Hogwarts in Portugal???

Alright so a while ago they had a Harry Potty "haunted" house for all to enjoy. I thought "Alright, this will be fun for the kids" but it was awesome. I have read all the books and seen the movies. This haunted house was so cool. I was told that the majority of the decor came from one woman who usually does this for Halloween in the states. I couldn't get great pictures because of the lighting. But, each room had great lighting and I tried to take a few pictures without the flash just to show the lighting. Here we go!


We started off by walking in and being able to look in a little window that looked in on Harry in his room under the stairs. I'm sad now that I didn't get a picture of that because I thought it was a pretty good touch. While we waited for our tour we got to sit and watch the movie on a projection screen.


Then on to the Dursley's home. Where Uncle Vernon met us. (BTW, if I make any mistakes I humbly apologize, if you care to correct me in a comment, please do)

Also, if you look there are letters "flying" out of the fireplace and all over the room. They had so many cool touches that just made it more cool. Let's see if I can say how cool it was some more.




Here's a shot without the flash, it really doesn't do it any justice. This room really felt like a cozy living room. The lighting was very warm and soft, but in the picture it looks glaring in once spot. So sorry but I need to try and show just how awesomely cool this place was.





Then we were walked through the "Leaky Cauldron".


In the Leaky Cauldron, there were a few wizards arguing about "You know who"




All the while a brown was sweeping the floors all by itself. Cool!




Then down an alley way where a which tried to sell us some of her wares, but before we could purchase she would run off chasing away a thief.






Then of course we had to go onto platform 9 3/4 at "a bit of a run" Again, Cool!



Where we saw all the luggage, an owl cage and the Hogwarts train





Once through the train station when went in to Hogwarts, into the Great Hall (? someone please correct me if I'm wrong) Where the feast had already begun.




Where each house was represented. BTW, there is a man here you did all these decorations out of Styrofoam. He carves and paints them and they are...you've guess it...Cool!
Do you see the colored jewels in the bottles? Oh, and while we were in here Dumbledore placed the sorting hat on each of the kids (which was made out of Styrofoam) and it placed them into their own houses.





Then we pasted by the Owlery. Each room had its own lighting, I'll keep reminding you about that, don't worry. And Styrofoam owls on the wall.





The kids each got to try the hand at "wingardium leviosa" and made a feather float


There is the green feather floating on the table.



and here is Vanna doing it too.







Herbology, replanting screaming Mandrakes. We all had to plug our ears while they screamed...Cool!

No flash







One of the mandrakes, once again looked cooler with the cool lighting.

Potions, Snape was not the teacher, but he was stalking around the whole time.


No flash.







I can't remember the name of this one. Someone help me out.
I know it was Professor Trelawney. Oh, Divination!






Then we went into the woods. I, again, don't remember the real name. But Hagrid was there with some of his creatures.






Then it got a little foggy and scary.


Some big spiders. Savanna was not scared, Sean was a little bit.



At the end we visited Ollivanders, where the kids made their own wands. Cool! and then onto the candy place, I need help again with the name




All the wand boxes are made from Styrofoam, the ladder too.


Here's their finished, and glittered wands




We finished off the whole tour with some chili and desserts. All in all it was a fun night, I loved it the kids wanted to watch the movie again and again. IT WAS COOL!

Perry

So I have a lot of big posts coming up but no time to do them. This is the shortest and newest.


We finally got a dog. I would like to introduce you to Perry.



He is about 5 1/2 weeks old and he is a terrier mix.



He likes to pretend he is brave and attack inanimate objects. Such as the sprinkler, a garden shovel, a shoe and a dog treat.




But truth be told he's pretty timid and sweet.


We all love him. He is gentle with Savanna even though she is not so gentle. He is calm and tender with Sean, just what Sean needs in a dog. He is cuddly and tolerant of Kaelin and her babying. So far he's an easy potty trainer, which is what I wanted in a dog. And to top it off he's got Rob wrapped around his...whatever ever you get wrapped around with puppies...paw maybe.
So welcome to Perry the Platypup.

Just regular swimming

Regular swimming but still so much fun. A little while ago a friend invited us to her house in Biscoitos (bish koyts) One of my favorite names here, I don't know why but I like! Anyway, We had so much fun. You can choose to live off base, you would get a housing allowance for rent and utilities and such and you could live in a house of your choosing. We, for many reasons, chose to stay on base, but when I see some of the houses off base it always makes me second guess myself. I didn't take any pictures of her home because I didn't want her to think (find out) how nutzo I really am. Save that for another visit, right?





This vineyard is so pretty. They separate areas with, what else, volcanic rock. I love the colors of the dark stone mixed with the green vines. Well, this is her backyard. The landlord takes care of it and gives her some grapes when they are ripe enough. Gorgeous!



Sean and Savanna, Grant (Sean's best bud) standing on the wall that separates her patio from the vineyard. I wasn't tall enough to get the great view they have from their bedroom window. You can only see a little bit of the ocean from my height.




They have a great upper patio that is covered and has an awesome hammock. Also check out those really cute stone seats. They line the walls of the patio, two face each other. If you added tables it would look like a little restaurant. So cute!




Just breathes relaxation, doesn't it?








This is on her lower patio.



Awesome! I love it.


Savanna loved it. She didn't float for too long. Her raft kept turning her around and she couldn't see anyone.



The water was a bit chilly so most of the fun was happening on the rafts and deck.





But, it got hot enough for me to finally take a dip. It was a good day in Biscoitos.

Sean's birthday

I'm too tired to worry about the order of these. It doesn't matter so much for this post. Sean's birthday was full of rainbows. Sometimes they were full, sometimes they were double, all the time they were breath-taking.






Sean and Daddy, kind of obvious but I needed a caption for the picture





I asked Sean what he wanted to his birthday dinner and he said BBQ chicken, kiwi, baked beans and watermelon. I wanted the broccoli salad.




Sean's finished cake. He wanted chocolate cake and with the fondant, that was pretty rich. A little too rich for me. At the last minute I decided the cake needed a volcano, it turned out pretty lame but Sean loved it so I guess that's all that counts.





Vanna is modeling Sean's new "How To Train Your Dragon" viking playset




Modeling his firefighter's suit, with extinguisher and ax




Ironman dress-up, he also got a Transformer one, but its a little too big




I love Savanna's look on her face.




This was my model. Not quite the same but it could be a female cousin of the Gronkle (I thought it was named Grungle but apparently I was wrong)



Happy Birthday Sean!