A Hogwarts Reunion

It's July 31, do you know what that means? It's Harry Potter's birthday! Better yet, it's his 40th birthday. We've had a fun day celebrating our favorite boy wizard.

We sorted ourselves into houses, just to see if anything has changed in the last three years.

We wore our favorite Hogwarts garb.

And we watched the first two Harry Potter movies as a family, with plans to watch more tomorrow, but not many more since they get a little too scary for some of our viewers.

Oh, and I made a birthday cake. I must be extra lucky today because the cake is supposed to look like Hagrid sat on it and the thing fell apart on its own. We're going for authenticity.

Bedtime Reading

The End Result

Peter got a phone for his fourteenth birthday last year. It was a pretty big deal and he was shocked and excited. We were wary and apprehensive about this step and we keep a tight rein on his use. 

Shortly after he got it, he broke the screen. Bryan, being the wizard that he is, ordered a new screen and did the repair himself.

Not too long after that Peter broke the new screen too. This time Bryan put a big piece of packing tape on the screen and wished Peter luck. The phone was mostly functional, though it did have some flaws. We said he would need to make do.

Last week, while running an errand with Bryan, Peter's phone fell out of his pocket just as he was shutting the car door. Being slammed in a door didn't agree with the phone and it was officially retired. Retired, in this instance, is a fancy way to say totally broken.

Luckily for Peter, I got a new phone for my birthday. That means that, after some more tech wizardry from Bryan, my old phone is now Peter's. And my old phone had a new camera (also courtesy of Bryan), which is why Peter was able to take this darling picture of Topher yesterday.

The Banishers

This summer I've asked the kids to add two new items to their daily charts: learn about an interest and develop a talent. Phoebe has been writing stories for one of her talents. This is a prologue she wrote last week, she's still working on the story that goes with it. I'm sharing it with her permission. I've left the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation as she wrote it.

The Banishers Gathered in Castle Rowshek’s Dungeon, there was silence for a while Until The Elder One Spoke

“ I know what must be done,” She said

“ She is getting too power hungry.” said Another. 

 A voice said “so, what are you going to do?” The Banishers looked Around.

“Is That You Endora?” The Eldest One asked.

“Why I suppose it Is.” And with that she attacked.

 In between the flashes of Blinding Light you could see everything, the hardships and trials, the glory and honor, the losses and pains, the awe of a young child learning, The wisdom of a person well past their youth. Everything. And then, There was nothing. Where castle Rowshek once stood there was a forest clearing. No evidence that it existed or that it ever had. If you had watched very carefully you would have seen a glint. And if you had looked closer you would have seen that it was a mirror

The Night Visitors

On Saturday night we did something crazy and grabbed all the kids (including the two that were already asleep) and piled everyone into the van. We drove over to the church parking lot and spent some time squinting up at the sky, trying to see the Neowise Comet. Bryan is pretty sure he saw it, but I don't think the rest of us did, there was too much light pollution.

The highlight for the kids wasn't looking at the stars, it was running around the grassy field in the dark. It's been months since they ran around outside and they kept saying how amazing it was and how they wanted to come back every night. We won't go back every night (or any night), but maybe we can find a day to all get up early enough and put on daytime clothes quickly enough to get back outside before the heat sets in.

Just Like the Pioneers

Happy Pioneer Day from two girls that dug through boxes and closets to put together these pioneer costumes, then insisted on having their picture taken looking as somber as possible.

They had a few smiling pictures too.

Take Care of Yourself

Me: Phoebe, will you come watch Topher while I run to the bathroom?

Sophie: I can watch him!

Me: Oh no.

Topher: I watch him!

Busy Brain

This is how I found Topher when I went to get him up from his nap yesterday, tucked into the fitted bottom sheet on his bed.

Me: Hi buddy, what are you doing?

Topher: (pause) I'm eating.

Then he pantomimed eating something.

Me: Oh? What are you eating?

Topher: (pause to finish chewing) Ice cubes.

His imagination is wonderful.

In the Heavens

Last night, while I was tucking Cooper in, I saw something bright in the night sky outside his window. I looked a little closer and realized it was a planet. After pointing it out to Cooper, (and later Phoebe) I went downstairs and pulled out my phone to figure out which planets they were. Peter and I headed outside to get a better view, and that's when he asked to borrow my phone.

I present to you Saturn on the left and Jupiter on the right, as captured by Peter.

We thought it was really cool.

We Lost Our Cool

We had AC for ten days. Ten days of the kids complaining that 77 degrees was too cold. Ten days of regular humidity inside the house. Ten days of putting Topher to bed in actual pajamas instead of just a diaper.

On Saturday I noticed that the temperature inside the house was getting warmer and warmer. I bumped the thermostat down to 76 degrees, then watched as the heat crept into the eighties on the main floor. After we determined that cold air was no longer coming out of the vents, we got this message on the thermostat.

We shut it down, opened the windows to let in only slightly cooler air, turned on the fans, and emailed the landlord. Our house has been hot and humid since. Even the carpet feels sticky. I like humidity, but this is a bit oppressive.

A repair technician (from a different company than fixed it two weeks ago) should be at our house this morning, hopefully with good news and appropriate social distancing.

The Girly Gene

The girls were gifted this mirror by a family that just moved out of our ward. It's been on a shelf in their closet for a few weeks and I finally hung it up today. They were so excited that they immediately gathered all the nail polish, body spray, jewelry boxes, and anything else even remotely girly and set up their own vanity on a table under the mirror.

This girly thing really does skip a generation.

Magic Throw Pillows

The Big Picture

Here's something that I think is amazing: I can have a conversation with Peter and see his nearly 6'2" frame that almost outweighs me and hear his deep, close-to-adult sounding voice, while simultaneously seeing newborn Peter taking in the world around him, and fifteen-month-old Peter when he was sick and only wanted me to hold him, and three-year-old Peter who always had a silly joke to share, and five-year-old Peter who was continually creating scenes out of paper and crayons, and nine-year-old Peter who was so insecure and aware that he was different from the other kids at school and wanted to talk out those feelings with me long past bedtime. I can see him in all of these stages, remember experiencing them with him, and yet still be aware of this moment that we're in now.

I wonder if that's how Heavenly Father sees us, our past and present and future added in, all rolled into one complete picture of who we are.

Shorn

I cut Cooper's hair about a month into the pandemic. His hair is so nice and full of body that it took longer than I expected to notice that his hair needed to be cut again, it didn't look long, it just looked full. Yesterday I had him get his hair wet in the shower before I cut it and I was shocked at how long it was.

He's much tidier now.

Burning the Candle at Both Ends

The three youngest kids still have early-ish bedtimes and wake up early.

The two big boys have later bedtimes and sleep in.

That means I wake up early with the younger kids and stay up late with the big kids.

I'm really tired.

From Scratch

Cooper has a smallish number of things that he's willing to eat. He's not exactly picky because he will try adventurous foods. It's more like his brain and his stomach are only willing to eat a handful of things many days, primarily the days when he has migraines. Oatmeal is a pretty safe bet, even when his stomach is feeling delicate.

We usually have microwave oatmeal packets on hand, but Cooper prefers when I make a giant pot on the stove and sweeten it with raisins, honey, and cinnamon. Last week I offered to teach Cooper how to make his own. He said yes and was pleased with his new skill.

This week Phoebe saw him cooking oatmeal on the stove and said she wanted to learn how to do it too. So Cooper taught her. I did have to remind him to use a calm teaching voice, but otherwise it went pretty well.

They've eaten oatmeal everyday this week.

Fort-ified

Organic Hair Conditioner

Want to watch a higher quality version of this? Go here.

Sleep: A Team Sport

Topher takes a nap in the middle of each day. That means we go through his sleep routine twice each day, once for his nap and once at bedtime. It used to consist of some snuggling, some reading, some singing, brushing his teeth, and saying his prayers.

Recently, however, the four big kids have become part of the act. As soon as I announce that Topher is going to sleep, they all drop what they're doing and go running for my room. If one of them is wrapped up in something and doesn't jump right away, Topher motions for them, calls them by name, and says, "Come on!"

Topher follows them up, giggling as he climbs the stairs. I trail close behind him to ensure that he keeps going up and doesn't tumble down. Then he goes running into my room and I close the gate behind us. At this point he starts looking, because while we were climbing all the other kids were hiding.

Their hiding places are usually pretty obvious, which is just right for a searching two-year-old. Topher delights as he yanks blankets off of them and pulls them out of the closet or bathroom. Then, once everyone is found, they each come with a hug and a kiss for Topher. For a time they would all pile onto my bed for a giant snuggle, but that got pretty rough, so we adjusted.

All five kids love this game that they get to play twice each day. I think it's pretty great too.

The Fourth of July

I didn't take a single picture, but we had a nice Independence Day on Saturday. 

We wore red, white, and blue. 

We ate hamburgers, hot dogs, and watermelon. 

We watched An American Tail. 

We enjoyed (from the comfort of our home) the fireworks our neighbors set off. 

We talked about the peoples that have called this land home, all the way back to the Jaredites. 

We probably annoyed our neighbors when we stood on our back deck and set off eight boxes of poppers that we've had for over three years and just kept forgetting to use. 

We ended the night by staying up too late watching The Greatest Showman, which the kids chose because they thought it was a very American movie.

And we tried hard not to melt as we looked forward to today when we expect an AC repair technician to pay us a visit.

Topher Knows Best

Friday is almost always pizza night at our house. Tonight I made four pizzas over the course of an hour in a 500 degree oven on a 90 degree day with no AC. I know, I'm ridiculous (and yes, we've emailed the landlord about the AC), but it's really hard to go back to frozen pizza after making it from scratch. It's a little like eating sadness.

I'd been standing and working in the super hot kitchen for a while. The last pizza was in the oven, almost ready to come out. I opened the oven a crack to check and was met with a cloud of hot air. I shut the door, stepped back, and said, "Whew."

Topher was sitting in his highchair a few feet away. When I spoke he turned and said, "What?"

"The pizza is really hot," I explained.

He tipped his head slightly forward and to the side, gave me a you-know-how-to-solve-this look, and said, "Coo it down." Then he acted like he was blowing on hot food.

Summer Camp

At the beginning of every summer break I roll out our theme for the next three months. Remember our Hogwarts summer? That was 2017. I've done something similar every summer since, but for some reason I've never put them on the blog.

Let's fix that.

A few months before our 2018 summer break started, the kids began asking what we were going to do for the summer. I hadn't originally intended it to be an ongoing thing. It hadn't occurred to me that the kids would enjoy our Hogwarts summer so much that it would now need to be a summer tradition. 

Traditions generally take a lot of work from the mom, which made me kind of anxious since I was about a month away from Topher joining our family, so I knew I wouldn't be able to do much once he was born. I started brain-storming about what our theme could be. Taking another cue from the kids' reading obsession at the time, I quickly found a solution: we would go to Camp Half-Blood.

For the uninitiated, Camp Half-Blood features prominently in the Percy Jackson series, the Heroes of Olympus series, and the Apollo series, all about the children of the Greek and Roman deities and all written by Rick Riordan. Peter and I had already read them, but Cooper and Phoebe started reading them in 2018. With that as my inspiration, I jumped in.

I spent time looking up the attributes of each deity and what disciplines they were responsible for on Earth.

I created new chore charts.

I ordered Camp Half-Blood t-shirts (which play a big role in the books) from Amazon.

I made folders for each child with a page devoted to each Greek god. The aim was to have the kids choose activities and read books to go along with the various disciplines watched over by each god, then write them down on the corresponding page. This is also where they kept their summer reading program checklist.

I printed this out to hang over our chore charts in the laundry room as a nod to the previous summer.

And I printed this to hang over the timeout spot. I thought it was funny.

Then, when school ended for the year, I told the kids our plan by giving them their shirts.

Just like they'd been sorted into houses for Hogwarts the summer before, this year we took online quizzes to find out which cabin everyone belonged in. Peter and Cooper stuck together in Poseidon's cabin. Sophie was in Artemis' cabin (which is always empty in the books) and Phoebe was in Athena's. I printed out a poster for each of their cabins and stuck them to their doors.

They were all excited about the theme. Unfortunately, due to the sleep-deprived nature of having a newborn, I didn't take a ton of pictures, and most of the activities were self directed. But I did come up with a few fun things and was able to connect them to a Greek god.

We cooked fun food all summer long. (Dionysus and Demeter)

We made weapons and created structures. (Ares, Hephaestus, and Athena)

We fashioned clever clutches. (Athena and Aphrodite)

We had adventures. (Hermes)

We spent a little time near water. (Poseidon)

And Cooper spent some time in the air. (Zeus)

We learned about science and architecture. (Apollo and Athena)

And we visited the library, often. (Athena)

A good time was had by all. Phoebe was so inspired by our theme that she decided to carry it through to Halloween. She was Annabeth Chase that year, one of the main characters of the series.