Harry Potter World

During all the arduous training for hubby's career, one of they saving graces for me was reading to & with our kiddos. Daddy may be on-call and we haven't seen him in days, but we can escape somewhere like... the wizarding world for a little while. I started reading the Harry Potter books to our kids when our oldest was about 6 years old and bubba do was about 4. That may seem a little young for the stories, but my kids are kind of crazy smart and were ready at those ages. By the time we finished the series our kids couldn't fathom that when we were kids there was no Harry, Ron or Hermione yet. Pooka shell started reading them on her own and requested a Harry Potter themed 8th birthday party. We went all out (see previous blog posts about the party) It was magical.

We as parents decided to plan a trip to "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" at universal studios in Orlando. We all talked about it for nearly 2 years...dreaming of when residency would be over and when we could possibly afford such a luxury as a real family vacation. The kids joked that it would be awesome if we surprised them some day and just said "We are going to Harry Potter world today!" Well, that is just what we did. I secretly packed all our bags and hubby made the travel arrangements to fall on a week they were off track from school. We invited our 19 year old niece to come with us to help out, and on that day we just told the kids we were driving Kylee home...we were really going to the airport. Sorry, the video is sideways...not sure how to fix that

I love how Bubba do gets all teary eyed at the end. They were so excited!!

At the Airport (notice the glasses)

Hogwarts express!!

 

                                                       Outside OllivandersWand shop. The very best part of the trip...When you go to Ollivanders they take small groups in to meet Mr. Ollivander himself. In these small groups they choose one child out of the group to try out wands and have "the wand choose the wizard" We knew about this before and were ready to deal with the disappointment if they didn't get chosen, or heaven forbid, one did and the other did not. Miracle of miracles Mr Ollivander walked straight up to the two of them and asked "are you two together?" They said yes and he chose both of them!! Mr. Ollivander handed Pooka a wand and explained that the wand choses. He then asked her to give it a try...say "accio ladder." She did and the ladder started flying across the room and all the drawers acted as if they would fly out of the shelves. "Perhaps this isn' the wand for you" he says. Then he asked bubba do to try one..."say lumos!" Bubba do tried and the lights all flickered violently and papers flew everywhere. "No, no. Definitely not that one" Ollivander says. He then explained that these wands were siblings like Harry and Voldemort's. They had Unicorn hair from the same Unicorn at the core. "Perhaps....I wonder....if we switch them" He says as he has them trade wands. The lights all shine directly on them and you hear the proverbial angels sing....the wands have chosen. SO memorable. My favorite part.

I cried a little when I saw Hogwarts

 

                                    Bertie Botts (There really was an "earwax flavor!)

 

                                                                     Gryffindor!

                                                    
 Butter Beer!
 

                                                                   Hogsmede Village
There are tons more great pics...too many to blog. It was so special to give them this experience. They have put up with a lot of difficult situations over the course of Daddy's training. Thank goodness for Magic ! :0)
p.s. I hate how I put the pics in one place and they show up in another when I publish the post. Sorry