Hot Springs, Harry Potter Party, and Etsy

Hey guys, yup once again I have a gap in post. Sorry about that. My head has just been a mess lately and I haven't been able to keep things as straight as I normally do. Yup it happens to all of us.

So Monday we went to the Fifth Water Hot Springs here in Utah, and it was pretty awesome, but tiring. It's only a 30 min drive for us, so it's great having something like that pretty close. The hike is long, or well long for us beginner hikers, but totally worth it in the end. It's 2.5 miles there, and yeah 2.5 miles back. I think it took us about an hour to hike up to the hot springs, and 45 min to hike back down.

We had so much fun, and I feel like we picked a good day to go, because the temperature was great. Nathaniel took the lead on the hike up, and Darien took the lead on the hike back down. They both set a good pace and kept us going.

For all of you Harry Potter fans, our Harry Potter Party is in a few days. We are going to have it on the 25th, 26th, and 27th watching 3 movies a night (except for the last night). If you've been following this blog for a while you what we do, and what goes on, but for all of you newbies, I'll explain. We are big fans of Harry Potter, and we love to watch the movies, so every year around Halloween we have a Harry Potter Party, where we watch all of the movies. We usually change it up every year by how many we watch in a night, but we always make yummy Harry Potter themed snacks, and we always have games and trivia. If you want to know what we normally make I have it all laid out on last year's post.

If you are looking for any new ideas I do have a few links for that as well. I follow this YouTube baking channel called Nerdy Nummies (you need to follow it too), and since our party last year she has posted 3 new Harry Potter treats. Golden Snitch Caramel Apple Cider, Felix Felicis "Liquid Luck', and Pumpkin Pasties.

If your looking for trivia questions I do have the list from last year, and I am willing to e-mail it out to anyone how wants it, so just let me know.

I have opened a shop on Etsy called Thread Bed Head it has mostly beaded jewelry but I am going to put more crochet things on there as time goes on. So if you have some free time, or some money just laying around and taking up space, you should go check out my store and buy something (maybe), or share the link. 

Thanks for reading everyone :)

Harry Potter Party 2014

Well guys it's that time of year again. If you have been following this blog for at least a year, then you know that every year around this time, we have a Harry Potter Party, and watch all of the movies. This year we are doing it a little differently, and not watching the movies one right after another, because that has always caused us to stay up to late, and that makes some of us grumpy... ... mainly our oldest son, who is not a morning person, and is even worse after staying up way to late.

This year we are doing one movie a night starting on October the 24th and ending on Halloween night with the last movie and a halloween party. I am also making a different snack for each movie. The snacks are all Harry Potter themed, and I tried to plain them so that way they would go with what ever movie we were going to be watching that night. I have also made up trivia questions for each movie, ones that can be answered as long as you watch the movie carefully.

I've had a few people tell me that they want to do the Harry Potter Party with us, meaning they want to start the movies on the same night as us, and make the same snacks, and get the trivia questions. Yes meaning that they will be watching it in their own house, which makes sense since most of my friends and family live far away, but if you also like to do a party as well, go for it. I'm already going to e-mail out the trivia questions on the appropriate night, so I can always add more to the list. If you would like to be on that list, just send me a message randi.legates@yahoo.com, or you can message me on Facebook if you would prefer.

Now for all of you taking notes and doing the party, this is how it's going to go...

Friday the 24th
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
- Snack is a birthday cake for Harry

A chocolate cake with pink icing with HAPPEE BIRTHDAE HARRY written on it in green (like the one Hagrid gives him).









Saturday the 25th
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
-Snack is mandrake flower pots

Chocolate cake or dirt dessert in little flower pots


Now for the mandrake, to me it looks like they took a small doll and added fake pine needles to the top of it's head, but if you don't want to do that, you could just add worms, or maybe nuts to it, saying that they were just panted.









Sunday the 26th
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Snack is chocolate frogs and Jelly beans (like Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans)

The frog trays you can buy off of amazon, and all you need to do is fill them with melted chocolate (we like to put peanut butter is ours as well). You can buy either chocolate chips or melting chocolate, and heat it up in the microwave (yes it is that simple).

As for the jelly beans, I'm just going to buy a couple bags of assorted jelly belly's, but if you want Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans I have seen them at mall candy stores.






Monday the 27th
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Snack is potion jello and chocolate wands

The potion jello is just going to be green jello

The chocolate wands (which I made last year) are pretty easy. You just take big pretzels, dip them in chocolate, then roll them in sprinkles (because that makes them magical).







Tuesday the 28th
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Snack will be Luna Lovegood pudding

     I'm just making banana pudding with sprinkles and nalla wafers in it





Wednesday the 29th
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Snack will be butter beer owl cupcakes like these

     Thank you Nerdy Nummies





Thursday the 30th
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows : Part 1
- Snack is Cauldron cake pops like these

     Once again thank you Nerdy Nummies





Friday the 31st (YAY HALLOWEEN)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows : Part 2
- Snack is going to be Deathly Hallows cookies

We are going to be making peanut butter cookies and snicker doodles and frosting them like that (or as best as we can).










Thank you everyone for reading, once again if you would like to have your own Harry Potter Party and want some trivia questions, just e-mail me, and I will get them to you.

Wrapping up the summer

This post is just going to be about a few different things that I've been wanting to write about. So first off the pool.

In my last post I told you guys all about the pool that we got off of amazon. My only complaint that I have, is that Washington summers are not nearly long enough. We had two good weeks of hot swimming weather, and then that was it, and the pool got little to no use. I will say that the times that we did get to use it, made the cost well worth it. The pool it self was easy to set up, and easy to clean, and when you only get two weeks of pool weather, than that is really what you want. We are goting to be packing it up this week, so I'll let you guys know if it survives the winter.

In other news, we are starting school work this Monday... EKKKKKK... The summer went by so fast. Where did it all go. I've been so busy this week getting ready. I was mostly planning out the school year (what work we needed to do every week), and cleaning. The books all came about a week and a half ago, and it was almost like Christmas. I really enjoyed organizing the school bookshelves. I always find it fun to get out my big box of old school books, and my just shipped to me new school books, and switch them out with last years books.

We are planning another trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in September! I'm really excited. It's a secret though, so don't tell the kids (as I look around to make sure none of them are behind me reading this as I type it). We really do love that place, and if it was cheeper, I'm sure we would be there all of the time. We are going to do the trip right this time, and pack snacks. Lots of snacks! So that way we don't have to eat out as much.

We have also started to plan our annual Harry Potter Party. It's still a ways off though. We are doing it a little different this year. Instead of having it be all the movies one right after the other until we have watch them all, we are doing a movie every night, with one or two snacks that fit in with that movie, and the last night with the last movie will be on Halloween night and we'll wrap it up with a full on Halloween party. So it goes like this 24th (of October) will be The Sorcerer's Stone, the 25th is the Chamber of Secrets, 26th ... oh you get the picture. All ending on the 31st with the Deathly Hallows part 2. I'll post more about it when the date is closer.

Off Campus should be starting up again in about a month, and my kids are really looking forward to that. I am too! I really enjoy just going out with Olivia. It's also sad to think that next year if we are still in this area, she will be joining them at off campus (yeah wow... I'm really not ready for that).

Well that about sums things up. Thanks for reading :)

Harry Potter Party 2013!

We had our Harry Potter Party (YAY!). It was great, and I may need some time to recover. Here is our guest list and schedule...

We started friday night (as you can see), to split up the movies so that we wouldn't end up feeling so worn out afterwards.

In our house we do have everyone sorted into which ever Hogwarts house fits their personality (yes the cats too).




The menu was fun and mostly simple. In my last post there are 2 videos that show you how to make Cauldron cake pops, and chocolate frogs.

As far as the butter beer, I made up a recipe of my own...

I used two scoops of Ice cream, six cups of Cream soda, and three cups of Ginger ale. My only complaint was that it wasn't as carbonated as I would have liked, but I felt like I got the taste right.

Now are for the pretzel wands... I took the big pretzel sticks, and dipped them in melted chocolate (I took some chocolate chips, and melted them in the microwave), then rolled them in sprinkles and nerds candy. I set them on some wax paper, then put them in the freezer for about ten minutes. They were really good.

The cupcakes were not really anything special, I just put pointy ice cream cones on top of them, to make it look like they were wearing wizard hats...

The rice crispy treat were also nothing special, but they were of course really good.

The eggs, mac and cheese, and pizza were for meals, so that way we actually got some real food in us, and not just sweets.

Despite the fact that my kids can eat a lot of food, I still have left overs. I really liked the menu and enjoyed everything on it, so next year I don't think it will change much.

First Week of School, Congrats to Shelby, and School Pictures

Hey everyone! We are finished with our first week of school, and finally into the swing of things again.

This was how I did the white board on the first day of school (and actually to tell you the truth it still looks that way... oh well). The question of the day was "Who is your favorite fictional character of all time?" As you can see I also put on the board that they were not to answer it until the end of the day, because I really wanted them to think on it. Finally after much thought they all had an answer for me. Darien picked Severus Snape (from Harry Potter), Zachary picked Wreck-it Ralph (from the Disney movie Wreck-it Ralph), and Nathaniel picked Violet (from the Disney movie The Incredibles). Their assignment after that was to write a story about them, a new story. I'll let you guys know how that turned out.

I also mentioned in a previous post that we have new bedtime rules in regards to grades, and this is what I came up with...

The New Good Grades / Bad Grades Bedtime rules

You can now earn a later bedtime by getting good grades, but you can also be sent to bed early for bad grades. This will be counted weekly, so at the end of the week on Friday mom will grade all of your papers. Your grades will decide your bedtime for that upcoming week Monday - Friday (weekends you will always keep your 8pm bedtime).

- If you get all 100%

     *then you get to stay up until 9pm

- If your lowest grade is in the 90's

     *then you get to stay up until 8:30pm

- If your lowest grade is in the 80's

     *then your bedtime will stay the same at 8pm

- If you lowest grade is 79% or lower

     *then you are to go to bed at 7:30pm and take your notes with you

Keep up the good grades and you will be rewarded

- If you get 2 great weeks in a row (meaning 90% or higher on all or your test and quizzes), then you will be allowed to take your DS to bed with you.

I don't know about your kids, but mine love to stay up past bedtime, and now they can earn it. The Abeka curriculum is a tough one with studying, notes to take, and a lot of memorizing, but I want my kids to be challenged. With this rule in-place they want to study, and not just slide by.

Now if you guys are still wondering about those chickens well here they are

This is their new coop (you can see three of them in this picture). Yes they have gotten much bigger. The coop we got off of amazon, and it was actually a rabbit hutch, but it works as a coop as well. I love it, and it's super easy to clean. The roof opens up, and the upper floor slides out, so I can take it out and hose it down.

Something exciting happened this weekend...

MY LITTLE SISTER GOT MARRIED

Yeah wow!

I know, they make a really cute couple (picture by Jessica Ober). They had their wedding in my parents' back yard, and it was beautiful. I was able to be there via Skype. Yes I was carried around on a laptop, and it was awesome.   It almost felt like I was there. I'm really happy for them both, and I'm sure they will have a wonderful life together.

I got the kids school pictures done early this year. I really wanted to do something fun and different this year, since last year we did the whole sailor thing...

I wanted a way, not to top it, but to at the least be just as cool... cute... oh I'm not sure... I finally decided that I wanted to do hats and scarfs (you know since we live in the northwest and all), and to make it unique, they wore their Hogwarts' house hats, and I crocheted scarfs to match (because the scarfs were super expensive on amazon).

I took the pictures with my iPhone at Scenic Beach in Seabeck, WA. I love them! Okay so their not professional but their good enough for me, and they were cheaper this way. I got them printed at walgreens, and I had a coupon as well. I'm just really excited right now about all of the money I saved.

In other Harry Potter news, we are planning another Harry Potter party. It's going to be in October. We have one every year, it's where we watch the movies back to back (we have to start early), and eat yummy food, and just have a fun time and hang out as a family. This year I'm making...

Chocolate frogs

Cauldron cake pops

And that's just the desserts. I'm really excited and can't want, and yes I will tell you all about it. :)

Going out... need to dress like Muggles

Hey everyone! Happy new year!

I just wanted to write a quick post about a little joke the kids and I share. Perhaps you and your children do something similar (please share if you do).

Since I homeschool the kids and I don't always get a chance to go out everyday, because of this we tend to dress down. We like to wear comfy clothes and not care how we look (to a certain degree).

I like to wear my yoga pants with a comfy sweater, and the boys like to wear sweat pants (that may be a tiny bit to short around the ankles and a little worn at the knees) and a favorite tee (most of the time these tees are loved and worn).

All of this really doesn't make a difference, because we'll be at home, and even if we go out in the backyard, we'll have our jackets on, and our yard is fenced. No one is going to see us. We like it this way. We are big nerds and we like to read and play video games, and for exercise we get the few exercise videos that we have. This just works for us, I like to keep things simple.

So on the days we have to go out like on Co-op day, Commissary day, Homeschool check day, or on the weekends I tell the kids that they have to dress like Muggles (Muggles are from Harry Potter, they are people who can't use magic). To them this means "Go and find a shirt suitable for the weather we are having, and one that fits. Go find some jeans. ones that fit around the waist and go past your ankles. Put on socks!" On a normal day my kids hate to ware socks. I'm not sure where this comes from because I love socks!

:)

I know this is short and I'll have a real post soon, but thanks for reading and if you want please share a fun joke that you have between you and your kids. If you tell me something really funny I'll share it in an upcoming post :)

Also... Do you have any New Years Resolutions?

Harry Potter Party

Hey everyone! So are you guys wondering what happened to me? Are you saying "Randi what happened, you did 4 days of fashions and 4 days of dinners, and you didn't finish you missed a day in both." Yes I did, I let it happen, I kind of cheated (yes I did). Friday came around, and I put on a pair of yoga pants, and a tee-shirt (oh the horror, and how dare I do such a thing), and for dinner, we ordered Pizza (yes I know, how dare I again). So because of that, it really wasn't post worthy, and I wasn't really worried about finishing the week, because it wasn't really that important... was it? Okay, well any ways, I really hope you guys were able to get some new dinner ideas, and clothing ideas (I know, not everyone wants to dress like me, and that's fine).



So about the title..... Friday night, we had a Harry Potter Party, to celebrate our first report cards of the school year, and the good grades on them.

 It was an up all night, see how long we last kind of thing. Our goal was to start around 5pm, and get through all of them, a full 17 hours of Harry Potterness.

Jeremy and I had our own ideas, about who could stay up, and who couldn't

 Daddy Predictions:
Nathaniel will last until 11:12
Zachary will last until 1:20
Darien will last until 4:46
Randi will last until 12:15 (I like my sleep)

 Mommy Predictions:
Nathaniel will last until 10:30
Zachary will last until 12:45
Darien will last all night
Jeremy will last all night

 What really happen:
Nathaniel 10:39 (mommy wins)
Zachary 1:45 (daddy wins)
Darien 4:15 (daddy wins again... what in the world)
Randi 12:30 (I went to bed right after I popped the 4th movie in)
Daddy 7:25 (He went to bed right after he popped the 7th moving in, and right after I got up)

 This was fun! We made cup cakes, and had pizza. We put sleeping bags down, and let the kids have a big sleep over in the living room. We also let them eat everything....

The only down side is we did have some grumpy kids in the morning (well grumpy kid, can you guess who?)

 We had to send him back to bed, and tell him not to get back up, until he feels better.

Jeremy said that next time we have a HP party, we need to start it in the morning :), and yeah he's right. Next time we'll start it in the morning and our snacks can be breakfast foods (yummy pancakes).

Thanks for reading :)

Dumbledore

Okay so you see the title, and you may be thinking... "Is this a Harry Potter themed post?" Well not really, you see the title of Dumbledore has become something quite different in our house. Yes Dumbledore in the Harry Potter books, is a hero and a great wizard, but every once in a while (like once in every book), he does something that nearly gets Harry into trouble, or puts him in danger, and that makes him seem like he is off his rocker. So now in our house, if you do something silly and almost stupid you get called a "Dumbledore!" Things that may make you a Dumbledore are... Doing the Laundry, but forgetting to use soap... Pouring 6 glasses of tea, when there is only 5 people... Wearing your muddy shoes on a floor you just cleaned... Yeah you get it. It's those silly things we do all of the time, that make us stop and think "Why did I just do that?"

Back in the day, before we started the Dumbledore calling, we would fire each other, meaning after you did something silly and almost stupid, you were fired. I think when we were moving across country the first time (VA to CA), we fired each other about 500 times. It was all out of love of course. Looking back though I think it was me that did most of the silly and stupid things. That's okay though, because I always learn from my mistakes, and I don't really let them bother me to much... Not really...

Okay well I don't mean to tarnish the name of Dumbledore, but it does seem to fit. He's one of those characters you love and hate at the same time. Why oh why Dumbledore did you ever think that 3 little kids should be the ones to save the sorcerer's stone?

So the next time you do something silly and stupid think "Dumbledore!"

25 Random things

I did this on facebook about a year ago, but I wanted to post it on here. If you have read it before and don't care to again just skip it.

25 Random things about me...

Randi Legates

1. I cut my own hair, and it looks great! Moving on...

2. I'm a Trekkie, but you all know that.

3. I know how to solve a Rubik's cube.

4. My kids are the best.

5. The Mythbusters make me laugh.

6. I love to sing, but only in the car.

7. I've lived in 4 different states, and moved across country twice.

8. My first car was a 1971 Super Beetle! The coolest car ever!

9. I now drive a MOM car, named Phantom (by the boys), a 2004 ford Freestar.

10. I'm a Hufflepuff, for all of us Harry Potter fans.

11. I have been a Navy wife for 7 years. WOW!

12. I have all of Star Trek OS, TNG, and Voyager on DVD.

13. My first Hollywood crush was Wil Wheaton (he was Wesley Crusher on Star Trek TNG), I was 10 and I was in-love. (I had a crush on Wesley Crusher)

14. For the last 4 years, I have put up my christmas tree on the day after Halloween.

15. I like cheese A LOT!

16. Ice cream doesn't last long in this house (tee-hee).

17. My favorite food is Chili.

18. My favorite color is yellow.

19. I sleep with a stuffed pooh bear, I always have, ever since I can remember.

20. I can quote word from word the 3 original Star Wars movies.

21. My favorite song is "ShaBoom" by the Chords.

22. Switchfoot is my favorite group.

23. Legend of Zelda OoT is my favorite video game!

24. I've know my husband for almost 10 years, we met in June of 2000, when we were both 15

25. My son Darien is named after a character in the cartoon Sailor Moon.

the going ons!

Hey everyone, just wanted to keep you guys updated on everything. Jeremy is home for those of you who are a little behind. He got home on the 16th of April. I love having him home. We have both been very busy getting things ready for the move, but we have also been enjoying each other. Okay so, we (Jeremy and I), are both reading New Moon, okay now I know what you are thinking. Really?? See when Jeremy was gone he read all of the Twilight books, one of his ship mates got him started on it. I myself didn't really want to read them, because I didn't hear the best things about them. Jeremy loved them, and he kept saying "When I get home, I'm going to read them to you." We have read a lot of books together like the Sword of Truth, Wheel of time, Harry Potter (just to name a few), I love it when he reads to me, he does all of the voices, and we do it for hours and its great. Okay so for the big surprise! I really did like Twilight. And after the book we watched the movie, and I think they did a wonderful job on that too. Most book to movie, movies end up awful, or just to different. So I have to say that out of all of the book to movie, movies Twilight is the best, it is a lot like the book. New Moon is a bit surprising, and the beginning is pretty sad, and some-what depressing, but it gets better, and we are almost done that one too.

Okay now for the move, and everything that goes with it... I have put in out month notice on our house, and we have gotten a call from Fort Meade saying that they have a house for us. Very exciting! Last week is when I put in the month notice for our house, and that's when reality really hit me. I can't believe I'm leaving. Yes I knew it was going to happen, but it just didn't feel real. It feels real now. So I'm kind of sad, and feeling conflict inside myself. On one hand I can't wait for this all to be over with, moving is some-what stressful for me, and we have so much to do. On the other hand though, I really want to make these last few weeks in San Diego last. I'm going to miss this place, and the people in it. One of these days I'll stop writing about how much I'm going to miss this place, because yeah I know, I say it all of the time. Yes and everyone knows it by now. It makes me happy though, that I got a chance to live here. It's a wonderful place, and I know why God put us here when he did. He knew what he is doing, and I won't forget the things I have learned here, or the people I have met.