary scenes of the screaming book, the forbidden forest, and the mirror scene with voldemort coming out of the guys head, in case you were wondering). Before everyone went home afterwards, we gathered their wands, slime and coloring pages for them to take home, then gave them their final exam - a trivia sheet of questions from the book. I just made one up - if you want to use it for a party of your own, let me know and I can email it to you.

What a great day. Since I kept them busy, there was little - dare I say no? - whining or fighting. It was a good group of kids who were neither too immature or too "cool" to enjoy the activities - everyone loved it. And I kept it easy on myself by not rushing through things too fast or decorating things up when, as mentioned before, it wouldn't have been appreciated anyway. Until they're older, at least.

We must do this again sometime.

Now, what to read next? ... :-)

February Fun

 One of our favorite weekend things to do is go to Leo's Place in Idaho Falls. It's like a nicer Chuck E Cheese with fairly edible food. There's a huge play place, and after the kids spend about an hour in it we break out the fiver, buy some tokens, and hit the arcade. I took this picture to document the fact that we are a Skeeball family - it is our unanimous game of choice. Even though I suck at it. I still really enjoy playing it!

 Matching ties for Christmas - what handsome boys!

 This is how they sleep every night - one big bed full of kids, blankets, pillows, and dog. Notice how Spence fell asleep holding Bella's paw.

 Sophie's ultra-cool hat decorated with 100 items for her hundredth day of school this year. Her teacher, Mrs. Dennis, is so awesome!

This is how we spent Presidents' Day weekend. It was so fun to not go anywhere, but just set up the tents, have readathons, watch movies, and play legos for three days! Very restful.

2013 Valentine's Day

 Since Valentine's day fell on a Thursday this year, and we knew we'd be clogging all night, we celebrated with a heart-themed breakfast. We had pink heart pancakes with buttermilk caramel syrup, fresh strawberries, brown sugar bacon, oranges, and berry Emergen-C fizzy drinks.

 Sophie really wanted to dress up for Valentine's day. I thought, why not? Whatever makes my Tootie happy!

This is the face I always get when I ask Spencer to pose for a picture. He's such an entertainer... but not on demand. Unless you consider this entertaining. Which I do.

 I hand made the kids' valentines this year - they turned out cute. Gary and I celebrated with a temple/movie date (my fav), discount massages, and the traditional steak/asparagus/bearnaise/sparkling apple cider dinner. We didn't get around to that until Sunday though.

 

And this is what I texted him, just for fun. And because he is my precious. But he doesn't look like Gollum. And I hope I don't either.

It's A Wonderful Life

Preface: this is in no way is intended to be a Big Brag Post. At all. Recently I've just been struck with a craze for reflection. Looking back over my life, I've been humbled and amazed at what my life has been.

Can I just say, I love my life? I have had 38 of the most wonderful years. Of course, some of those years, like everyone, I'd rather forget - we've all had those sobbing-for-hours-on-the-bathroom-floor episodes - but in general I have been amazingly blessed. I live in comfort in the USA. I have a house that's warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and a car that is too. I can buy any food that I want to eat and have enough clothes to embarrass me just a little (time for a closet clean-out!). My husband is the hilarious, wise, love of my life. We have the best time together and share the same brain. He is amazingly talented, loving, funny, and he has a great job that he adores. And that pays the bills!

My kids are above average in brains, behavior and beauty (if I do say so myself).  Maggie's unbounded potential amazes me, and I love her wacky, creative, kindred spirit little self. We have so much in common and I love exploring the new nuances of our relationship as she gets older.

I thank the Lord every day - literally - for Sophie's natural goodness, strength and sweet spirit. She continues to overachieve and quietly go about her daily duty as the responsible, motherly little soul that she is.

And Spencer must be buttering me up lately for something because he has been candy-sweet to me and Gary both. Hugs, kisses, cuddles, kindness, all from our active, adorable little buddy. Maybe he finally just realized that he loves me more than my mole! Well, no, he doesn't, but I AM a close second. He brings so much joy into our lives.

 None of them have been severe mess-makers, which is a tender mercy (the Lord knows me well!), and we are all fairly healthy. Blessings from above. I love every day I can get with them. Ask me tomorrow, if I have a bad night or if Maggie throws a fit or Spencer wets his pants again, or in a few years, when I have teenagers, if I'm still as euphoric as I am right now. I may be in a sweet spot - no diapers but no teens yet either - but I really love my kids. They are so fun, and so awesome!

My youth was absolutely golden. My parents are kind, loving, supportive and so generous and supportive of all my crazy adventures. They were there for me every step of the way, every performance, every assembly I danced in, every heartbreak, every social, emotional or automotive crisis. They are freaking awesome! We went on the best family adventures, and they kept making family time a priority, even if it meant spending every Christmas break in Maui (darn it). They encouraged hard work, good grades, good priorities, and setting goals. My mom is my soul mate and my dad is my hero. I love them both so very very much.  Their faith in me has been invaluable in my ongoing quest to make myself a better person.

They searched out the best mentors for our extracurricular activities as well; I was privileged to be in a performing group under Kim Clayton for years - the best after-school activity ever, with the most gifted mentor in Kim, who taught us so much more than singing and dancing.  Those hours of rehearsals, performances and tours gave me confidence, developed my talents and social skills, taught me responsibility and independence, and took me all over the country, and to England too. As a teen, I sang and danced in the courtyard of the Pentagon, on the Disneyworld Main Stage, in downtown Honolulu and in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Not only did I make amazing friends and learn to do some really cool stuff, but these experiences gave me a love for music, culture, and travel. Between my parents and Kim, I discovered the bigger world. And they taught me to love it, to develop my own light, and to not be afraid to share it.

And then came high school. I LOVED high school.  I was Sophomore Vice president, did pep club, created the French club, and was the only girl up until then that they had ever interviewed for Seminary president (I got VP instead but it was still an honor and my big Sr. year job). I was prom royalty my Junior year and went to the dance with the student body president, then dated the captain of the football team (though that's not what made him a great guy). I had great friends, made good choices, worked for and got perfect grades, and loved the whole experience.


In college I got to study abroad for six months in England and Paris, and travel all over with folk dancers both nationally and abroad. I was asked to be backup for the top team after only one semester of folk dance - that may be almost a record in that competitive program. I got to spend about four months (non-consecutively) of my college years traveling and performing with PAC, from Salem, Oregon to DC to So Cal to the Great Lakes area to New York to Quebec to Scandinavia to Russia. One of my top memories of all was doing Hopak as the finale in St. Petersburg, and the audience went WILD! Still gives me chills to think about it. And I got to dance at all these places! I love to dance. It's kept me healthy and happy for years now. What mom still gets to dance? I do, because we made sure we bought a house with a building we could convert to a dance studio!  We love working with the youth, and that France festival tour.... well, it was one of the most significant experiences, spiritually and physically, of my life. Dance has brought me so many blessings.

Gary and I were married by President Monson. 'nuff said. He even came to our wedding reception! Which was at La Caille. Also 'nuff said. You don't get any better than that. I sure do owe a lot to my awesome parents!!!

I've seen Michael Crawford as the Phantom, Patti LuPone as Norma Desmond, and Colm Wilkinson as Valjean. And Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden. And U2 at Sun Devil Stadium. And lots more stuff that I can't remember right now.

I got to teach French at Murray High School, successfully learned and practiced new skills in corporate downtown Los Angeles, and ran my own catering business in Salt Lake. And (did I mention this?) I got to be a mom. I love my kids. We've been on such great adventures together! We got to go live in Ireland! And do missionary work in North Carolina! And walk the rim of Haleakala volcano! and pet Shamu at Seaworld. And climb the Eiffel Tower. And roam the ramparts of Carcassonne. And walked along the Cliffs of Insanity (Moher). And have movie theme nights and readathons and lego marathons and blanket tag wars. We have good times. I treasure every one of them.