Morganton, GA

It was time for our yearly Labor Day mountain trip with the fam. We went to the tiny town of Morganton, Georgia. Minus the curviest road ever, it was a great spot. We did a good bit of hiking and waterfall viewing. We also ventured into Helen, which was toasty and crowded but certainly unique with it's German flair. We also went to Blue Ridge to ride the train. It rained while we finished off the day eating in a Mexican restaurant there. This is pretty much my ideal scenario. The boys loved the air hockey and shuffle board at the cabin. I loved the swingy chairs. Nox loved chewing up Logan's shoe strings. Returning to the real world was extra painful. Daron had to fix a flat tire on the way home and then we forgot our key and were locked out of the house. We survived and would do it again! Look at all these dreamy cousin shots! They didn't even complain!

 

August

We have a new SC family resident! My cousin Mary just bought a house in Lexington. She was a fun house guest for a few days while everything closed.

Silas and Rory had a 2 night sleep over with the cousins. This included Silas's actual birthday. It was a bit weird not seeing him, but they went swimming and had spaghetti, so I think he did not miss me.

The boys both started their new schools. Day 1 had a delayed start because of a hurricane (drizzle) and Day 2 was canceled completely. Still, I think it will be a great year. I am mildly obsessed with Rory's teacher and class. We went to the open house and everyone was nicer than you would believe in their new dreamy building. His sweet, over-the-top organized teacher had made beaded name keychains for every kid. I got 4 hugs and had 3 good conversations with prior strangers. This is basically a miracle if you know me at all. Ms. Zeigler emailed me that he cried the first morning but got it together and was fine. I also got 2 pictures. Silas seemed to have a good day too. I am so proud of him for stepping up for whatever presents itself. His only complaint was they played a name game in math and he was last so he had to name everyone and froze up completely. He was also legit mad at me for making him brush his hair. Sadly, middle school teachers do not send pictures.

 

 

 

July

Skylar came home with us from Missouri! We used the week to try our best at being fun hosts and to clear our summer bucket list. We went to Surge, Neptune Island, a pottery class, skating, the drive-in, and Charlotte for the Cheesecake Factory. We also thought we were going there to catch Skylar's flight home, but it turns out that was in Columbia. Oops.

 

Rory went to an art camp that the art teacher at his new school puts on at her house in the summer. I almost had to drag him out of the car the first day, but he ended up enjoying it.

Silas went to orchestra camp. They put on an adorable little concert at the end of the week. Especially since his group had 12 hours of playing in their lifetime under their belts.

Trevor visited! We went to a new restaurant where you have to cook your own food. Pretty fun, even if the chefs were dodgy. Trevor ate octopus that wriggled like they were alive on the grill. 

We had Harry Potter part 2 with the Olivers. They all came in costume! It was fun to be more low key with it. Lucas told me I was too tall as Flitwick during charms, so I had to teach from my knees.

Now it is back to school for me, while the boys enjoy a few last days of laying like broccoli. 

Harry Potter

"Yer a Wizard, Silas!" My boy turned 11 and got his Hogwarts letter! I spent a year planning and crafting for this party. I also spent a million dollars. It is a slippery slope from "I'll just put up some themed decor." to "I am missing a nod to that miniscule detail from book such and such chapter 22. " Silas was over Harry Potter by the time it rolled around, BUT acknowledging that it was mostly for me, everything turned out pretty much exactly like I envisioned. It also happened that lots of people that don't normally get to celebrate with us got to be there!

My love of Harry Potter is very much wrapped up in my love for my buddy Joy.  She turned me on to it in college, and we finished book 7 together when it released on a very long road trip read aloud. It made my life that she flew out for the party.

But that is not all... Silas's birthday twin Trevor flew out too! (Two years running!) We also love HP together and got to experience our first (and sadly my only) trip to The Wizarding World at Universal about 8 years ago.

But that is not all... Hannah is a new resident to SC and was in attendance, and my Aunt Jan, Uncle Doug, and cousin Andrew were visiting Julianna for her girls' baptisms and got to come too! That is on top of all the regulars!

It was a really good day!

Stop here and just look at pictures if you don't want to read every miniscule detail documented.

The Set Up

The dining room was the great hall. I had castle lattice on the windows, floating candles, torches, portraits, spiders, Faux's stand, the sorting hat, the house point counter, and Marcia's cake.

The living room had the letters coming from the fireplace, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and Platform 9 3/4. 

 

After kids found their letters, did their shopping, got to Hogwarts and were sorted, they attended eight classes.

History of Magic

Potions

Herbology

Charms

Divination

Defense Against the Dark Arts

Care of Magical Creatures

Transfiguration

Then there was the first quidditch scrimmage of the season.

There were a few other dressed up places around the house. I think the Monster's Book of Monsters was my favorite thing I made. I also liked the house bulletin boards.

The Day Before

The day before the party we celebrated Trevor with a classic pink cake from Hagrid. I made an escape room to go along with the theme. I was thrilled that most of it went to plan and no one was stuck for too terribly long on any one clue. Here is the play by play.

First... Silas received a howler by owl that rode some fishing line down from the ceiling to the chair he was sitting in. It was from Madame Hooch yelling at the first years for leaving out the quidditch gear for Peeves to steal. 

The note said she knew the thief because he wrote "Peeves was Here" in mud in the locker room. This lead everyone (after a fruitless search for a locker room) to one of the bricks on the wall that also had the message, "Peeves was Here". There was a tab to peel off the brick sticker, and on the back was a clue that said, "It looks like the mandrakes are ready for repotting." 

This lead everyone to Herbology where the mandrake could be lifted out of the pot to reveal a puzzle. Once the puzzle was put together it had a picture of the word Revelio, a certain wand, and a phoenix. I had some red feathers and ashes (which were really iron shavings) in a boxed frame covered in glass under Faux's stand. I put magnets on the tip of Luna's wand so when you held it over the stand you could move the ashes and see they were covering a copy of one of the portraits hanging in the great hall. Rory had the key off the back of the matching portrait in a second.

That key was to a lock box they had to find which held a card with one of those messages covered in red scribbles that can only be read with a red filter. In this case it was with the spectrespecs. It said, "Have you done your spine ticking reading on monsters yet? You better do it now before it comes back to bite you." This sent them to the restricted section of the library where the Monster Book of Monsters was locked up. There was a number logic riddle they had to solve in order to get the combination. Once they opened the lock, they could take out the book and inside was a glass bottle with orange liquid (orange juice with red food coloring) that had a sticker saying "drink me". Once Silas drank the liquid the back of the sticker had the word "Capricorn". 

They found the box with Professor Sinistra's astronomy flash cards and the correct constellation. It had the Capricorn configuration with 4 bolded stars and the note, "Find what you need in today's paper." The Daily Prophet was hanging on the Gryffindor bulletin board. In the same configuration as the bolded stars it had the letters LUCK as the newspaper section headings.

There was a recipe for brewing Felix Felicis (Liquid Luck) by the potions set up. The recipe called for several ingredients from the apothecary shelf including a bezoar. When they used the cauldron to mix everything, the bezoar fizzed and dissolved revealing a key. This key opened the trunk containing the quaffle!  I am hoping this did not come out as gibberish, but I fear it might have.

The Actual Party

I got a bit flustered with the arrival of everyone and might have had the sorting ceremony before the kids actually got their letters, shopped, or boarded the train, but whatever.

A few thing I would do differently are...

1. Actually do things in the right order.

2. Have everyone shop as they arrive and people are mingling because that part took forever.

3. Have the sorting cups be clear and maybe dip the outside bottom inch in black paint so the kids can't see the food coloring in the bottom, but when you add the liquid everyone can see what color it changes.

4. Use PVC tubing that actually fits the connectors for quidditch hoops instead of trying to jimmy hula hoops. They kept flipping down.

5. Not make everything out of crumbly air dry clay.

Having all the adults have jobs and help was the best thing ever! They were all such good sports! This left me only doing the sorting, shopping at Diagon Alley, and a few announcements here and there! Daron got all the food ready and took a lot of pictures.

Here are the jobs everyone ended up with...

• Conductor of the Hogwarts Express- Uncle Doug (killed it!)
• Professor Binns- Andrew (killed it!)
• Professor Snape- Gramps with assistant Meemaw (killed it!)
• Professor Sprout- Julianna (killed it!)
• Professor Flitwick- Hannah (killed it!) (Also did house elf duties with the sorting ceremony.)
• Honeydukes Employees- Alan and Marcia (killed it!)
• Professor Trelawney- Allison with assistant Wes (killed it!)
• Professor Hagrid- Justin (killed it!)
• Professor Dumbledore- Elizabeth (killed it!)
• Professor McGonagall- Joy (killed it!) (Also kept track of all house points and was the glue of the whole party.)
• Madame Hooch- Trevor (killed it!) (I forgot to give him the quidditch score sheets, so he had to be quick on his feet.)

Joy had an entire McGonagall getup and brought the Dobby ears!

The Welcome and Sorting

Here were the teams...

Gryffindor- Merritt and Logan

Ravenclaw- Conor and Lacy

Hufflepuff- Ian and Lizzy

Slytherin- Silas and Rory

Merritt is a friend from two schools ago at this point who is the coolest and did all the things with a pack of mostly strangers.

Getting their Letters

History of Magic with Professor Binns

Took a quiz.

Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall

Buttons turned to beetles.

Potions with Professor Snape

Herbology with Professor Sprout

Solved a logic puzzle.

Charms with Professor Flitwick

Wingardium Leviosa keepy uppy.

Shopping at Honeydukes

Rory bought three bags of lemon drops.

Divination with Professor Trelawney

I should have gotten her big glasses.

Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Dumbledore

Pinata

Care of Magical Creatures with Professor Hagrid

Flobberworm, niffler gold, and dragon egg hunt.

Quidditch with Madame Hooch

The Feast

Bangers (Brats) and Mash (potatoes) with peas and watermelon. Food is not my forte.

 

The Wizards! 

There was actually a tie in house points at the end, so I let them search for any unfound flobberworms or gold during dinner. Slytherin came out on top with a little help from some friends. They received the house cup trophy and all the M&Ms won throughout the night. I made the whole group assemble twice for two separate pictures. After the party, a game of dodgeball broke out that may have been everyone's highlight, but we won't talk about that! It probably sounds pathetic, but I think this party is the crowning achievement of my life. There is a very sniffly video walk-through I recorded at the end if all of this wasn't enough. Ha!