Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I've finally uploaded the photos taken from July 20. Oh, the day wouldn't fly by fast enough for me! I waited impatiently all day for the evening to roll around so that we could dress up and hit Barnes and Noble. The activities over there wouldn't start until 9pm, but Julia and I couldn't stand the suspense. We ended up driving there at 7pm. But before we headed out, we needed a few things--like wands. I for the life of me couldn't find one wand we own. And absolutely no stores in this city carried any (believe me, I checked). So Ryan then quickly whittled some for Julia and I.


Of course we needed to make sure the things worked properly! Actually, Jacob and Julia were watching the third HP movie all day long and so all I heard was "Wingardium Leviosa!" and "Expecto Patronum!" We had a fun time goofing off outside as we broke our wands in. :)




So while we're at Barnes and Noble, we had the opportunity to make autograph books and then go around to all of the workers, whom were dressed up as different characters from the books, and get their autographs. Talk about fun! I think we managed to get just about every major character's signature! And then for those characters who were missing...well, just about every fan there was dressed up as some odd character...and they signed the books too! Me included. I was asked numerous times to sign as Hermione or as Hermione's mother.

If you don't know who this is with Julia then that means you haven't read the books (shame on you!).
I believe the lady on the left is a chaser while the woman on the right was, um, Madam Hooch? I've forgotten.
At first we were like "Oh Dobby!", but this person was quick to point out that she is a girl, so she's obviously Winky.

Next up is Miss Fleur Delacour (or Phlegm as she is known to some of us. However I must admit that after reading this final installment of Harry Potter I'm not so inclined to use that latter name on her).


Here we have Fleur, again, with Bellatrix Lestrange (who obviously just broke out of prison). They're signing Juila's album.


Who can forget Madam Maxime? She truly dwarfed Julia making the effect all the more real for us.

Ahh, the freaky looking Lord Voldermort whom everyone gave a wide berth. This is NOT a worker--just a crazed fan. I actually saw him in line while waiting for the fifth movie a couple of weeks ago. He was wearing those freaky red contact lenses then too. He quickly became everyone's favorite when the kids realized that he had a huge sack full of really cool homemade (but realistic looking) wands which he was giving out to anyone who asked. Julia was the last child to receive one.

Next up is our favorite half giant! I LOVED this costume. Hagrid is the absolute best!

Professor Umbridge--ooh, nasty piece of vermin! Just hand her over to Bane and Magorian. Or to Aragog's family? Or just drop her off in the mountains with a whole family of giants. Serves her right. Here she is with little Tonks (such a cutie!).

You can't tell cause the picture isn't big enough, but this remorseful Cho is carrying around a picture of Cedric. *sniff*


Lastly we have Professor Slughorn and Moaning Murtle. Julia especially liked seeing Myrtle, she's one of her favorite characters. We ran into a ton more people: Professors Snape (ugly git), McGonnagal, Sprout, Percy (are there any words to describe him? Grrr), Ron, Fred and George, Lavender Brown (Lav Lav to me), some cool Luna's, Lucius and Narcissa, Draco, Trelawney, Madam Rosmerta, Penelope Clearwater, Rita Skeeter, Pansy Parkinson, Fenrir Greyback, Sirius Black, and Molly Weasley. There was also a whole family of quidditch players running around too and lots more. So exciting!
It took forever to finally get our hands on the book...we were the seventh group to be called up to buy the book...squeezed next to way too many people. I kept trying to calm down my claustrophia. It wouldn't do to freak out on so many people. ;) I think we finally bought the book around 12:45 at night. Did I go home and go right to sleep? Yeah right! I read til about 5:30am (my eyes just couldn't take it anymore) and then got up at 7:30am to continue reading (Ryan already new that I would be useless that day--he was solely in charge of the kids). I finished the book at about 4:30pm that day. Oh! It was sooooooooooooo good! Good enough to read again...and again. I finished it for the third time today and will continue rereading it probably every chance I get for a long time (at least til I have it thoroughly memorized). I must admit that I'm sad about the series being over...but the book was incredible. Outstanding and truly exceeded my expectations. I only wish that I could have witnessed exactly what kind of punishment that was bestowed upon Umbridge. ;P The ending, the epilogue....oh wow. Perfect. And now that we know that JK Rowling will write an encyclopedia for us...!!!! Happy day!

Constant Vigilance!

Alright people, some devoted fans, like me for instance, have been waiting two whole stinkin years to get ahold of the last Harry Potter book. We've been waiting two years to party the night before, wait in line a ridiculous amount of time at a bookstore, and then go home for a sleepless night so that we can read the coveted book. I can't tell you how excited I have been for tomorrow night. This is why I'm totally peeved at certain rude, insensitive muggles out there who just had to scan the book onto the internet and try to ruin it all for us fans. And at the New York Times who justify buying a illegal copy (yeah, they say it was legal, but since the book doesn't legally go on sale til tomorrow at midnight AHEM), take your review and stuff it. How dare they print a review that gives away the plot and meaning of the book title? To them and anyone else who thinks they want to leak all the chapter titles, plot, who dies, and what not--here's what I say:



Constant vigilance people!

Graduation!!!

This past week marks a huge milestone for Jacob. He's been receiving speech and language therapy since the time he was two and half. At that tender age, he had the vocabulary of about a nine month old.



This is a fairly recent photo of Marcus. He turns seven months old next week. Jacob's speech was hardly better than the babble talk that comes from Marcus right now. Scary.
When I started noticing how silent he was and began realizing that he should be saying SOME sort of words, I was told left and right that he was a boy and a second child. I guess boys develop slower than girls and that the first child always speaks for the second, therefor the second child simply doesn't talk. Well, it just didn't seem right that a two year old didn't have ANY words in his vocabulary. Jacob literally didn't have one word. He didn't say "mommy" or "daddy". He didn't say "please" or "apple". He was simply silent. Trying to communicate was so difficult. We had such a hard time being able to tell what he wanted or to figure out what he needed us to understand at times. He couldn't tell us that he wanted a drink or that he wanted to play outside. It was constantly a guessing game. And what does a normal young child do when you can't understand them under normal circumstances? Get upset and do a fair amount of crying. It was such a hard period in our life (his too).
Well, when I took him in for his two year check up, the doctor prescribed speech therapy. We had it arranged to have two therapists come in our home twice a week. I was so nervous about this--I was nine months pregnant with Evelyn at the time, Ryan was going back to school, and Julia was beginning preschool. So many things all happening all at once! Well, these WONDERFUL ladies entered our home and we saw incredible results immediately. The therapy was really doing puzzles, playing games, doing matching games, ect. And all the while we would talk (the therapist, myself, and Jacob--in what ways he could). We talked about every little thing that we did in the activites, specifically naming everything that we handled. None of "Let's play with this". It was "Let's play Connect Four". And not "Do you want to be these?". It was "Do you want to be the red or the black pieces?". I never realized how much we always say "this" or "that" and such. Ryan and I were encouraged to name EVERYTHING specifically to Jacob. No more holding up a box of cereal and saying "this one?". It was "Do you want Cheerios? Or Apple Jacks?" Such simple things really helped. He would at first just babble for a response--but you know what? It was a response. He had never actually said anything in response to us before.
Well, when Jacob turned three, he had about fifty words in his vocabulary. It was such an accomplishment! At the age of three, children who need therapy are put into the special education school. Oh, I can't tell you how nervous I was to send my little three year old to school every day! I think I actually cried. But he just blossomed! He continued to recieve speech and language therapy while also being able to be in a preschool setting (in reality, it was preschool--and he attended for two and a half years). When I first met his speech therapist at the school, she told me that she was going to go full force with him. She had never met a child so far behind in speech (well, that wasn't very comforting at all, but at least I knew that she was going to meet it head on). With each passing semester, Jacob improved. After a year in school, he was able to come home and with prompts tell me about what he did that day. After a year and a half he was able to describe what snacks he ate with his class and who his friends were. During his last year, he actually helped out the new kids in the classroom.
Well, this past Monday I took Jacob in to see if he needs to continue his speech therapy when he enters kindegarten. Wednesday I had the results consultation/meeting. His preschool teacher was part of that meeting. We were given the results of all the testing they did on him (speech, math, gross motor, ect). He averaged about 85-86% in each area! I almost cried when I was told that he has graduated out of special education. He's caught up to be a normal speaking five year old. The lady who worked Jacob's case told me that she had never had a child enter the program at the age he did and then not need to continue therapy in kindegarten.

His teacher and I shared a teary embrace and I cheered the whole way home. We were both so proud of Jacob and so excited for him. I must tell you, I will never take for granted the ability to communicate with my children. Or to have them be able to communicate with me. It was so wonderful to hear "I love you" come from his mouth. Such a little thing...but monumental for us. When we imagined having our family (when we first got married), we imagined the typical family--playing with kids, family dinner talks and laughter. We never thought about the chance of having a child that would need therapy of come kind. It just had never been thought about. And we were blindsided. But now, after so much time and hard effort from him, therapists, and his family, here he is--a perfectly normal five year old getting ready for kindegarten. And I couldn't be more proud of him.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The long awaited night came at last! As anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge Harry Potter fan and I have been diligently waiting for this movie to come out. I gathered together a group of friends to come with me to watch it at midnight. :) Of course I went decked out in my custom made Gryffindor robes. Actually, there were a TON of people dressed up. I saw one dude who was a "wizard" trying to dress like a muggle. Those of you who have read the books can just imagine what I'm talking about: Platform boots, pink and orange striped socks, a pair of beach type shorts, crazy t-shirt with suspenders over them and topped off with a checkered bathrobe. Oh, and a tourist mexican hat. :) LOL.

Gail got to the theater around 6pm and there was already a healthy line. I was able to make it at 7:30 when Ryan had come home from school. I LOVE her shirt. She didn't have anything Harry Potterish when it comes to dressing up. But earlier this week she saw this awesome Gryffindor looking shirt in the sleepwear department at Walmart. I gotta see if they have one in my size....


So I had just come back from taking a lawn chair back to the car (it was a long time to wait in line and the last hour an a half was supposed to be standing to accomodate more people). Well, just as I'm walking in a host is asking all those who have dressed up to come forward for a costume contest. Here I am in the line up. The host took turns stopping at each person and whoever got the largest cheer won.


I didn't win, but this Professor McGonagall sure did! This picture really doesn't do her costume justice whatsoever, but there was no mistaking who she was. She ended up winning a poster and a personal interview with a local newscasting station.


Just a fun shot of half the group in our seats while waiting for the commercials and previews to be over and get on with the movie!!!!!

I must say, I loved the movie!!!! They did such a good job at trying to fit everything in and for the most part, staying true to the books. Obviously some things are quite different than what's in the books, but you get that with every book made into movies. The movie really is darker and scarier. There were two scenes where my whole group jumped and about screamed. I will NOT be letting any of my kiddos watch this until it comes out and I can skip the dementor scene. Otherwise they'll be having some serious nightmares.
I'm still on the high from attending a huge Harry Potter gathering last night. I'm even more excited for next week to hurry up and come! The final book in this amazing series is coming out and you can bet that I'm going to be at Barnes and Noble all decked out in my robes with my broken Harry glasses and my wand waiting in line to get my hands on the coveted book. Will I sleep that night? Absolutely not! Will I read straight through and then reread again and again and again? You better believe it. Will I cry because this incredible phenomenon is finally at an end? Yes *sniff*

Accio July 20 midnight!

Let's go see the arch

So we decide go, as a whole family, to see the arch. We are all excited to see it and to see what's going on at the VP fair. We had just got done watching the fair that morning, swimming in the early afternoon, and we wanted to see what was going on across the street (the arch was literally across the street from our hotel). So we all step out of the hotel and realize that it's absolutely pouring down rain. We decided to go ahead and stick it out...surely it would stop sometime and it wasn't a far walk. Well, we were almost there when I think we were all drenched. Jason saw some dude who had reached into one of the trash cans and pulled out a huge roll of trash bags. He offered to pay the guy a dollar for a bag to use as a poncho. We ended up getting a bag for everyone in the family. Even for the babies in the strollers.







And of course, after we buy the bags (and Jon and Callie turn back to the hotel with their kids) it stops raining. LOL. We went ahead and kept our bags on for warmth--and it was a good way to keep track of each other. Someone lost? Oh, he belongs with the trash bag family.

More parade

I had no idea what I was taking a picture of...Julia was posing and then shrieking "There's Harry Potter! Take a picture Mom!!!"


I had to run down a couple streets (from the insistance of an overjoyed 7 year old daughter) to get this picture of the Hogwarts Express.



The kids went hysterical when they saw the big trucks.

The parade

Look really close and you'll see a huge snake on this person.



The plane reads "The Spirit of St. Louis"


The Red Baron

More vacation

This sweet shot is on the roof of our hotel. Nice! Everyone enjoyed the water after the parade. The weather was actually nice...not too hot--til after we spent the morning outside watching the parade. Everyone was quite sweaty and ready to cool off, so we just went upstairs and enjoyed pool.



There was a small balcony behind the pool. If we didn't sit under the arch for the fireworks, this is where I would have gone. Sweet view!


Here's some more of us watching the parade....out of order for my story but oh well.