You have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

When Savannah and Charlotte are not watching Harry Potter movies, playing Harry Potter Legos on Xbox they are playing it via make-believe. So for Savannah's 8th birthday party what better theme to do, then Hogwarts. After months of planning and weeks of prepping this is what we came up with. Sorry, this is will probably be the worlds LONGEST post, and oodles of pictures. But we wanted to document this party well, as we all had SO much fun.

The Invite

I didn't think finding legal sized parchment paper would be a problem, but boy was I wrong. I did however find some on Amazon. 

Each kiddo had their envelop addressed to Mister or Miss - Cupboard under the Stairs, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. One of my favorite parts was dripping the wax and stamping the envelop.

The letter lets them know they have been accepted into Hogwarts for a special 'Mid-Spring' session. I think the kids had fun with the letter. I think Minerva needed to practice her signature a few more times before signing though. 

The Decor

I had so much fun with the decoration. With a lot of help from many friends in creating and also lending me so many props I think it turned out pretty good. 

The entrance at 'Kings Cross Station'. There was a slit in the wall so you could get onto the platform.

Amazing sign my sister Stephanie painted for Savannah as a birthday present. She free-handed the crest. The latin in the crest means "Never tickle a sleeping dragon." Very fun.

This is the sign that was on the door when you came through the wall.

 The Main Hall

I had a lot of fun making the floating candles, although the large jelly bean sized blister I got from touching hot glue on my finger might say otherwise. I had 17 of them hanging. Plus the Main Hall wouldn't  be complete without the House Banners hanging. 

  My sister made the banners and ironed on each house crest but it didn't work out as she had planned. But I had found these crests online to print posters so it worked out. Funny thing with the posters, when I originally sent them over to Staples the resolution of the file was not big enough to make it a clear pic (11x14). So I went to the site and messaged the gal to see if she had it on file in a higher resolution. She emailed and said no, I was fine with them being a bit blurry (they're eight they won't care). She then emailed back and asked what Savannah's name was. Not only did she sent me them in pdf files at higher res but also made a sign for Savannah. There truly are still kind people in the world.

Potions Class Decor

I collected all the bottles and jars from Goodwills 50% days and garage sales. I meant to put some labels on of the ingredients but I ran outta time. 

The picture above the mantle is the one the gal with the house crests made. It has Hogwarts castle in the background and the whamping willow up front.

Our potion ingredients

Chad gave each of the kids one of these before we went outside for the 2nd part of potions class. He told them someone had escaped from Azkaban so there were dementors surrounding Hogwarts and you can't be too careful. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HoneyDukes

A big thank you to all my friends who lent me all these amazing jars. I couldn't have done HoneyDukes without you. When the kids came in, I had this all covered with a black table clothe so they couldn't see it. 

So I really do suck at cakes. My sister printed the Hogwarts crest with edible ink on sugar paper. The kids were impressed, and it tasted good so that's all that mattered right?

My version of Trecle Tarts

Cockroach Clusters

The Wands

HUGE thank you to Tony and Lacey for letting is use your tools and overtake your garage for a few days. They did turn out pretty neat. I realized that the only picture I got of them all together was on my phone, so its not the best of pictures. I did take one of the extra and Savannah and Charlottes after the party. Who knew a simple dowel from Home Depot could turn into these.

Close up of most of the wand handles.

All the wands.

  The Charms, Spells and Potion Book

Now when I originally planned to make these I thought they would be fairly simple. Just get some legal parchment and legal black cardstock. WRONG. I could not find legal black cardstock so I had to buy huge large sheets then cut it down myself. Plus finding the legal parchment was a chore but Amazon pulled through. I'm glad I added the tassels so each house had its own color.  The biggest pain was typing out all the charms/potions/spells, then setting it up so the right pages were on the same pages, then to print double sided. It took forever, but was totally worth it. They turned out really good.After each section I had a page for notes so they could write down their own spells, charms & potions.

The Spell Books

I used these as their 'book bags'. Then they could carry around their book and wand. Each bag had the crest of whichever house they were placed in.

Front Cover

Potter Baby

I couldn't resist putting in my little Potter baby in the decor section. Thatcher was really in tune with the party in his little 'Muggle Born' onsie I made for him. Adding his little Potter glasses and he was super cute. He slept through most of the party, but he was still styling. 

Thatcher and the Birthday Girl.

So in order not to make this the world's LONGEST post. I will stop now. I will do another post with all the fun stuff we did and pictures of the party. Hopefully you are not all on picture overload and congrats if you actually made it to the end of this post.

Flying By

I can't believe how fast time is going by. Thatcher is already 6 weeks old, the girls are off for Spring Break, my school break will end tomorrow with my classes continuing and Chad will finally be on the same sleeping schedule as the rest of us. Wow, so much craziness since T was born. I am going to try to be better and update my blog better. Although, I have been horrible about taking pictures of the kids. I don't think I have taken any pictures since Thatcher was 2 weeks old. (Guess that is part of the 3rd child syndrome too right?)

Well Thatcher is now 9lbs and 22in. Crazy that Savannah was 21 1/2" when she was born. He is finally outgrown his newborn clothes but still swims in his 0-3m ones. He will sleep for 4-5 hrs on one stretch then go back to the 2 1/2 -3 hrs after that. He is a good eater but horrible burper! The girls I would put up on my shoulder and they would instantly belch. He holds his for F.O.R.E.V.E.R! Then he will finally burp later and up comes some yucky milk too. ewww. He is also a super duper pooper. I cannot believe how many diapers I have gone through. I swear he needs a clean diaper to poop in. It is insane. But he is so darn cute so that makes up for it. He did his first modeling gig last week for Banner Health Care. His "parents" on the set were 18 & 20, which was so crazy. I thought it was odd that they had him in an isolette with the billy lights on, then the "parents" were smiling off to the side. Personally if your baby was sick you would not be smiling on the side, you would have a look of concern. But whatever. I can't wait to see the ads that should come out in late spring. I will post a link to their site and just might have to go into a Banner Hospital so I can get some of the print ad too.

Charlotte is LOVING preschool and has the best teacher, Mrs Walters. She loves to do her homework and is evening reading! I cannot believe that she can read. She comes home with these little books and I am shocked that she can read. I am so proud of her. She had a little incident last week and got her hair cut a little at school by another student. Luckily it wasn't a lot and she had her sides up so when her hair is all the way down I will be able to hide it well. She loves being a big sister, but gets in her brothers face a little too much.

Savannah is loving the 2nd grade. She just finished up girl scout cookie selling season. She sold right around 250 boxes. I am so proud of her. She was quite the little sales girl. She loves girl scouts and wants to do cheerleading I told her I would look into it. After looking into it holy cow, its expensive. I convinced her to take a tumbling class from the community center for $25 instead of $70 a month for cheer. She is a big help with the baby and can't wait to be able to babysit for real. I have let her be "in charge" while I have run to Walmart givin Charlotte and Thatcher were both asleep. (although Chad was home just upstairs asleep)

I am finally almost recovered from all my slicing and dicing. There are still days that I wake up and am really sore so I must have overdone it the day before. I forget that I still can't do everything. I am happy to report that all baby weight is gone (it was 3 weeks ago) plus an additional 3 lbs. Now to work on that extra 20 that I gained the 6months before I had him. I think I will feel better when all my swelling is totally gone, then it will all be just the normal squishy instead of the weird sore/firmer swelling. I have started walking in the morning/afternoon so that should be helping. I think it didn't help with the girl scout cookie selling time a few weeks ago. :)

Chad left the bank last month and started at a new Hampton Inn across from Salt River Fields. He is the front desk manager and they are training him to be a G.M. Hoping that goes through quickly. He had been working the night audit shift the past 2 weeks cause they had to fire their other one, so it has been a little rough around here and we haven't seen him too much. But last night was his last one since they hired a new guy that started last night. Hoping he will be able to help out here a little bit more and be able to spend some time with us.

Now that its Spring Break, we are trying to figure out some fun things to do. With today being cold, we might just head to Peter Piper and do a day at Build a Bear. By the end of the week it should be nice and warm again so we are hoping to hit up a baseball game with my dad. I think everyone is looking forward to just being able to sleep in, I know I am.

Well next post I will try to have some pictures of our adventures.

Thatcher Archie Wright

So I am a little slow at putting this up about our little man has he is now a month old today. It was a crazy month. He arrived on Groundhogs Day 2/2/12 at 5:35p and he is just perfect. Weighed in at 7lbs 4 oz and 19 inches long. I have to say it was a little bitter sweet knowing he is the last little baby I will ever feel wiggling inside but we felt that he made our family complete so once he was off to get cleaned up, the doc tied my tubes.

He has been such a good baby. Not that my girls were bad, they were really good too. But he is just so mellow, and loves to snuggle! Something my girls never wanted to do. I am so grateful he is so good since for a fun Valentines Day treat, Chad and I got to go to the ER because I had appendicitis. So after a nice night with morphine, I got my appendix out the next day. He was really good for dad and grandma while I was in the hospital. So I am finally starting to feel better again, so thought I should finally make this post.

The girls love having a little brother and Charlotte loves to be a big sister. Savannah is constantly saying "Oh, Bud" in a little sing-song voice which cracks us up, and when Charlotte holds him, the second he makes a sound she is done.

Here is a pic from his birth announcement. He was 8 days old when we took the pics. Sorry I couldn't send one of these to everyone, so I figure this way all can see.

Kids

So I posted on FB a bit about Charlotte. She cracks me up these days. She loves princesses so much that she is even thinking about them in her sleep. I heard her talking in her sleep this morning saying "Let's put on our princess dresses. Tiana, I have jammies with you on it and Rapunzel too." She is so funny. She is excited about being a big sister and can't wait til he is a little bigger and she can feel him kick.

Savannah is so tender hearted. She just broke Chad & mine hearts last night. We went in to say prayers with each of the girls, tuck them in, then went to put on our jammies. I was about to walk downstairs and I heard crying coming from Savannah's room, and she was talking too. I listened for a bit before I went in. When I came to the door this is what I heard "Charlotte gets everything. Its Charlotte this and Charlotte that. Nobody likes me or loves me. I don't have any friends. Only Gallatin at school will play with me." Then it was too muffled with cries for me to hear. Chad and I both went in to talk to her. She thinks Charlotte and I go play with friends and go fun places everyday while she is at school and its not fair. We had to explain that most of the time we are just at home being boring and that mom is too tired to even go to the stores these days. We had to remind her about girl scouts coming up and all the fun things she will get to do that Charlotte won't since she is not a girl scout. She was happy when we left, but it was hard as a mom to hear her be sad about these things.

Now for the last one. Man this little boy is SO different than the girls. I pretty much breezed through pregnancy with the girls. I got pretty anemic and had elephant legs/feet but that is about it. The big part of nausea is gone but all day I just feel crappy. Not all the time that I want to puke but just not good. No food really sounds good, and I think I eat about 6-8 tums a day. Pretty much my meal options of late are Jacob crackers (thank you World Market for carrying them), whipped cream cheese, with Havarti cheese and some turkey slices. Oh and a coke. And that is pretty much the only thing I eat all day. Usually around 1p or so then around dinner nothing sounds good. Ugh, it is very annoying. But I guess since I have only gained 6 lbs after 18 weeks its not too bad right? But then again I didn't gain a lot with the girls either (18 &20). Just hoping I can actually eat some food again without wanting to vomit, and that I can not feel like a walking zombie all day too.

Oh and I forgot to mention the horrible acne I am getting with this one. With the girls I got it a bit on my forehead or chin. But nothing my good ole Rx stuff wouldn't get rid of quickly. Not with this little man. I get mountains that hurt like the dickins! Currently have one on my chin that is a bugger. But that is not all. They are on my shoulders, neck, back, chest. ugh. Its hideous! My poor skin gets scrubbed with a lufa in the shower to hopefully help this out. Guess I am glad I don't wear tanks. Chad says it looks like I have the chicken pox. Not something that helps boost your preggo wife's self esteem thats for sure.

Well next week he will get his picture taken again! Excited to have the bigger u/s done.

Bad News, Good News Day

So the girls woke up early this morning to go somewhere everyone dreads....the dentist. Bad News there. Charlotte kept waking up last night saying she was scared of the dentist. She has only been there once. But we were off early and the good news....neither one of them had any cavities. They were both really excited. Especially Savannah since she has had a cavity every other time we have been there. Hopefully this lucky streak will continue for many more years to come.

But the good news continues throughout the day. ...

Because we are 'awesome' parents, we let Savannah come to Target with us to pick out some birthday presents for this weekend. And even took her to lunch at chick-fil-a too. She thought it was lots of fun to play hookie from school.

Then Daddy said we had one more stop to make before taking Savannah back to school. We went to the doctors. But it wasn't a doctors for the girls, it was for mommy. They were fine with it, and happy to play games on our phones. Then I was called back and the whole gang came with. I got on the table and Savannah asks with a puzzled look on her face "Are they going to see if there is a baby in your belly?" I told her they sure are. To which Charlotte says "I hope its a baby brother". The tech tells her, you got it! So we gave the girls a big surprise today and let them know there will be a baby coming to our house the end of January/beginning of Feb. (Actual due date is 2/9 but with c/s might be in Jan)



They were really excited and happy. They had no idea we had been keeping this secret from them. While in the waiting room Chad asked Savannah what all these women had in common (A lot were really pregnant), She says..."Um...They all have purses?" She cracks me up.

So to those of you who read our blog you now know of the secret we have been keeping too for 16 weeks. Everyone else if just gonna miss out on the secret til it becomes obvious I guess. :)

Oh and Eric your dream was accurate last month .. :)

And a big 'I'm sorry' to all those I have lied to over the past few months. When you are a pregnant woman and you have several dreams about miscarrying, you tend to want to keep your mouth shut for a bit. It really freaked me out. But all is well ... So now that the girls know everyone else can too.

Utah

So we finally found a time that we could get out of the heat for a bit and do something fun with the girls. So we packed up and headed to Utah. I forgot my cord for the camera so I will upload pics when I get back home. We stopped at Lake Powell on the way up for a little break and for the girls to see the water. Plus I wanted to see how high the water level was. Well it turned into an impromptu play in the lake in your clothes for a half hour. Then we trucked on. One of the highlight for the girls has been going inside the 'UP' house. It is SOoooo cute. I can't wait to upload the pictures from it. Whoever buys the house will seriously take a step back in time. There are no giant rooms for a tv in every room. I loved the front room with its matching chairs like the movie. While there Chad said something about being from AZ to someone. This lady happened to overhear and asked what part we were from. Then asked do you know.....? We were seriously thinking ya right like we would know who you know in Phoenix, its a big city. But then she said Aaron and Jill Robison? Yup sure do. In the ward. What a small world, it was Aaron's aunt and cousin whom they were just staying with.

We also hit up Lagoon. So many memories as a kid from there. There is also SO many new rides. The girls started with the bumper cars and I think Charlotte got tramatized since she kept getting stuck and thought every other kiddo ride was scary. Even the little boats that go in a circle with the bell, she threw a fit. I was so done with her. So we decided to go to Pioneer Village to get lunch and see all the old shops. My girls want to be Pioneers now. Charlotte said, if she asks Jesus he can make her a Pioneer. Savannah told her, "If you wish upon a star your dream just might come true" (Such a Disney kid). Then Chad wanted to ride the Log Ride. The whole time Charlotte said she wasn't going to go. And I told her, we'll see. We get to the ride, and I grab her in back with me. She starts freaking out and everyone in line gave us the "You are the worst parents ever" look. She calmed down as soon as it pushed off. Then came the hill. She had a death grip but didn't cry. Most rides we did this, then she realized she liked them. From the ferris wheel, sky ride, water slides and the Odyssey. She ended up loving the Odyssey and wanted to ride it again at the end of the night but it started pouring. Oh and she did finally go on all the kiddy rides she freaked out about. Chad took Savannah on the Tidal Wave (while I was in line for kiddys with Charlie). He said she didn't scream but her knuckles were white from gripping so hard. Lagoon was fun, but with all the crazy roller coasters I just can't do anymore because they give me such a headache/sick, that I think we will stick with the Disney rides. More to do there with our kids. Hopefully next year we will be able to get our season passes again.

We also headed up to the Park City Arts Festival for my birthday. It was a fun tradition that we always did while we lived in Utah. I have to say it was a miss year for cool things at the festival. Nothing there that really caught my eye.

We also went up to Salt Lake and toured the Conference Center which none of us had done. It was fun to learn a bit more about it. Then went around temple square. We went into the visitor center and saw all the pictures and Charlotte was so good. Whispering and telling 'me' about all the paintings. She seriously has the best Primary teachers. Then we headed over the the Church History Museum. The girls had fun in the kids area.

We also hit up Thanksgiving Point for their $2 Tuesday. Since it was so cheap we decided to do both the farm and the Dinosaur Exhibits. Charlotte loved that she finally got to see some pigs, but sad because she couldn't ride them. Savannah got to pet some horses and we took a wagon ride too. The Dinosaurs were cool and Charlotte was scared of most of them. I think almost all the pictures I have of her she is covering her eyes.

We are headed down to St. George tomorrow and 'hoping' fingers crossed that my father in law was able to score us some Little Mermaid tickets for tomorrow night. Then headed for home on Tuesday morning with a few hour stop at Powell again. The girls wanted to play in the lake for real for a bit.

So there is our vacation in a nut shell. Pictures soon to follow. :)

Charlotte'isms

Charlotte cracks me up. The things she says are so funny you can't help but laugh. I have been trying to remember all the silly things she says and really need to write them all down. Here are a few from the past month that have got us laughing.

Charlotte is walking up the stairs and toots.
Daddy say "Charlotte ... excuse you"
Charlotte: "Daddy, It came out my bum not my tongue so I don't need to say excuse me."

Getting out of the pool after swimming and being cold
"Mommy, I'm shaking like a leaf!"

Last month when I had a stomach bug
Savannah: "Mom do you not feel good?"
Me: "No, my stomach hurts"
Charlotte: "Mom, that means you need to go potty."

She says "He - cups" instead of hiccup.

While swimming with Daddy, noticed his arm pit hair
Charlotte: "Daddy! You have a bunch of hair under your arm."
Chad: "Yes, Charlotte I know."
Charlotte: "You need to make it go away cause I don't like it."

I really need to remember some more. She makes me smile. :)

Who knew? Part II

So as I posted earlier that I thought it was pretty cool to have a few visitors from around the world, I found one today. When looking at my stats it gave me a referring link. It is from the cutest girl ever in I'm guessing Germany, Belgium or Austria. Her name is Leni. Her blog is so much fun. I love seeing pictures from around the world. She has the cutest pixie cute and adorable dresses. I wish I was as tiny and petite as her. Anyway, again welcome. I'm all geeked. Fun to finally see a reader. :)

Another one bites the dust

Ah...second class down. I think I should get a gold star... As long as I get full credit on my final research paper (10 pages of ramblings that I am notorious for) then I will keep my 94.79% grade. What bugs me is it is SO close to an A. Am I so anal that I don't think an A- is good enough? I did get an A- in my first class too. And I have been out of school for over 10 years so it is probably okay that I have those grades. Well I get to enjoy the weekend with no homework, til the next class starts on Tuesday. History of Modern Europe, oh goodie I get the wars. I love the wars. :) Chad gets Communications, ugh. Not a fan of that class so I don't think I will be able to help him out with homework too much. Might not be able to ramble coherent posts for that one, but maybe.

Happy 7th Birthday Savannah

I can't believe Savannah is already seven years old. One more year and she will get baptized. Wow. Oh and she can get her ears pierced and have gum. (I know I am a mean mom not to have ever let her have gum, but she is good and always gives it to me) Since it became May she was counting down the days until her birthday. She was so excited when she woke up yesterday morning. She had even picked out her dress to wear to church the night before so we wouldn't be late. She got to pick a candy bar out in Primary.

When we got home from church, sadly she had to do a few chores she didn't do before. Like make her bed and pick up her room. After that was done she was antsy to when we would be able to open presents. I let her pick out what she wanted for dinner and she picked pizza, grapes, carrots and Sprite. Since it was Sunday we did ho memade pizza and she could pick the toppings.



About a week ago I asked her what type of cake she wanted for her birthday. She told me a horse cake. I was thinking more like chocolate, white, carrot. She said, "Oh (very disappointed), I'll have a chocolate cake". Well as I was out and about on Friday I came across a horse cake mold, so she got her wish. (So if anyone needs a horse cake, I got a pan) Daddy baked it for me Friday night and I got to decorate it. Other than the black frosting tasting weird it was all good.

I made sure the kids got the pieces with the black frosting

On the odd years we just do small family birthdays, or one extra family. We invited over cousin Michelle & Peter, and the Warmoth family. She enjoyed getting some horses from grandma and MONEY. (she was so excited about the money and was adamant that Dad does not put it in the bank), some of the beads that you melt together to create stuff (can't remember the name), silly erasers, scrapebook kit, kit to make little critters, slippers, horse calendar & nail polish. She has a few more on their way, but mom was too slow to get them here. She'll get some Roper boots and a Pascal bag from Rapunzel. So the birthday fun will last a bit longer. :)

It was a great day. She enjoyed playing with her new stuff. Thanks to those that came to make it special for her.