Epic!

So first of all - Happy Father's Day!! I have been immensely blessed in life to have the most amazing father ever. I would not be who I am without him. (I love you daddy!) And I've been even more blessed to know so many other incredible dads, especially the guy I was lucky enough to marry. You dads rock! And I hope you have a fabulous father's day!!

As for the "epic" -- that's Kierstin's new *word*. If something is in any way a good thing, it has become "epic". (And I have since realized I've reached the age that I'm too old to understand the purpose behind the current popular words. Sad.)

But anyway. We have had an incredible weekend. Kierstin's birthday was so much fun & I still can't believe she's already 10. 

I'm not sure what her favorite part of her birthday has been - the cake...the mp3 player (which has not left her side since she opened it...or our trip to the Harry Potter Studio. I can tell you the Harry Potter was my favorite. It wasamazing!!

I went in expecting to see some awesome stuff, but not fully realizing that we would be seeing the actual things from the movies. The actual costumes and props, the real sets....everything. I was just in awe. And of course I have pictures to share with you, but I'm basically going to give you the highlights. We took A LOT of pictures and there's no way I could post them all here. (Mostly because I think our snail-speed internet might go on strike if I tried to upload that many pictures right now.) But I'm going to try to show you as much as I can....Hope you enjoy!

Outside the studio with pieces from Wizards' Chess

Kierstin got to help open the door to the Great Hall because it was her birthday

Costumes for (L-R) Professor Flitwick, Mad-Eye Moody, Professor Trelawney, Professor McGonagall, and Dumbledore

All of the characters' wands

Makenzie and Kierstin with the Marauders Map

Hayden at the entrance to Dumbledor's office

Dumbledore's Memory Cabinet

The Tri-Wizard Cup and Golden Egg from Goblet of Fire

The Goblet of Fire

Makenzie at the door to the Chamber of Secrets

Mad-Eye Moody's trunk

Magic is Might Statue inside the Ministry of Magic

Various props from the movies

Walking into Diagon Alley

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

The kids finally get to see Hogwarts

 So there you have it. Our trip to the Harry Potter Studio. It took us about 2 hours (give or take, I think) to get through the tour, but to be honest with you, I'd love to go back (sans kids) and spend probably the entire day there. They have so many employees there that will sit and talk to you about all things HP - things you'd never find out anywhere else. (And that makes the Harry Potter nerd in me just swoon!)

And like I said, these are only a few of our pictures. I would love to show you all of them but it's taken me 3 hours to get these uploaded. Lol. If you're interested in seeing the others I'd love to show them to you (which actually means mailing you a cd with the pictures on it). Just let me know. 

I hope you've had an amazing weekend! And again - to all the dads out there....Happy Father's Day!!

Much love! <3