Halloween 2013

How was your Halloween?

Ours was windy & rainy all day long...

Because we've had such a crazy month:

I didn't get out any decorations,

I didn't have costumes ready,

we didn't carve/paint pumpkins,

we hadn't had our traditional Halloween dinner,
we hadn't watched The Nightmare Before Christmas,
(or any Halloween movies for that matter)

we hadn't enjoyed caramel apples,

(even though we picked 1/2 bushel at a local orchard)

& I didn't have candy until the day before.

It just didn't feel like Halloween.

So when it came time to make lunch for the kidlets,
I decided to pull off an impromptu Halloween muffin tin meal.
This is what happens when I don't plan ahead of time...

We watched The Nightmare Before Christmas while eating pumpkin shaped cheese, ghost shaped pb&j, apple slices, a banana ghost, a pumpkin orange with an apple stem, & of course caramel sauce to dip the apples in.

Simple, cute, & mostly fruit.
Not quite as 'themey' as my usual,
but I like how it turned out.

After the first couple handfuls of trick-or-treaters came by,
I finally pulled out our Halloween bin to decide on costumes.

I wasn't sure how well the paint on the Calvin & Hobbes costumes would handle the rain
(it might have been fine, but we didn't want to take the chance that it might run)

so we decided to take the simple route
& go as student witches & wizards.

Yes, I understand that our school uniforms are not up to Hogwarts standards.
We're working on adding to them little by little,
& eventually will have our complete uniforms.
We received plenty of compliments on them "as-is" last night,
but that was probably because of those adorable red-heads that were wearing them.

We lost a wand while we were out & about,
so today we're going to retrace our steps to try & find it.
If we can't find it while we're on our walk,
We may have to make a trip to Ollivanders in the near future for another one.

Tonight we're going to have our {belated} Halloween dinner,
then make caramel apples.
We're going to nix decorating pumpkins this year,
but I think that will be okay.
Don't you?

Oh, & if you missed my Harry Potter party posts last month:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Check 'em out!

xoxo

Harry Potter Surprise Party (Part 3)

If you missed Part 1 or Part 2 of our Harry Potter Surprise Party,
I suggest catching up before reading this post...

The next morning we woke up ready for our first day of school at Hogwarts.
We began by being sorted into houses...

We had all taken the Sorting Hat quiz on Pottermore ahead of time to determine which house we were in.
Once we were all sorted,
we headed off to our classes.

I switched over to the role of Professor Marissa to teach our first class.
None other than...
Potions.

What did you expect?
Snape is my fave (:
I may or may not have a slight character crush on him...
We created a couple of potions from the Potions Student Handbook
that we found from the potions class post over at Mrs. Nespy's World.
She also has the Master Handbook available for download with additional potions.

Our next class,
Care of Magical Creatures,
was taught in Rubeus "Dad"rid's hut (the gazebo).
He taught from the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
We learned about Kappas, Nundus, & Lethifolds.
I hope to never encounter any of them.

Professor Abby taught us how to do a Patronus Charm
in our Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
We each took turns conjuring our Patronus
while the rest of the class guessed which form each of our Patronus' takes (our favorite animal).
We're now ready to take on all the evils of the wizard world.

Next up on the agenda was our first flying lesson
followed by a quick Quidditch match.
Unfortunately, our lessons were cancelled due to inclement weather
& we all know that you can't play Quidditch if you don't know how to properly use your broom.

It seemed like a great time to head into Hogsmeade (town) for a bite to eat.
So off to Culvers we went for a late lunch / early dinner.
Everything was super tasty as usual
& with our bellies full,
we headed back to Hogwarts
so that we could enjoy the rest of the festivities.

We decided it would probably be best to let things settle before eating cake & drinking Butterbeer.
Sounds like the perfect time for presents (:

After all the card reading & gift giving was over,
we gathered together in the Great Hall
to enjoy birthday cake & Butterbeer
while watching Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

...and that is the moment Hubby's life completely changed.
That's right.
He-who-disliked-Harry-Potter actually enjoyed it!
Not only did he enjoy it,
but a few days after we came home,
he surprised me with that wonderful news
by saying he wanted to watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets that evening!
I was completely stunned & overjoyed all at the same time!
I stopped eating to tell McCall of the wonderful news immediately!
I never thought I'd get to watch the Harry Potter movies again,
especially with Hubby (since he reeeally didn't care for it).
We spent the entire rest of the week watching Harry Potter
after he suggested buying the entire boxed set on blu-ray with our Best Buy rewards...
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I had been wanting that forever!!!
I am still slightly in shock that it actually happened & that he got so into it.
We may have stayed up until the wee hours of the morning watching movies a few times.

Sorry... I got a little ahead of myself there,
but we didn't really have much time left to party after watching it anyway
since we had to fly home the next morning.

Overall, we had a quick but fun weekend
and it was great getting to actually surprise McCall!
Happy Birthday Kai
I magma you (:

xoxo

Harry Potter Surprise Party (Part 2)

If you missed Part 1 of our Harry Potter Surprise Party,
you should probably catch up before reading this post...

So there we were.

Waiting at the park.

Little Dudeman & Little Princess were wearing their robes.

I was carrying our robes & the glasses.

People were giving us funny looks.

Some people asked if we were going to a wedding.

I have no clue as to where they got that idea.

Since we had plenty of time to kill
I called McCall to wish her a happy birthday
I put my phone on speaker so that we could all sing to her.
After reminding Hubby to remember to act casual,
she didn't even pick up.
So we all sang to her in a message
& then I was about 99% sure that I completely blew the surprise.
After we had sung, I said something crazy like this:
"Happy birthday McCall! I hope you had a great day today. Call me back when you get a chance to tell me all about your how your 18th birthday went & to let me know what fun things you did. I hope you have fun plans this weekend. You'll have to let me know what you're doing to celebrate. Love you! Bye."
I'm terrible at leaving messages.
That's why I don't usually leave them.
That may not have been exactly what I said, but you get the gist of it...
Seriously though.
If we were home, why would I need to know what her plans are?
It didn't sound casual at all.
I should have just stopped at 'how your 18th birthday went'.
Anywho...
She called back shortly after that awkward message.
We talked & she told me about the football game & how her day went
(which I of course already knew)

Then she said she doesn't think they have any big plans
& that she doesn't even know which day they will be celebrating since they haven't really talked about it.
I explained to her that her present was on the way
hoping to give her the idea that we weren't there after all.
What she said next threw my 99% belief that I ruined the surprise
all the way to 100%...
She said something like this:
"Well, I'm hoping that the present is that you guys are flying out. That would be the best present ever."
Completely stunned by what she had said,
it took me a second before I could regain my composure & complete a decent comeback thought.
I replied, "Yeah, that would definitely be cool, but that's not the present."
Not a complete lie.
We did get her a present.
Our being there to give it to her was just an added bonus.
Slightly bummed,
& in my opinion not fully convinced,
she said that's too bad but that she looks forward to opening it when it arrives.
We stayed on the phone for a while & just talked.
When she told me they were leaving Walgreens
I wrapped up the call so that she could go home
& enjoy the first part of her surprise...
the letter.

This is roughly how things went...
I wasn't there so I don't know firsthand, but I can't wait to watch the video (:
They pulled into the driveway & Dad asks if she can get the mail.
She says sure, then heads towards the mailbox.
Dad closes the garage while she's on her way there.
Baffled by him closing the garage door before she came in, she opens the mailbox.
Inside is but one letter.
Her Hogwarts acceptance letter.
She is overjoyed & takes a gazillion pictures before even thinking about heading inside.
Since the garage is closed, she goes through the front door.
What's this?
Brick walls (plastic backdrop) so that she can't go any further into the house,
& Abby standing there waiting to help her get to Diagon Alley.
She taps on the bricks & leads her in.
They visit many different shops while in Diagon Alley.
She gets her various wizarding school supplies, her owl, & her wand.
Mom was filling in for Ollivander that evening & made sure that the right wand found McCall.
They reached another brick wall.
A dead end of sorts.
They didn't realize this at the time,
but it was actually an extremely rare entrance from Diagon Alley into the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts.
They turned around & headed back the way they came only to find that they were at platform 9 ¾.

They ran through the brick & hopped on the Hogwarts Express.
While inside the train (Ford Freestyle) waiting to arrive at Hogwarts,
they ordered sweets from the Honeydukes Express trolley.

There were Toffees, Acid Pops, Sour Jelly Slugs, Chocolate Pretzel Wands, Chocolate Hazelnut Snitches, Cockroach Clusters, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, & Chocolate Frogs

They had only traveled a few blocks away from where they departed at King's Cross Station,
when they made an unexpected stop at a nearby park to pick up some more passengers...

The second I saw the S.U.Van (Hogwarts Express)
We hid behind the playground,
threw on our robes & glasses,
& we all ran as fast as we could so that the train wouldn't leave without us.
Thankfully McCall didn't notice we were there until we were practically to our train carriage!
After quick hugs & much excitement,
the train departed for Hogsmeade Station.
Upon our arrival at Hogwarts (this time entering through the garage),
I noticed everything really came together while we were at the park.
McCall was given the tour of the school,
& some special guests (church friends) came for a visit.
Once they left, we headed to the Great Hall to enjoy our feast.
She had wanted Poppyseed Chicken, fruit, & salad for her birthday dinner
so we enjoyed that while enjoying each others company.

We had intended on being sorted into houses that evening,
However, the youngest wizard & witch were fast asleep,
we were all quite exhausted,
& it was getting late.
It was agreed that the Sorting Hat would have to wait until morning.

Part 3

xoxo

Harry Potter Surprise Party (Part 1)

A few weeks ago we took a quick little weekend trip
to surprise my sister for her 18th birthday!

We flew out the morning of her birthday
& got to their house around lunchtime.
After eating a quick lunch we laid all the decorations out
so that we could try to figure out where to begin.
Seeing piles of everything there in front of us & knowing that we only had a few hours
to turn the entire house into Hogwarts was a little overwhelming.
So where did we begin?

We turned each of the bedrooms into the four house common rooms by decorating with whatever we could find (misc blankets, tablecloths, curtains, & pillows from thrift shops, and even towels or whatever we could find around the house) that coordinated with the Hogwarts house colors on the beds & throughout each room.
I didn't get pictures of any of the common rooms,
but if for whatever reason you aren't familiar with Harry Potter, here are the house colors:
Scarlet & Gold for Gryffindor
Blue & Bronze for Ravenclaw
Yellow & Black for Hufflepuff
and of course,
Emerald Green & Silver (we also threw in some black) for Slytherin.

We had Hubby watching the kidlets and cutting out potion labels & chocolate frog boxes,
since he knew nothing about Harry Potter & was probably the least excited about the party's theme.
He hadn't read any of the books or seen any of the movies, & had no intentions of ever doing so.
But let's get back to the party set-up.
We'll discuss Hubby's dislike for Harry Potter later...

My other sister Abby came home from school & got right to helping us!
She worked on finishing up the Hogwarts acceptance letter,
which was undoubtedly the most important part of the entire party
for without that letter,
her dreams would not come true.
You see, she had been waiting for this letter her entire life.
Well, ever since she was 11...
It turns out they had sent it with the Weasley's owl Errol
(don't ask me why they sent it with him),
but he lost it along the way.
He flew around trying to find it again
but due to his extremely poor eyesight it took him 7 years.
Better late than never, right?

We did a little rearranging of furniture in the living room & dining room to turn it into the Great Hall,
where we would later have our feast.
My mom bought some house banners online that we hung up along the wall.
We had also intended on hanging floating candles,
but naturally ran out of time.
I guess that's what happens when you attempt to turn an entire house into Hogwarts
with less than enough time to do it.

Keeping her away turned out to be kinda interesting...
She's a senior in high school,
& she doesn't have very many classes that require her to be at school.
She takes a lot of online college courses that are doubling as some of her high school credits as well.
Fridays are one of her short days,
so we had to figure out how to keep her away from the house.
She had been wanting to go to work with Dad for a while,
so we thought she could just hang out with him from lunch on.
They had a lunch date, then went back to his office until he was done with work.
We still needed more time so it worked out perfectly that there was a football game.
My dad dropped her off at the game, then came home to help.
McCall texted Abby asking if she was coming to the game,
& called when she didn't get a response.
We had to be completely silent since she didn't know we were there.
Since keeping the kids quiet was quite the task,
we sent her upstairs with the phone to come up with a reason why she couldn't come.
A little while later,
she called the house saying the game was almost over,
& asked for a ride home.
We were far from ready and tried to think of more ways to stall her.
Then Dad got a text saying something like this:
'Just kidding, it's only the end of 3rd quarter'.
Really, McCall?
Really?
Was that mini heart attack necessary?
Did she know something was up?
We knew we didn't have much time left
so we hurried as fast as we could,
Abby planted the acceptance letter in the mailbox,
& we were still running all over the place trying to finish
when she called saying the game really was over this time.

Mom & Abby stayed home to finish getting things ready
while Dad dropped our little family off
with our Harry Potter glasses & robes
at a park only a few blocks away from the house.
We had to wait anxiously & patiently
while Dad headed to the high school to pick up McCall,
then to Walgreens to get a new SD card so that we could record her reaction,
then back home so she could get her acceptance letter
& go to Diagon Alley where she would get her wand, owl, books, & school supplies.
Finally everyone would pile up in the Hogwarts Express to come get us at the park.

So there we waited.
& so shall you...

Part 2
Part 3

xoxo