Michael's Birthday Party

I was going to simplify this year and hire out a birthday party for Michael. Then, I asked Michael what he wanted to do for his birthday party and without hesitating, he said, "Harry Potter, of course." Of course! After scouring Pinterest for ideas, we got to work. Brian figured out how to taper dowels and shape them without a lathe:

Our basement exploded with various hot glue projects, including embellishing wands and making floating candles out of toilet paper rolls.

While we were making wands, we decided to go ahead and make our character wands for Halloween  (Spoiler! we did a Harry Potter theme). The hardest was making a snake-head wand/cane combo for Brian. Eventually, we used this lizard and built him up some more with hot glue:

We had a lot of fun making wands!

The party snuck up on us, and then we were frantically trying to get our invitations sent. I did not use much creativity here. I basically copied someone else's letter word for word. I didn't mess around too much with formatting or anything. It was the least amount of effort put into an invitation, at least graphic wise. We tried to make a wax seal by melting a crayon, but turns out crayons aren't good for that kind of thing. We ended up using these gold stickers and melted the wax onto the sticker to make it look more like a wax seal. 

The invitations were, of course, delivered via owl. 

We finally got the floating candles ready in the dining hall:

And then it was time for the party! First thing was to go to Diagon Alley where each kid was fitted for their wand by Mr. Ollivander, and then they also picked up their cauldrons.

Then, they were off to Hogwarts, where they were sorted into houses:

We made felt ties for each kid as well, but I forgot to take a picture of them. 

Next was the potions class where everyone mades some liquid luck. The best part was that they had to squeeze the bat spleens (gushers) into their little cauldrons.

We had a short quidditch match and then headed upstairs for opening presents.

And I almost forgot about my Voldemort piñata that I made. I was really proud of it--my first piñata!

Until the first kid took a swing at it and it instantly broke.

We're sticking with the story that the kid was just a very powerful wizard and not that it was a super weak-sauce piñata. 

All in all, I think the whole party was a success! 

Michael's Birthday

Ben & Jenny & crew, Lea & Shayne & Crew, and Kirt and Julie came to our house on Sunday, October 8 to celebrate Michael and Tyler's birthday. I feel like we had dinner together too, but I honestly don't remember. We had ice cream cake though!!

The next day was Michael's birthday, and I was sick. Still, I wanted to stick with my tradition of decorating a birthday cake for Michael. This year was all about Harry Potter, and so I made his cake into a Quidditch pitch. Jenny and Lea came for a visit, and Jenny was kind enough to write "Happy Birthday Michael" on the cake in black icing that she just happened to bring with her! 

Since Ben and Jenny were in town, they wanted to go do something fun, and so we all decided to go to Corn Belly's. We asked Michael if he wanted to just party with us that night or join cousins at CornBelly's. He opted to join cousins.  We were the first to arrive, so we got straight to exploring. 

We were playing in these little birdhouse playhouses together. Everyone seemed to be done with them, and I was waiting patiently for Rachel to finish up. 

Minutes ticked by, and finally, I decided to go get her. I couldn't find her anywhere. We looked all over the area where we had been hanging out, trying not to freak out. Rachel isn't they type to just wander off, and with each passing minute, the absolute worst case scenarios kept flashing through my mind. We looked frantically for her, trying not to freak out, but wondering if we would ever see her sweet face again. "How could something so horrible happen on Michael's birthday? Please, no, Heavenly Father! Please keep her safe." After what felt like hours, Lea found her in one of the play villages. She had gotten bored and just moved on to the next thing, having no clue the fears she gave both her parents! We were both so grateful to have our little girl back, safe, unharmed, and oblivious. We had a little reminder chat about staying together when we're in groups. And then the fun began again:

Gabe loved this slide so much. He would climb back up as soon as he made it to the bottom. 

It was a little bit chilly that night, so Lea and Jenny shared this blanket as we wandered around. 

Sisters~

Brothers!

Rachel's favorite area is the Princess area. This time, she got to dance with a real prince. 

And I got to ride in a carriage with this handsome Mr. f

Cousins!!!!!

Just one more ride.

We had a great night out, and then we headed back home for a quick birthday party with just our family of 5.

 We can't believe that Michael is 8 already!! Wasn't it yesterday that he was born??! We can't imagine our lives without this amazing son of ours. He still loves reading, Legos, and soccer, as well as Minecraft. He's the best big brother his two siblings could ask for. He is incredibly tender-hearted and kind. He's still incredibly independent and continues to basically raise himself, but he still likes it when we tuck him in at night. Michael, thank you for officially joining our family 8 years ago and making us parents! We love you so much!!

Spectacular! Spectacular!

While Ben and Jenny were in town for Homecoming, we went on a big triple date to see BYU's Homecoming Spectacular. Kristen Chenowith headlined the night, and it was awesome!! We met up for dinner first.

 Well, actually, we're the only ones that hadn't eaten dinner. We probably should have communicated that better, but it didn't really matter because Brian's burrito fed all of us. It was huge!

 After dinner, we waited in line to be admitted into the Marriott Center. It took forever, which was pretty odd. You'd think they'd be used to all these people showing up for a show and could get them in faster, right?! I guess they don't do this that often...oh wait. We had fun taking group selfies while we waited.

 The show was amazing! I've always like Kristen Chenoweth ever since I saw her in The Music Man, but when she made her grand entrance wearing a BYU t-shirt, I liked her even more. It was such a fun show!

After the show, we decided we weren't done hanging out, so we called the parents to see if we could stay out longer. Really, we did. Kirt and Julie had Ben and Jenny's kids and our kids, so we had to ask our parents if we could stay out longer. It made me laugh. We considered crashing a BYU Homecoming Dance, but ended up going bowling instead.

Meanwhile, Nana and Papa took the kids to a pumpkin patch. They each got to pick a pumpkin and then they went back to Nana and Papa's house to decorate/carve it. Can you guess which one is Rachel's?

I think we need to make this a yearly tradition!