The Harvest Party and the Harry Potter Experience

We continued our tradition of having a "Harvest Party" this year.  We invited the neighborhood over to help us carve 100 pumpkins and place them in the yard for "The Unorthodox Halloween Experience".  It was a really fun party, if you didn't come you missed out, big time. 

And a BIG thanks to all those who came and helped out! 

From October 2011

From October 2011

From October 2011

From October 2011

We had kids of all ages come with their parents.  We were super excited that even the teenagers in the neighborhood came before they went off to their own parties. 

We provided a hot dog dinner, and LOTS of treats.  Most people took us up on the treats, but not dinner. 

From October 2011

From October 2011

When it started getting dark, Cole started doing his lighting tests...

My cute niece Dani

From October 2011

Our Family, enjoying the fire and ambience...

From October 2011

From October 2011

We had a lovely party night. 

As the party was winding down I took Kyle, Talia, Alec, and Alec's friend Kyler up to the Harry Potter House.  This is a house WAYYYYY up the hill above us, that does a Harry Potter type experience.  Usually they do it on Halloween, but notices were sent around that they were doing it early this year.  Alec, especially wanted to go see it (he's extremely into Harry Potter right now), so we made an effort to get him up there to see it. 

The kids on Platform 9 3/4

From October 2011

The paintings move and talk!

From October 2011

Dumbledore and Harry Potter...

From October 2011

We stopped in at the "3 Broomsticks" for some butterbeer (aka apple cider)

From October 2011

From October 2011

Divination...

From October 2011

From October 2011

My kids being sorted into their "Houses"...

Kyle got Hufflepuff...

From October 2011

Talia got Ravenclaw..

From October 2011

Alec (dressed as Harry Potter) of course got Griffindor...not that I have a picture of him as more than a blur.  I swear, the child can't even hold still for 1/15 of a second, which was what I had my f stop set to...

Then we found out what the kids' Patronus's were...

Alec...

From October 2011

Talia

From October 2011

Kyle

From October 2011

We were on a time limit to get Kyler home, so we didn't have time to play Quidditch (on a zip line), but we had a good time. The actors all did a great job ( I especially enjoyed Lockheart going around giving autographed pictures, and Hagrid and mini Hagrid)....