Wizard of oz drawing

Ever since reading The Wizard of Oz and then watching the movie, Maddy has been obsessed with it.

She was sitting at her desk singing a song about it that she made up while she was coloring. 

Afterward she brought it to me. All the characters on the yellow brick road....

100 books!

At the beginning of the summer I gave Abi a challenge to read 100 books over the summer. They had to be chapter books over 60 pages. I bought some book journals in the dollar section at Target and after reading each book she had to fill out a page about it.

Then we would hang a piece of paper with the book title onto our book chain. 

Every ten books she got to pick a small prize out of a basket. They were usually pencils, stickers, 

When she reached 100 she was able to pick out a bigger prize. 

Here she is (the day after the art show) with her book chain of 100 books and her prize. She picked the My Little Pony Equestria Girl Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer doll set.

Summer of 100 books

Last summer I encouraged Abi's summer reading by giving her a timer bookmark and for every 10 hours she read we took her on a date. 

I wanted to do something different this year. We decided to make a goal for reading 100 books and make a paper chain of each book she read.

I put out the strips for writing book titles in a little container to be pulled out after Abi reads a book and then we put them on the book chain.

After each book she reads she has to fill out a little book report in this book I got in the Target dollar section...

They have to be chapter books. Originally I was going to make them be over 100 pages but then I realized that all of her fairy books that she loves are around 60-100 pages so I changed it to over 50 pages. 

After every ten books she gets to pick out a little prize I have in a basket containing mini lego sets, books, pens, pencils, and other art supplies. 

It has been so much fun reading her reports... and she is already to book 40!

Bookworm party

Last Saturday we had another girls party. We planned an excursion to Barnes and Noble and picked names to buy books for each other. Then we had a book exchange party. 

We each picked out 3-5 books we wanted and then the other person picked from those. After we bought the books we had a little snack in the cafe. Abi had a giant cookie.

My mom and I had blueberry scones..

As soon as we got home we stuck the books in gift bags and sat at the dining room table...

We had little gifts at our spots and some gummy bears for each of us as well as a bowl of 'book'worms to eat.

Abi got the Ponyville book from me but we also got the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane for free for the Barnes and Noble summer reading program. The other gifts I had for her were the book plates, the bookmark, the notebook to keep track of what she reads, the pen, and the bookmark that keeps time.

My mom surprised me by giving me two of the books. I got Peter and the star catchers and The girl who could fly. Also pictured are my gummy bears, bookplates, and bookmark. I got the reading journal from Amazon and got one for both my mom and I to keep track of what we read.

My mom with her book journal and the book I got her. I also gave her a bookmark and bookplates.

It was such fun!

Harry Potter week

When my mom and I were planning her trip out here this time we thought it would be fun to spend the first week having a Harry Potter marathon. But of course I couldn't leave it at just watching the movies... First, I decided that Abi could handle the first movie so I asked her if she wanted to be a part of that one. She did. So, we had to read the book. We spent a couple of weeks reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerers stone out loud and she really enjoyed it. I then spent the rest of the remaining time between finishing that book and my mom getting here re-reading the rest of the books myself. It was so fun planning the fun for the week but I must admit I had Harry Potter on the brain so much that I was even dreaming about it... I had a few duels with Voldemort!

The first thing I needed to do was send the invitations. My mom got here last Monday afternoon, so that night as she was unpacking in Abi's room I made a Hoot sound and sent this balloon flying into her room carrying the invitation.

I also set one outside of Maddy's room for Abi to find in the morning.

Tuesday morning as they came downstairs I handed them their supply list and their class schedules...

Then we paid a visit to Diagon Alley. 

Our first stop was Gringotts bank where we all picked up our gold from our vaults.

The next stop was Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions where we bought our robes... made of garbage bags.

Then we went to the Magical Menagerie and bought our owls.

Then we visited Ollivanders Wand shop to make our wands.

We also visited Flourish and Blotts book store and got our charms books.

To do our wands: First we used the hot glue gun to make shapes on the wooden dowel to give the wand texture and a handle. Then we each picked from the paint colors I had to make it personal. 

Abi painting her wand...

drying wands...

It took a few hours for them to really dry but they were looking fabulous. As soon as Abi's was dry I used puffy pink and purple paint to add polka dots to it. She asked me to since she would be at school all day and that way it would be dry and ready when she got home.

Maddy playing with gold coins and her owl.

As it got closer to Abi getting home I started setting up the 'class' area. I got some play dough and made some mice for transfiguration class. I also added our wands to our spots.

I set up the 'trolley' of food. We had a lot of treats to last the week. We had Elixer of Life (water), Cockroach Clusters, Rock Cakes,

one acid pop (because it didn't work the way I wanted it to), licorice wands, and Fizzing Whizbees.

We also had Chocolate frogs ( I made these with a frog mold and Wilton chocolate) and Snitch truffles.

the set up with our empty Butter Beer mugs.

I set up a Hogwarts sign.

Then I put up the platform 9 3/4 wall. I bought a red vinyl tablecloth at the $1 store and then drew the bricks on with a sharpie. After I hung it up in the doorway I cut a slit up the middle.

As soon as Abi got home we started the party. First we all had to gather our supplies and then go through the wall to catch the Hogwarts Express! 

Abi peeking back through to let us know she got through okay.

my mom going through!

We boarded the Hogwarts Express, put on our robes, and picked some treats from the trolley for the ride.

As soon as we arrived at Hogwarts we were sorted. My sad little Sorting Hat was made from a paper bag and some brown ink with a sponge. I put little pieces of paper in a bowl with each house on them and we had to pick them out to get sorted. 

Abi was Gryffindor! My mom was Gryffindor!

I was Hufflepuff. Maddy was Slytherin!

We then attended our first class- Transfiguration. We had to turn our mice into teacups. I forgot to take pictures of all of them but got one of Abi's.

Abi's teacup.

Next we had Defense against the Dark Arts. First we had a lesson in boggarts.

Then I used the black balloon as a Dementor and here they are casting their Patronus charms at it. It promptly popped!

By the time we were done with the evening classes it was time for the great feast. We had roast with vegetables and began watching the first movie. 

Of course we enjoyed some yummy butter beer too!

Since Abi wasn't going to be watching the rest of the movies with us, we planned classes to be before and after school and we watched the movies during the day and at night after she went to bed. 

Wednesday morning we started the day with Charms class. 

Here they are practicing some of the spells from their books...

We learned the charm for making invisible ink appear and then they were able find hidden messages...

Abi's says, "You lost a tooth!" because she had another tooth fall out that morning!

Next we attended Ancient Runes class. I wrote each of them a message. Then they had to decode them.

When Abi got home from school we played Harry Potter Bingo.

Then we had potions class. Here are our ingredients all set up.

First we made flavor changing drinks to enjoy while we had classes. (7 up with ice cubes made out of kool aid)

Then we made polyjuice potion. It was kool aid. Abi is mixing in some pop rocks.

We put in some sour patch kids and then drank it! We all pretended to turn into Maddy.

Next we brewed up some Felix Felicis (the luck drink) 

Mom putting in some purple edible glitter...

We all had a drink to give us some good luck. Notice the pinkies on both of them!

And then we made snow using freezing powder and elixer of life.

this was Abi's favorite and she did it a few times.

Next up was Divination class. I printed out the house crests and then made a cootie catcher that I attached them to. I used some glasses I picked up at the party store to be Prof. Trelawney. It was really fun being goofy.

Abi choosing her fate. I am pretty sure she won the house cup.

After we were done everyone had to take a turn as Professor Trelawney.

Our last class was Herbology. We had to de-gnome the gardens.  I printed out pictures of gnomes and stuck them in the dirt and flowers and sent them out to get them.

Maddy soon woke from her nap and took a turn as Trelawney as well...

Our last event of the week we played Harry Potter Scene it game and had Treacle Tarts. 

It was such a fun week!