All aboard the Hogwarts' Express!!

Have I ever mentioned on here what a Harry Potter nerd I am? You don't have to feel bad for me, it's a condition I actually enjoy. :) Ever since I was 11 or 12 and started reading Harry Potter, I've been hooked. I am always so excited to meet people who share the same enthusiam with me when it comes to HP, in fact, my cousin just asked me if that was a requirement for my future husband - that he be a HP fan. It's not a requirement, but it would be a bonus!! :)

Anyway, a month or so ago, my cousin Ben said we should have a Harry Potter Halloween party at my grandma's house. It sounded fun and in his mind it was as simple as everyone coming over (dressed in character if they wanted to) and watching one of the HP movies. But once his sister, Heather, heard the plans for a party, things came to life!! I couldn't believe the time and effort that went into this "All-Out-Harry-Potter-Extrordinaire"!!

Let me just say, by the time I got to the Farm on Friday evening, the magic was in the air.

Dad and David had ridden back to Jerome the night before with Grandma after she'd come to the temple open house, and Dad had been slaving away like a house elf (here come the HP references, I can't help it!) to help Grandma get everything at the house ready.

Let's pick up our story on Saturday morning......

First off, we had Grandma's family-famous homemade donuts for breakfast. Another big reason that we were there was because David's b-day is Oct 29th, and it is his last one with all of us before he's on his mission. Grandma's donuts have long been a favorite of his, so that's what we had!

 After that, we were in full swing "Operation Hogwarts" mode. The basement was being transformed into "The Great Hall" and there was still last minute shopping to do. Everyone got so into it, and it was so exciting to hear how many different costumes there were going to be. The anticipation of seeing everyone dressed up was high; I'd been hearing so many things about the lengths everyone was taking to dress up and I couldn't wait!
  I walked over to my aunt's house to find Ben and David brewing up some "Butter Beer" - the sample nearly sent me into a sugar coma.
  In a last minute decision, David and Ben had decided to be the Weasley twins, Fred and George. Of course, the Weasleys are all famous for their red hair, so after looking all over Twin Falls for the perfect hair, this is what they found.

The hair was a little longer than the boys wanted, so I got to give Fred and George a little trim when the time came for them to start dressing up for the feast at the Great Hall.
  As soon as that was done, I made my way back to Hogwarts to change into my Pro.Trelawney attire.

On my way over I passed the evil, Bellatrix Lestrange making her way to my aunt's house. After that terrifying experience, I met up with the portrait of "The Fat Lady", who guards the entrance into Gryffindor tower.

         

 After a short conversation with her, I came upon none other than Ginny Weasley. It was like I had stepped into, "Harry's Wondrous World" and I was getting more excited with each person I saw.

  Not too much later, the Weasley twins made an appearance! (The best part is that David is several inches taller than Ben - notice how he's all bent down? :) Fred and George furnished their outfits from a day well spent shopping at the D.I. in Twin!! They were some of my favorites to meet up with - those ginger twins! :)



  There's the deathly Bellatrix again! Dad made a special wand just for her and it looked almost exactly like the one in the movie. As Bellatrix (aka, Rachel) put it when she got her wand, "It's bent just like my moral compass."

 Aunt Lisa had been kicking around all kinds of ideas on who she was going to come as, but I'd never heard her final decision. Later on she said something about it, so I asked what she'd decided and she said it was a surprise. Hers was the perfect addition to our Hogwarts cast. She was "The Gray Lady", the ghost of Ravenclaw house. She played the part well and went throughout the whole room in a spooky, drifting sort of way.

  Rachel just had great-grandbaby #10, Brian, at the end of September. He came to the party as baby Harry, "The Boy Who Lived". :)

 Krista was "Tonks", the girl who can change her appearance at will and is usually sporting bright pink hair. Looks good, don't you think!

  And then we have Malia. She was quite convinced that she wasn't going to dress up, but with a bit of magic, she changed her mind. We were racking our brains trying to help her with something in a short time.  
  She decided to be Madam Hooch, the professor who teaches flying lessons. I'm pretty sure the name of Malia's wig was, "Lead Singer" so although she looks more like a member of some 80's hard rock band, it is really just a wind swept look - I mean, she has to do a lot of flying!!

Dad was also trying to convince us that he was coming to the party as a muggle (aka, party pooper). But we had better things in mind for him than that. At the request of Grandma, Heather, and myself, Dad made the ultimate Professor Dumbledore!!

The thing about Dad is, he is super good at making costumes and putting things together like that, you just have to get him to catch the spirit of the thing. Once he got to the Farm and started helping with Hogwarts, and making wands, he was all aboard the "Hogwarts Express", so to speak.

Dumbledore was present for sure, and his was also one of my favorite costumes.

(And the great part is, a few of the cousins pointed out that not only could he be Dumbledore, but Moses, or Santa Claus as well!)

 Heather put together some totally legit Hogsmeade treats and we had our own little "HoneyDukes Sweet Shoppe" to sample from. There were cauldron cakes, pumpkin pasties (a personal fave), Polyjuice potion, a love potion, gillyweed, Acid drops, bezoars, gillyweed, lacewing flies, licorice wands, cockroach clusters, and Mom donated some fainting fudge. We were in Honeydukes heaven.

  The little cousins all got black Hogwarts' robes and wands and there were plenty of students to fill the Great Hall. Grandma bought yards of black fabric and then our aunt whipped out a ton of these robes for the kids, it was so awesome!!

 Mom went as the beloved, Mrs.Weasley. She's one of the best characters in the book, I mean, who doesn't love the mom?

  And yes, that is me in those dorky glasses. I was Professor Trelawney, the divination teacher with the big glasses -which I did not wear all night because they mess with your vision (and I don't mean your vision of the future)! :)

  Moaning Myrtle graced us with her presence, even though she can usually only be found crying in the
u-bend of the girls' toilet. Don't worry, that is a brand new toilet seat.....

  Looks like Dumbledore is contemplating the best spell to cast on the annoying photographer!

  Lily showed up as Dumbledore, too, but since he does have a brother it worked out nicely.

  "Sunshine daises, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" Look at all those 1st years!!

 It's Hermione and another baby Harry!!

 Pro.McGonagall was here, there and everywhere making sure the preparations for the feast all came together.

 Time for the sorting ceremony. We had little badges for each of the four Hogwarts' houses and they were drawn out of a hat for the kids, then McGonagall and Dumbledore took turns calling out each student and their new house. At one point Dumbledore called out in a booming voice, "Not Slytherin, but GRYFFINDOR!!" It was epic! :D

 A couple little Slytherins. "There's not witch or wizard who went bad that wasn't in Slytherin." So says Ron Weasley.

                                          
Draco Malfoy's mum, Narcissa, showed up to check up on things. I think she approved.

The cauldrons of soup and gumbo were brought in from "The Three Broomsticks." The house elves supplied scones and jam to go with it. We also had some pumpkin juice to go with dinner.

  There's Fred, George, Ginny, and Molly Weasley altogether for a Hogwarts' feast.

    No Hogwarts' party is complete without some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans! Heather would have people take one out of the jar without looking, but they had show it to her before they ate it then she would tell them what flavor it could possibly be. David ate several that turned out to be "Rotten Egg" flavored. 
  Along with those there was "Skunk spray" (I got that one), moldy cheese, dog food, pencil shavings, and centipede. The rotten egg one made more than one person gag - like literally almost loose it. But then Ian ate one and as soon as the flavor hit, he got a look of genuine panic on his face and his hand flew to his mouth. We could hear him nearly puke and then he took off running to the bathroom to spit it out. If that wasn't enough to stop him trying any more, he got a centipede one and that truly pushed him over the edge. He ran away again and admitted that he did loose it that time! Of course, there was no sympathy from any of us, we were all laughing so hard that we were crying!

  Time for the Golden Snitch pinata!

  Here is the whole Hogwart's crew at the end of a smashing party. It brought a Harry Potter tear to my eye to have the whole family involved in such a fun thing! :)

 If that wasn't enough, we ended the trip on Sunday by celebrating Thanksgiving. We thought since David is leaving for Brazil the week of Thanksgiving, but a couple days before it, we might as well have one with him while we were all together. It was so tasty!!

   Family is the BEST thing ever and I've been so blessed to get to be in this family. There is nothing more important than having the gospel and family, which go hand in hand in my opinion.

   Happy Thanksgiving!!

Doesn't get much better than that.....