Tea for Six plus One

This little girl turned 6 on the 18 of February. 

 The day after E's Harry Potter Birthday, and on K's real birthday, we switched gears and had a Tea Party.  The table is set and all ready for the guests.

The first thing we did was decorate a hat.  Every girl needs a beautiful hat for a Tea Party.

Then we read Tea for Ruby.  Then played pass the tea pot.  After the book and game we sat down to tea.    There were cookies, popcorn princess mix, strawberries, grapes, chocolate dipped pretzels, M&M's, and pink lemonade.

After all those yummy treats we sang Happy Birthday and had cupcakes and icecream.  K had so much fun with her friends and it was a big hit!  Happy Birthday K!  We love you!

We were tired after all the birthday fun so we took the family to Red Robin so both E and K could get their birthday dinners.  A nice ending to a Very busy week!

An Owl Post was sent

E and her best friend both turned 11 in February. In fact they are only 11 hours apart. They are also both related to William the Conqueror so this make them practically sisters. They have had a lot of fun this year. To celebrate turning 11 the girls received their letter to Hogwarts along with their friends and got to experience a Hogwarts visit. Here are some pictures from the party!

Our first stop was Diagon Alley

Olivander's Wand shop (you can see the brick "wall" we had for platform 9 3/4)

Everyone with their wands

E and her best friend visiting Gringotts

All the students were able to pick out an owl and bring it along!

After Diagon Alley we had them run through Platform 9 3/4 and board Hogwarts Express.  They were able to partake of some Trolley Treats.  We had cockroach clusters, Bertie Botts every flavor beans, pretzel wands, chocolate frogs, and popcorn. I somehow didn't get  picture of the table.
After the treats we went to Hogwarts and the sorting ceremony.  Nathan was delegated to be the sorting hat. 

E was sorted into the Slytherin House :)

Somehow both birthday girls were sorted into Slytherin.

Here are our Gryffindor House.

Ravenclaw

And the Hufflepuff students didn't sit still long enough for a picture!

After the sorting ceremony the students reported to their classes.  First was potions.  They preformed the Elephantitis Denticatis potion.

After potions we went outside for Herbology.  Then it was on to Divination.  Our guest teacher did a great job (E's best friends Grandpa).

After Divination we had the closing ceremony celebration with cake and Butter Beer.

The cake had a different layer for each house at Hogwarts.  My friend Bethany did an excellent job!

This little guy enjoyed the cake the most!

While we were cleaning up we couldn't find J.  We found him right outside our bedroom door meditating!  What a funny boy!

It was a very fun party and I decided that we may do this for every 11th birthday in our house.

Spirit Week

The kids had a spirit week at school.

Here are the boys in their Duke Shirts!

Crazy clothes day.  They had a lot of fun getting ready!

The kids had a lot of fun dressing up for spirit week this year!

Christmas Break

Nathan had the whole week off after Christmas so we planned some fun activities. Monday and Tuesday we played with all our new toys . 

 Wednesday we were going to go to the zoo, but J and H were sick so we opted to make our gingerbread houses.

 Thursday E and Nathan were sick so we again stayed home.   Friday in between people being sick we went and watched the movie Chipwrecked at the Theaters.  They kids loved the show!!!

Saturday we finally made it to the zoo.  It was a beautiful sunny day and not a lot of people.  The kids loved seeing all the animals.  The favorites were the exotic birds, Arctic fox, giraffes, and chimpanzees.  It was so much fun to have Nathan home the whole week.  I wish we could do that every year!!!

Christmas

Christmas was wonderful.  A was the first one up a little after 5.  Around 6 the girls started to wake up.  We had all the kids go in the toy room and wait to Nathan to get things ready.  When the Christmas tree lights were on and music going we all filed in.  The kids got to see what Santa brought them.  We played for awhile and then started opening presents.   After all the present opening we had a yummy breakfast and started to get ready for church.  We had 1 pm church which we had fun singing and participating in.  After church we came home to a yummy smoked turkey dinner.  The kids loved their gifts and we were all happy!  What a great Christmas!
(Sadly we have no pictures of the kids on Christmas.  Nathan recorded them, but I can't seem to find the videos!)

Christmas Eve part 2 2011

Our Annual Christmas pageant.  E was the angel. J was the shepherd. K was Mary.  H was Joseph (she insisted).  Nathan was the narrator and donkey.  A and I were the wise men.  It was a lot of fun!  After the reading of Luke 2 we opened up our Christmas jammies and then headed to bed!!

Christmas Eve Part 1 2011

Nathan had Christmas Eve off so we decided to do some fun things.  We started the day off with breakfast at a place called Elmo's Diner.  It was delicious and the kids did really well. 
After breakfast we went bowling.  We hadn't been bowling in a long time, but the kids had a lot of fun.  K ended up winning the first game and Nathan won the second.   The kids want to go again soon!