Stenner/Lottes Family Photo

I love this family :)

Max's Harry Potter Birthday

 Max requested a Harry Potter birthday party this year.  He and Charlie have been reading the books and were on book 5 at the time.  At first I thought, ok, we will watch the movie and have a HP cake made at Dierbergs.  But then Pinterest got ahold of my brain and I became a woman obsessed.  It actually wasn't that much work- put together in a couple of days.  We made a fake brick wall for the kids to walk through at the front door like platform 9 3/4 out of an old sheet.  Some of the kids got it, others were probably like, weird they have a sheet on their front door.

 The dining room was decorated for "Potions" class.  My mom and James found dry ice so we were able to do make dry ice bubbles- Max decided on the ingredients list- unicorn blood, niffler blood, yeti blood, dragon blood, dragon teeth and yeti hearts.

Harry Potter capes were made for each of them- just fabric with red ribbon glued to the end.  Wands made out of wooden dowels.  

The boys spent over an hour making potions with the dry ice, bubble and food coloring.  

 Ben and Uncle James had fun playing dry ice hockey.

Everyone left with a goody bag, owl and diploma from Hogwarts.  Such a fun party :)

Battledrum

I took the boys to see Battledrum at The History Museum a few weeks ago.  It was sleeting out and I don't do well driving in weather like that but I was determined that we were going to see this play.  I knew it would resonate with both of them.  We took Manchester Rd the whole way there and I drove slowly... we finally made it.  Ben slipped on the ice on our way in.  I was doubting my choice of coming.  But the play was fantastic and they both got so much out of it.  Sharing in these experiences with my kids make up some of my favorite moments as a mom.

A Flashback to Summer

We are having our first and probably only snow day this year.  I think we were the only school in STL that had school called off.  Thanks Mr D :)    I LOVE snow days!  All commitments are off the table and we can all just hang out, have guiltless screen time, read, build a fire, and chill. I do have to work tonight but I'm not thinking about that until about 4pm.  So in the meantime I'm reminiscing about summer...these days can't come soon enough!

Facebook Status' 2011

Max's Lemon Drops

 Max made lemon drops from the Harry Potter Sweet Shoppe Recipe book. These are just pictures of the bubbles while we waited for the sugar concoction to boil to 300 degrees...it took WAY longer than I expected...at least 20 minutes, maybe longer.  He was definitely proud of the final product so those pictures are coming soon.

New Year's Eve 2011

 We continued with our New Year's Eve tradition of everyone's favorite food feast and slumber party/movie night in the living room.  Favorite foods included strawberries, black olives, artichokes, rolls, and steak...and others.  

 Musical interlude 

Molly loved having the mattresses on the floor of the living room.  She quickly became part of our slumber party.

 Happy New Year!!!