Pottermania update

After devouring book one, Olivia wasted no time in continuing on in the series. I wish I had kept better track, but I know sometime following the first post and during her week off for Thanksgiving, she read book two and book three in about a day each, and book four took her a couple of days. I think she finished it in time to watch the fourth movie for FHE the Monday after Thanksgiving (we've been watching the corresponding movie after she finishes each book).

Of course, this has translated into lots of Harry Potter role play. Thankfully poor Carmen has at least seen the movies so she has an idea what's going on, even if she has to be Malfoy. When we were trimming the bushes, we realized the branches made excellent wands, so Olivia and Carmen collected a bucketful and decided they wanted to paint them.

Olivia just recently finished book five, which finally slowed her down a little bit, being massive and a higher reading level. Before she finished, though, she checked out book six from the school library so she wouldn't have to ask us to get it for her when she was ready for it.

Leaf pile

We had nice weather on Saturday, so I told the kids to go play outside. After riding bikes for a while, Carmen decided she wanted to rake. Eventually we ended up with a pretty sizeable pine needle and leaf pile, and the kids spent at least an hour jumping into it before we had to bag it up.



Miles, as you can see from the blood on his shirt, decided to cut open his head (again) using a brick wall, but that didn't stop him from enjoying the leaves. Olivia, of course, didn't want to come outside, and missed all the fun.

Before and now, part 3

We have a tradition of taking pictures in the same spots every time we go to the Renaissance Festival. I documented some of the changes a couple years ago, and here is the latest installment.