Happy Birthday Harry!

 Our HP love continued as we had our annual Harry birthday party. After being at Jessie's house, I felt motivated to up my decor game, plus she sent me home with all kinds of goodies she had made. 

My friend Jen won the award for best costume as Professor Trelawney! 

The Boy Who Lived

 My last summer hurrah was going to South Carolina for the weekend to visit my old college buddy, Jessie and her family. She had spent an entire year crafting and planning a incredibly detailed birthday celebration for her son, Silas. (Turning 11. Of course.) She had been texting me pictures of her crafting treasures throughout the year and I would literally gasp when I saw how amazing her owl-post vignette looked or how realistic her potion supply bottles were turning out. I was beyond thrilled when she invited me to come for the party. And I immediately bit the bullet and bought the Professor McGonagall costume I had been eying online. (Dress like a story-book character day was coming up at school after all!) 

The actual party and weekend festivities were amazing. Siriusly, amazing. The decorations were lavish and totally on point. The detail left me speechless. Jessie had even made an escape room in her house that myself and her family solved the night before the birthday that included a bezoar in a potion, logic puzzles, magnetic shavings covering a portrait, and 15 other clever puzzles/tricks/HP trivia that was so very fun. 

But I think my very favorite part about the entire weekend was seeing Jessie's people and the way the all absolutely love her. I heard Jessie's husband bragging about her to his brother and dad and I about died. Over a decade in and it's clear he is still so incredibly smitten with her. He was the perfect right hand man for the weekend and didn't bat an eye over his to-do, so trusting is he in his wife's vision. (For example, the to-do list might be: vacuum before guests arrive, put out lettuce on porch for care of magical creatures, find something to hang the spider from the tree with, then come in to make sure the bangers and mash go in the oven on time, and he just happily nods.) 

Then there was Jessie's father-in-law, who literally cried, saying what a good mom Jessie is. (I also teared up at that one and had to leave the room with some fast blinks.) He also went on to say that he had made sure he and his wife had watched every movie before coming to the party and they spent the previous 8 nights doing so. Jessie's brother Trevor was also there, who I remember from when he was 6-9ish and now is in his mid to late 20s. He was a delight and clearly was happy to partaking. He said he kept texting his friends back in Missouri pictures of the party and they were in awe as well. Then there was literally 20 other people there- cousins, aunts, uncles, and a niece. None of these people live in Jessie's town, mind you. They all drove, flew, whatever to be there. It made my heart so full to see all these people loving Jessie and her family so dearly. 

Prepping for Quidditch

Rory working on Ron's flying car.

Silas making Dobby.

Here's a link to Jessie's blog. You should go check it out and see all her pictures and her video walk through. And you should hope you are invited to the next party she throws. 

Yer a wizard, Harry.

 We just got home from our great Orlando get away. Here are some pictures! (Seth decided a few weeks ago that he didn't want to go. He wanted to stay home and we had some friends come check on him, so you won't see any pictures of him.) 

Jon and I celebrated our 18th anniversary by going to a brewery for HP trivia night just a couple nights before we flew out. We got 5th place! I was pretty proud of our team, Where's my Rememberall? 

First meal after arrival. 

Me: Oh they have cinnamon toast crunch shots? It's gonna be a good trip.

Ollie with a chicken strip thing the size of a notebook paper.

We stayed at an Airbnb which was pretty epic with a Star Wars, Mickey, Frozen, Minion, and HP room. I should have taken a picture of each room. The décor was super fun. We had a little pool in our backyard which was perfect for our crew.

This is in the Harry Potter bedroom.

It had a fun game room with foosball, air hockey, and an arcade style game. Ollie organized an air hockey tourney for us and then won. 

Mimi and Momo met us in Florida as well. Noey was only slightly excited to get to play with Momo.

What? Why can't I get that sucker? I've hardly had any sweets!

Jon in Seussland speaking for the trees with the Lorax. 

More rides at Seussland

Catching a wave before dinner. 

And now for the main attraction (at least in my eyes...)

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts
Teach us something please
Whether we be old and bald
Or young with scabby knees
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff
For now they’re bare and full of air
Dead flies and bits of fluff...

Hogsmeade 

Practicing our wandwork while trying alllll the Butterbeer. Ollie preferred normal Butterbeer, while Jon, Jennifer, Nolan, and myself liked frozen Butterbeer. Mimi thought Butterbeer ice cream won the gold. Hot Butterbeer was yummy and reminded us all of Hot Buttered Rum, and the Butterbeer fudge was just meh. I was disappointed in the interactive wand displays. They didn't work super well in my opinion, but we had fun trying.

Here we are at Kings Cross Station getting ready to get on the Hogwarts Express. When we were on the train, Nolan's eyes were as big as saucers. A Dementor comes at one point and Nolan Expecto Patronum-ed him away at the perfect time in-sync with Harry. Noey was so proud of himself and it was pretty cute. 

Hagrid's Motorbike

Chilling with Stan.

Entering Diagon Alley.

Gringotts

There are 5 Harry Potter rides and Jon, Ollie, and I loved Hagrid's motorbike the best. So fun! I literally laughed and screamed during it. Nolan rode escape from Gringotts, but that was a mistake. It was way too scary, so he sat all the other HP rides out, other than the train rides. I thought Gringotts and Harry's Forbidden journey were so fun as well. We will have to try again when Noey is a little older.

Toad in the Hole with Pumpkin Juice at the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. Sad to say the Gillyweed water did not allow me to breathe underwater for 60 minutes. 

Hagrid's Hut

Light Show before the fireworks

Delicious dinner at CowFish

Last meal at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium; the food could not be beat!

If anyone has even a slight desire to check out Universal, let me know. We are looking for any excuse to go back. 

Nolan picked out a Badger stuffie as one of his souvenirs. This is probably foreshadowing of where the sorting hat will place him, right?

Best quote of the trip goes to Momo. "It's just so much...... fiction!" 

Ha! Thanks for being a good sport, Momo!