Witches and Wizards

This summer we went to see the last Harry Potter movie.  As I sat in the theatre looking at all my little witches and wizards (and yes they were wearing robes and many of them were carrying wands) I thought how Harry Potter has been such a huge part of their childhoods and I was definitely feeling a bit melancholy at the thought that this was 'the end.'  But then I got the idea in my head to write a blog post about my family and Harry Potter and I started looking at all the related family photos, and I realized, that for my family, Harry Potter will never 'end.'  Pictures like these

Getting ready for HBP Release Day Party

Fred and George, complete with hand made broom

Erin and Bayley are 20 and 18 now, but when they were 7 and 6 we read the The Sorceror's Stone out loud for the first time.  Kris had heard about it on the radio, I had read about it in a catalog, we checked it out  from the library and made it our family read aloud book.  And we were hooked.  We got the second one as a gift from my parents shortly after it came out and read that one in record time too.  As each book came out, we read it aloud together.  No one was supposed to read ahead.  I almost always did.  The kids tried hiding the books from me.  But I am devious.  Sometimes Kris and I took turns reading until we had both lost our voices.  We irresponsibly let our kids stay up way past their bedtimes.  We bought book 4 when we stopped for a bathroom break on our way home to Stratton and spotted it on display at a Safeway, but from then on it was Amazon release day delivery and we spent THE day glued to the front window, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the UPS truck.  We read book five on Kris's parents deck the summer we were living in their basement.  We read book 6 coming to and from church in Raton and it was sooo hard to leave it in the car and go in to sacrament meeting!  We ended up with two book 7s when Amazon failed to deliver it by 5 pm on the release date (yes, we called them as soon as it was a minute past 5) and we had to run to the book store to fetch one and start reading immediately (the Amazon one was free...but late).  We have seen every movie together, attended the book release parties, and have made July 31st into a family holiday with Aunt Marge pinatas and wizard trivia and treasure hunts.

OOTP Book Release Party

Our House Elf

So,yes, that last movie seemed a little bittersweet, especially as I looked about me and pondered all the other changes that were coming in our family.  Except, in the weeks that followed I saw our tattered copies of the books still being toted about obsessively, the robes still donned fairly regularly and it was still perfectly normal for two or three or four children to be racing about the house casting spells at one another.  And a few weeks after the movie we celebrated Harry's Birthday with butter beer and pumpkin pasties and chocolate frogs.  I don't think Harry Potter is going to just fade away.

Mama Birds, Daddy Birds, Baby Birds and Science in the Backyard

So one morning last month, I went out back to check hot tub chemicals (my daily chore and I have yet to get a really good grip on it but, anyway...) and noticed something going on atop the electrical meter right outside the back door.  A couple robins were very intent on building a nest there, about a foot above our grill and just a few inches from where the back screen door slams against the wall approximately a hundred times a day.  Fionn and I spent a lot of our morning watching the nest building process, but I was sure that Mama Bird would smarten up real quick and find a new place to build for real.  However, a couple days later I lifted Fionn up to peek in said nest (it was just enough above my head that I couldn't see in) and she reported there were eggs there.

Ta-da!!!

There was lots of excitement about the eggs, and there was lots of climbing on chairs, and chairs stacked on chairs, to get a good look too.  Now everyone was wondering when they would hatch  (I was figuring never, because I still thought Mama Bird was going to make a run for it, especially now that the nest itself was producing even more traffic and chaos then is normal on our back porch.)  But, some internet-savvy child of ours googled the query and reported that we could expect baby birds in 12-16 days.

This is actually Daddy Bird, who usually just hung about the yard,
but occasionally took a turn on the nest.

So, we took to nest watching, and the comings and goings of Mama and Daddy bird over the next two weeks.  And endured lots of night time scolding from grumpy birds when we ventured out after dark.  But precisely 14 days after we believe those eggs to have been laid, we had a baby bird.  One.  The other eggs totally disappeared and that is a complete mystery.  Raccoons?

Not so very cute, is he?

Getting a little fluffier, can you see him down there?

Thinking my camera is someone there to feed him.

 Ahhh... that's more like it.  (By the way, I am an extremely
amateur photographer, and it is really, really hard to get a shot
of Mama Bird feeding Baby Bird.  I think it may have been
complicated by the fact that I was trying to read a science
lesson to my younger kids at the same time.

So, as I mentioned, we love the Google at our house.  And now that we had a baby bird, we were wondering when he would learn to fly and were watching anxiously for that day to come.  Google told us that he should fly in about another two weeks.  So we spent our two weeks watching Mama and Daddy bird constantly feeding him, and cleaning out his nest.  But two weeks came and went and our baby didn't go anywhere.  I think he had it pretty good in there.  With the disappearing siblings, there was plenty of room and he just wasn't too interested in going anywhere.  A couple kids reported seeing him stick out a foot, but he didn't make the leap.

See, getting big and fluffy and cute now, isn't he?

Then, on day 16, I went out to check on our little guy and the nest was all quiet.  So I got out one of those chairs my children had been stacking up for better baby bird viewing and peeked right in that nest (which was really brave of me, because I was a little scared that he would pop up and nip off my nose or something (birds do that right?) and if he had even threatened to do such a thing, I guarantee you, I would have made an extremely ungraceful dismount from my chair.  Luckily no one else was up, so I could risk it.  But our little guy was gone.  We had totally missed the flying lesson.  Luckily Google had also taught us that little birds take about 10 more days to become competent flyers and that until then they are still hanging around near the nest with Mama and Daddy bird still keeping a close eye on them.  The kids located our baby bird in the back corner of the yard where he continued to hang out for a couple of weeks.  And we would occasionally spot him around the yard.

And here is our baby all grown up (and saving China), no perched in our
neighbor's tree getting ready to  take off on his own.

P.S.  This post has absolutely nothing to do with Bayley moving into an apartment in Fort Collins next month.

Some Things I May Have Neglected to Mention

The problem with  blogging, at least for me, is I tend to blog only very occasionally and mostly about the most incidental occurrences so that I frequently skip right by the important occasions.  So, a few things I probably should have mentioned.

Rhys got his braces off.

 Liam turned eight and was baptized.

 Erin and Bayley graduated from Pikes Peak Community College.

Summer Vacation--Bah!

Today we went to the park with a few friends and I was reminded of why I hate summer vacation.  Don't get me wrong, I don't hate summer.  I love the sunshine and the warm weather interspersed with spectacular thunderstorms; love the flowers, love being outside and growing things; love blowing bubbles in the wind and watching my kids running through the sprinklers (okay, fine, sometimes I run through them too--but in a very dignified and mature way); love cooking outdoors, hiking in the mountains; love, love, love that I can walk outside nearly every single day and I sincerely appreciate the complete and total lack of ice and snow.  But I hate summer vacation.

"Huh?"  You ask.  Well, let me explain.  From August through May us homeschoolers essentially have the world to ourselves Monday through Friday from roughly 8 am to 3 pm.  Well, we share it with the retirees and stay at home moms with preschoolers.  The library, the YMCA, the public parks, the zoos and museums, even the stores.  They are all ours.  And we like it that way.  When I take my kids to the Y during the school year, we frequently have a whole pool to ourselves.  When we go to the library, the librarians are relaxed, friendly and helpful and the few other patrons there are the same.  We have the run of the parks or zoos;  even the big parks are relatively empty on a school day in October or April.

Not so once school lets out for the summer.  Suddenly, everything is packed to the limit.  The Y pool on an average Tuesday afternoon during summer break is unbearable.  Screaming, yelling, totally out of control and mostly unsupervised children from one end of the pool to the other.  The librarians are on edge and typically there is a game of chase going on throughout the stacks.  The parks?  Oh my...the parks.  Today there was no less than 3 separate day camps at the relatively small neighborhood park we went to.  The day camps are my nemeses.  I hate them.  When I pull up to the Y, or the library, or a park and see the tell-tale school bus, I sometimes turn around and drive home.  It's true.

It won't take me too long to figure out the basic schedules this summer of the biggest and loudest groups and to adjust our schedule accordingly.  We will enjoy the weather and the gardening and the water fights of summer.  And we will take advantage of the chance summer affords us to play with PS friends.  But the truth is we really look forward to the end of summer vacation, when the world will be all ours again.

Easter Eggs

 I seem to have missed the memo regarding posting lots of cute family Easter portraits on Facebook.  All my friends are doing it.  I feel left out.  But we didn't take any cute family portraits on Easter.  We did take some pictures of the eggs we dyed though.  We are not exactly traditionalists when it comes to Easter Egg dying.  Take a look:

You should see the mutant gingerbread people we make at Christmas.

All I Wanted Was a Snow Day!

When Erin and Bayley began attending Pike's Peak Community College a couple of years ago, I signed on for the email and text alerts, thinking mainly of those blessed mornings when the college would close for snow.  Well, in the 3 years' time since then I have very rarely received such a message, and when I have they usually read something like this:; "Due to snow, the Falcon campus is closed.  ALL OTHER campuses are open."  No one here has classes at the Falcon campus and we really don't appreciate hearing about their frequent cancellations.  However, I do get texts from the college, they just are not usually about snow.  A sampling of text alerts I have received:

"The Rampart Range campus is on full lockdown.  An armed gunman has been reported in the vicinity."
(Our kids aren't at this campus)

"An armed gunman has been reported at the centennial campus.  The campus is on full lockdown."
(Our kids DO attend this campus.  There is also a shooting range at this campus.  This poor guy neglected to remove his gun before entering the book store and initiated an impromptu lockdown drill)

"There has been an attempted armed robbery at the something bank next door to the downtown studio campus.  The suspect fled west, towards the campus."  (Bayley does have classes at this campus too.  I looked this one up.  The guy pointed a gun at someone, demanded money, then got scared and ran.)

"Fort Carson has alerted us that there is an unexploded explosive device near the fence between the base and the Centennial Campus.  Personnel from the base are on the scene.  There is no immediate danger to the campus.  The auto shop has been evacuated."  (Apparently there was some danger to the auto shop at least).

"There is a grass fire just east of the centennial campus.  Fire crews are on the scene.  Lots of smoke.  There is no immediate danger to the campus."  (Unless you needed to get out of the parking lot in a hurry, because all those fire crews were seriously blocking traffic.  I know, I was actually there for this one)

"The hydrochloric acid leak in Monument is not expected to affect operations at the Rampart Range campus."  (This one came in at about 6:30 am, when you would most expect the snow day kind of announcement, but alas it was only a train leaking acid and causing the evacuation of some 200+ homes  a few miles north of campus).

So, sometimes I wonder, is it really better to be this informed, or would I rather not know?  None of these incidents ended up actually affecting my family, (except for the traffic jam caused by the grass fire).  The failed bank robber was apprehended outside of campus, the fire was quickly and successfully extinguished, the poor guy with the gun in the book store got things sorted out and I guess Fort Carson must have taken care of whatever 'explosive device,' they accidentally left out by the fence,  even the acid leak was contained without major mishap.  But every time I get one of these messages on my phone I experience a moment of panic.  But I can't give up on the chance that one day the message will be that classes are cancelled for snow.  And not just at the Falcon campus.

General Conference Weekend Celebrations

In our house, General Conference weekend means cinnamon rolls for breakfast and cold cut sandwiches with chips and lemonade for lunch with both meals being leisurely consumed as we watch and listen to conference sessions. This time we actually got to watch on our TV instead of the tiny computer screen as we can now hook up a laptop to the TV. Don't ask me how, I am the one who still needs to ask for help whenever I want to access Netflix Instant on the TV. Sad, I know. In between sessions we have time to clean up the remains of our meals and play together in the yard or at the park. The traditions have made such an impression on Fionnula that she is sure that General Conference is actually a holiday, and Saturday morning, she cheerfully greeted each family member as they emerged from their bedrooms with "Happy General Conference!" And, in fact, asked me if we had any decorations for General Conference. Even though we are attired mostly in sweats, yoga pants or even jammies, and even though there are puzzles and coloring books and crayons scattered about the room as we listen, most of the kids are paying pretty close attention and several are taking copious notes, partly because next weekend we will play General Conference Jeopardy and the competition can be fierce.

Last October the entire game changed directions with the question "Name one of the places that it was announced a new temple will be built." Up until this time, Liam had been growing increasingly bored and less attentive as question after question had been asked and answered by someone other than he, mostly by older siblings who had conference notes to guide them. He could only be entertained for so long by the tasks of ringing the bell for his team or by getting to erase the points from the dry erase board as a question was chosen. By this point in the game, he was lying in my lap, seemingly completely unaware of the riotous game going on about him, but the the temple question was read and there was a split second of utter silence as all those note-takers realized that not one of them had the vital information in their notes. Then we became aware that Liam had leaped from my lap and was making a desperate lunge for the bell, his team mates had no time to react in their alarm that he was going to ring the bell and LOSE them points because he couldn't possibly know the answer, before he slammed his little hand down on that bell and shouted out "Indiana!" He had won the game for his team. I don't think that question will make the cut this year, as everyone in the house is very aware that a new temple here in Colorado was announced. I think a few of my children already have plans to marry in a Fort Collins temple instead of Denver.

Last night, after the last session of Conference, Kris and I decided that instead of our usual Sunday evening Family Home Evening lesson, just a family game would be appropriate and accordingly, Kris prepared a list of questions for our family's version of The Newly-Wed Game. The kids were assigned partners by pulling numbers out of a bowl and one of each partnership was sent from the room while the others answered questions such as; What would your team mate say was the worst thing that ever happened to them? What Harry Potter character are you most like? What are you most afraid of? What is your favorite play-doh color? For the most part, the kids amazed me with their abilty to zero in on who their siblings favorite musicians were or what their favorite picture books were. Amik's announcement that his favorite play-doh color was brown was met with all around disgust from the whole room. Fionn totally surprised us when she correctly guessed that Ronan had answered "What was your teammate's most embarrasing memory?" with "Oh... the time I told Liam that when I was a baby I fell in the toilet and Daddy had to rescue me." I should mention here that Fionn is prone to making up stories about 'when I was a baby,' and that this incident NEVER happened, nor have I ever even heard her tell this tale, which makes it all the more remarkable that Ronan was sure she would say it was her most embarrassing moment and that it was exactly what she did say. Kegan and Bayley, I am pretty sure were cheating shamelessly by signalling one another across the room, even as they were loudly protesting any time Fionn or Liam were offered any help whatsoever. Not that it did us any good, I tried to make sure Rhys knew most of the answers that Fionn needed, and when he would whisper in Fionn's ear that he was sure that Ronan was most afraid of a Bogart, Fionn would reply "No. I am not going to say that!" Or else yell out that she thought Rhys was trying to cheat. And Liam it turned out needed very little help in guessing Rhys's answers anyway, I think he even got that Rhys's favorite musical group was The Beatles without any help. But maybe I just missed it. Erin and Noah seemed the most convinced that they would never get each other's responses but Erin easily named his favorite toy and he knew what she wanted to do when she grew up ( I think she already grew up, while I was looking the other way!) The hilarity really reached it's peak though when Aislin was asked what Amik said he was most afraid of. I don't remember what Aislin said, but I do remember the look of incredulity on Amik's face that she hadn't guessed the obvious answer correctly and the total matter of fact tone he used when he said "The zombie apocalypse! Duh!"