A Magical Celebration

As unbelievable as it seems, our girl turned 8 today. Every year I have the same thought: Where did the past year go? It's true that life speeds by, so I am attempting to be conscious of savoring moments with her, whether it be reading at night before bedtime, or the hugs she always wants, or just watching a movie with her.

I wasn't as successful at this as I would have liked at her birthday party earlier today. We were so busy from the moment it started until the last kid left, but y'all ... that party was a blast!!

For the kids, it started a month ago with an owl post delivery ...

Inside the invitation was a Supply List and a ticket for the Hogwarts Express.

As the 'students' arrived, they first went shopping in Diagon Alley. All the major shops were represented: Madam Malkin's, Ollivander's, Eeylop's Owl Emporium, Flourish & Blotts ...

 

 

The across-the-street neighbor is an actual rocket scientist, and his daughter is head over heels for Harry Potter, so he BUILT HER A NIMBUS 2001. They were awesome enough to bring it over and let the kids have a broom ride while we were waiting for everyone to arrive.

Once everyone was there and had their school supplies, Uncle Dink (Slytherin) collected tickets and sent the kids through Platform 9-3/4 and into Hogwarts.

Next, the Sorting Hat put everyone into their houses. 

... and then the fun really began!

The first class was Care of Magical Creatures. A Ravenclaw student won 10 points for his house by being the first to find the basilisk in his course book. After he read to us what a basilisk was, the students spent time painting their very own wiggly snake.

The next - and most entertaining - class was Potions. Grandma (Gryffindor) was our Potions Master. These kids had so much fun doing their experiments. 

We had plans for a Charms class (balloons and wands and 'leviOsa not levioSA' and lots of running around) but Potions was such a hit, and the Potions Master had so many cool things ready, that we just stayed in Potions until lunch time.

Part of they way into Potions class, Maggie had two surprise attendees:

Maggie and the Sisters have a mutual affection for each other. They love and adore her just as she loves and adores each of them, and it was so sweet of Sr. Veronica and Sr. Maria Alejandra to take time to acknowledge her special day. 

The day wound down with lunch in the Great Hall, followed by cake and presents. 

Everyone also had the opportunity to make their meanest face for an Azkaban prison poster.

As Sr. Maria Alejandra was going up for her turn, Jordan commented to Sr. Veronica, "I don't think she can make a mean face." I think we can all agree with that assessment :)

At the end of all things, as the kiddos were leaving and the adults were turning Hogwarts back into a home, all of us - though a bit tired and starting to drag - were each smiling and exclaiming how much fun we had that day. It's safe to say this party was truly a magical celebration.

  ~

Note: It must be unequivocally stated that this party could not have been possible without all hands on deck. A heartfelt 'Thank You!' to the fam for all of their help. Three deserve individual attention for their contributions:

* Nana gets the first and biggest shout out because, in truth, she did almost everything. I'm good at researching, designing, and printing on a computer. Nana is awesome at creating, painting, and making. She cut, folded, and glued Chocolate Frog boxes and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans boxes and wand boxes; bound course books; cut out and attached the Marauder's Maps; foam boarded all the shop signs; cut out labels and boxes for the Honeydukes candy (and made some it!). All the cool details - Hedwig flying over head, Dobby peeking out from the corner, the candles hanging from the ceiling - were all her effort. 

* Grandma was an amazing Potions Master. I asked her a couple of months or so before the party if she would be willing to lead Potions, and if so, could I just turn it over to her. I had taken the experiments from Maggie's kit, but she also added in the fire snake and a lava bottle thing that was super cool. 

* I am telling everyone reading this the key to a successful kids party: Uncle Dink. He is the best at getting into the party and playing along with whatever the theme happens to be. He helped in all areas at this party but his main gig that day was to be the Sorting Hat. (I hope there is a video I haven't seen yet because he was so funny!) He even pointed out all the little red-heads attending - "Is this another Weasley?" It was a highlight, and I heard kids chatting about how funny they thought the Sorting Hat had been. My brother has a gift for fun.

Almost Christmas Eve

Someone is "super excited" for Christmas!

2nd Grade

Maggie started 2nd Grade today.

I don't even know what to think about that.

She wasn't as enthusiastic this morning about school as she was the past couple of years. Though she was ready to see all of her friends again, she had entirely too much fun with the Grands this summer to relinquish it without a bit of pouting. And really, I can't blame her for that. Some of my fondest memories of childhood were with my grandparents.

Anyway, The Girl is going to school for exactly a day and a half before our little family heads to California for a quick little vacation and a wedding. Who can complain about that?!

1st Day of Kindergarten

It's just after 10 in the morning and I am trying to fill in the hours until school is out. I am ready to get my girl.

Today was Maggie's first day of Kindergarten.

Wow.

{sigh}

I know it's cliché but ... where did the time go? It doesn't seem so very long ago that Jorde and I were sleep-deprived preemie parents, and now we have a Big School Girl.

When I went in to wake her this morning, I told Maggie, "It's your first day of Kindergarten and we have to leave on time, so don't lay in bed too long." She popped up out of bed in a hurry and went running into our room to tell Jorde, "Daddy! I'm super excited! Today is my first day of kindergarten!"

I pray she retains that excitement for school for many years to come.

As is usual for Maggie, she walked right in and started getting settled. She didn't really need me except to show her where her classroom was located. She is a confident girl and I love that about her.

I pray that stays with her, too.

She has a few friends from preschool in her class but asked this morning if she could make new friends, too. My girl has such a kind heart and loves meeting new kids.

I pray she never loses that kind heart and open, accepting spirit.

It is now 10:27am and, after checking their schedule, I know that Maggie and her classmates are in Reading right now.

Only 4 hours and 33 minutes to go ...

I think I can make it.

   * * * * * * * *

PS: I made it. At 3:00 my girl came running at me from her classroom with a huge grin on her face as she exclaimed, "Mommy, I had so much fun!" She was bubbly with excitement for the rest of the day, and any time she was asked how was school?, she would jump in the air and say, "It was awesome!" 



Maggie's Royal Birthday

All the Princesses and Knights of the realm attended the 4th birthday of Princess Maggie today.

I think we can safely say this was the most involved party thus far, mainly because of the costumes my mom made (it is not a trend I plan to continue). Maggie began 'casting' her party months ago, and manged to get pretty much all of us into a costume of some sort. She drew her party inspiration from The Sword in the Stone, as well as from her favorite princess stories. For the record, Maggie chose the color of her castle - Nana and I were planning to go more traditional in our interpretation, but the girl wanted a pink castle, and it was her birthday, so a pink castle she got. I think it's safe to say that's the last cardboard castle Nana and I plan to build. Ever.

Princess Maggie had a blast, was thrilled to have a 'real' princess dress, and loved seeing all her friends. And just like Christmas, even though they played the games I had planned, the kids all preferred the cardboard box castle :)

And here is an overall video Grandma the Fairy Godmother took:

Another Halloween, Another Princess

What can I say? My girls loves her princesses.

This year she chose Rapunzel (Wapunzul in Maggie speak). She told me I had to be Cinderella. (Thankfully, no good photographic evidence of that survived.)

This year, Maggie got Halloween. My normally shy-ish girl was running up to front doors and saying "twick or tweat!" without much prompting at all. Of course, it's the candy. She can never had too much.

About 45 minutes into the evening, she told us she was full and wanted to go home - no fussing or anything. As my girl likes to say, easy peasy lemon squeezy! I can't ask for better :)

Sweet Home, Alabama

I know, I know. The title's a bit cliche but what can I say? It fits!

Our little family has returned from our visit to the state of my birth, and I feel refreshed and rejuvenated ... and already a bit homesick. There's something about Alabama that's just in my blood - I feel more like 'me' when I'm there. Mmmm. I do love that state.

I will admit that the humidity nearly killed me! Well, that may be exaggerating a bit, but I was very melty while back home :)  Even so, check out the view from the back porch of our timeshare. It just makes me smile, it's so beautiful.

The reason for this road trip was the same as our Louisiana trip - the wedding of one of my best friends. The 3rd Musketeer was getting married, and I wouldn't have missed it for anything!

Isn't Mary beautiful? It was a lovely Mass and fun party after. I especially loved the food served at the reception - fried chicken, pulled pork, cheese grits and sweet tea - heaven on a plate!

Old friends who are family, and new friends who felt like old friends - it was a great time, and like all gatherings, seemed to last forever and end too soon at the same time.

Nina Mary and Uncle Kevin - congratulations! We love you guys so much!

One of my favorite pics of the day

Since we were making the long haul back down South anyway, we decided to stay the week after the wedding for vacation. I'm pretty sure I drank my weight in sweet tea while there, and had BBQ four times in seven days. Yep, it was awesome, and worth every pound I'm now trying to take back off :)

We spent one morning at Auburn, tooling around campus and generally looking like fans/tourists. (Ashli congratulated me on my return to the mother land - lol!) I wanted to be there, of course, but I also wanted to introduce Maggie to one of the universities she's allowed to attend :)

Lemonade at Toomer's was a must, and we got to see personally what the jerk-wad 'Bama fan (I use the term fan loosely) did to those beloved oaks. It made me want to cry to see the damage done by someone's hatred of a football team. So senseless. I admit we Southerners can get emotionally charged about our favorite team, but what that guy did was plain ol' meanness and nothing else. There was no team spirit involved in that act. Ugh. Mean people suck. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. Thanks for putting up with my little rant :)

Feel free to hum the Auburn Fight Song while scrolling through these next few photos:

A Side Note: When Hubby was taking pictures of Maggie and me at the AU sign, a couple of gentlemen went walking by and, in true Southern style, said good morning and spoke as they passed. At the end of our pleasantries, one of them said 'War Eagle!' I asked Maggie 'what do you say when you hear that?' and she answered him 'Waaw Eagle!' The gentleman, of course, thought that was the cutest thing ever. What can I say, I'm trying to raise my girl right :)

The highlight of our trip were the friends and family I got see and Maggie got to meet. My dad, a favorite aunt and uncle, cousins I grew up with like brothers - we had a wonderful evening together. Maggie met her 2nd cousin, Alyssa, and I didn't see her much after that :) Those two girls had so much fun together, it was a delight to watch.

Maggie saw lightning bugs for the first time that evening, and she and Alyssa ran around the yard catching them and putting them in bug catchers they'd strung around their necks. Maggie needed much more help catching them than Alyssa did but it was a new experience for Maggie while Alyssa was an old pro. (In AZ, we do NOT catch bugs!) I felt bad for those lighting bugs at the end when we opened the lids to let them out - they had been so jarred around and banged up while the girls were running, I don't think they knew which end was up! They just milled around the sides of the jar, and Jorde had to dump them to get them out. Bet they learned to fly faster after that :)

GrandPop also joined us for a trip to ArtWorks, a favorite place for me in Montgomery and a place I really wanted to share with Maggie. It's in the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, and is made for kids, so everything is touchable and fun. Heck, even at my age, I still enjoy it!

 

It was such a blessing to have Maggie meet my Grandma. She still talks about G.G. (great-grandma) and sleeps with the two little stuffed animal puppy dogs my Grandma gave her. I have so many wonderful childhood memories with this lady, and am so happy she got to see Maggie. A very special moment, indeed.

The one snafu we had was a bit of debit card fraud on our way through Texas. We didn't know until days later, but someone stole Jorde's number and had some fun on us for a couple of days. We got it all sorted out but it sure put a damper in my spirits (and pocketbook) for a few days. Other than that, we couldn't have dreamed of a more perfect road trip, and Maggie did so well, Hubby and I are already semi-planning one for next summer (be on the lookout, Bino!)

So, to recap: Amazing Wedding. Great Party. Wonderful Friends. Family Love. Sweet Tea. Humidity. Lightning Bugs. Fraud Suckiness. BBQ Overload. Travelling Fun. Sweet Home, Alabama :)

An Easter / Birthday Celebration

Happy Easter! I hope your day was a wonderful as ours.

We started the day with Mass, and followed it with a day of family fellowship. Throw in an Easter basket, egg hunting, and birthday cake with a chocolate rabbit on top, and you have a happy 3 year old, too J