The Boy Who Lived

Today is Harry Potter's birthday.  Honestly.  And it just so happened that our Mother Daughter Book Club chose to read The Sorcerer's Stone and discuss it a couple days ago.  The mother/daughter team who hosted threw a cool Harry Potter birthday party, complete with a Gryffindor-colored smashed cake (thanks to Hagrid of course), red and gold streamers, a sorting hat (which sorted me into Ravenclaw due to my impressive intellect and Cat into Gryffindor because of her unflinching bravery), homemade butterbeer, and a make-your-own wand activity.

Since we had our book club meeting during the day on a Friday, I brought my younger kids and expected that they would play with the other kids in the house, but the allure of wand-making, cake, and butterbeer was more than they could handle, so it was more of a Mother-All-Kids-Who-Are-Interested-Book-Club.  And it was kind of crazy, but we survived.

We made wands by putting hot glue on chopsticks, then painting them with acrylic paint.  They turned out great and the kids loved it!  And now my kids are deciding which Harry Potter characters they will be for Halloween.  We'll see if that lasts.

Happy Birthday 'arryee Pottuh!

More Fun in St. George

More pictures to share from our fun weekend in St. George.  This time, showing fun at Oma and Opa's house, including watching Pingu on the iPad with Grammy, catch and other games outside, popsicle eating, Western movie watching with O&O, and sugar cookie decorating.  Also, a trip to St. George wouldn't be complete without dinner at Chuck-a-Rama!

Decorating sugar cookies is serious business in my family. 

Luke was so excited to create a cookie sandwich!
Also, Oma's expression in this picture cracks me up.

Luke isn't sure what to make of the Jell-O.

My brother is the original photo bomber.
He specializes in photo bombing his own pictures.

Still Alive

Hi there!  I'm back!  (And if you hadn't noticed my absence, then, well, I'll love you anyway.)

I set the goal at the beginning of the year to blog every day, which I've done (between this blog and the other one), and I'm really glad I have.  But our internet went out a few days ago and I gave myself the time off from blogging.  I admit, it was a nice break.  But it'll be good to get back on track now that our internet is up and running again.

So, stay tuned for some more blog posts with exciting adventures, amusing shenanigans, and whatever else I decide to throw in.

Fun in Sunny St. George

We spent another weekend in St. George recently which included not only fun with Oma and Opa, but fun with Grammy and Andy and Amy and Sawyer.  We had so much fun together.  We spent a lot of time in the water - swimming in pools (two that Andy and Amy had access to with the condo they stayed in for the weekend, and one at our hotel) and at the splash pad in downtown St. George.  The kids were really excited to take a turn on the carousel, too.

 

Tea Party of One

Lovin' the Dutch Oven

Ben received a Dutch oven for his birthday and this weekend we gave it a go.  We had to try a couple of parks in Provo Canyon before we found a spot with a picnic table and a fire pit, but after that the evening went pretty smoothly.  Ben made delicious red beans & rice (using this recipe, but adding about twice as much water as it said) and all of us enjoyed it.  We had s'mores afterward; played soccer, catch, and frisbee; and the kids experimented with whittling.