Friday 16 October 2015

Warner Bros - Harry Potter

Last Thursday the kids had off for conferences so I took them to Warner Bros. Studio and did the Harry Potter experience with them. The deal with Harry Potter in our family is when you read the first book then you get to watch the first movie. The boys read the first book when we came to London and then recently watched the first movie. While doing the experience it was so neat to walk through the Great Hall where they filmed many scenes, go on the Hogwarts Express, see the costumes and props that they used, see how they made different characters and walk down Digon Alley. It was so neat to see how things all came together and how they made the movie. We had great conversations on how books are so different from movies too. I can't even explain the experience. We spent 5 hours there if that says anything! The kids did the broom stick experience in a simulator and we even got to try butter beer (a nonalcoholic beverage reminiscent of shortbread and butterscotch), yummy! Of course then we tried the butter bear ice cream. :) Below are just a few pictures we took, can't ruin it for anyone that hasn't seen it.

All ready!

Harry Potter's bedroom in the stairs.

Getting ready to enter the Great Hall.




The Great Hall.


Gate to Hogwarts 

Gryffindor Boy Dormitory

The Hall to Leaky Caldron 

Gryffindor Common Room

Gryffindor Common Room

Gryffindor Common Room

Giant Clock

Dumbledore's Office 

Dumbledore's Office 

Potion Room

Hagrid's Hutt

The Magic Fireplace

Flying Broomstick Simulator

Baggage

Harry Potter's Baggage

Hogwarts Express

Hogwarts Express

Enjoying our Butter Beer!

Hogwarts Bus

4 Pivet Drive

Weasley's Car

Chess Pieces

Hogwarts Bridge

Mask Room

Digon Alley

Digon Alley

Digon Alley

Hogwarts Castle

Hogwarts Castle













Thursday 15 October 2015

Momma said there would be days like this!

Last Monday evening started my 24 hour time slot of everything going wrong. Abby got a note sent home from school that there was lice in grade 2. Lice is very common in Europe but we have never had lice in our family so I wasn't looking forward to checking. In fact I am not sure if I would even know what I was looking for. :) After a small freak out moment where I washed all things I knew she touched in the last 24 hours and washed all the combs in our house my friend told my about something called neem oil that lice are allergic too and won't come near. I ran to her house and she graciously has let me borrow it. We have used it every day since, just a dab around our hair lines. Those bugs won't bother us! Monday night led to a late night for Randy and I as one of the toilets got clogged. The plungers here are flat, yes I did say flat and not like they are in the U.S. Well, to begin with we didn't have a plunger. So we googled ways to unplug your toilet in the UK. We tried two different things and decided at midnight we were leaving it until morning. At breakfast Tuesday morning I dropped a light bulb and shattered it on the floor when trying to get the kids off to school.  I ran the kids to school and then went to the hardware store to find a plunger. The man there was very helpful and didn't sell me the one that he told me a lot of times if comes back at you, Ewwww!  I can home and gave it to Randy only for him to get it stuck in the toilet. Randy decided to go see if the other bathroom toilet would flush, not sure why but it ended in a disaster. It flooded that bathroom and the water here already smells like sewer and now we have it on the bathroom floor. We called our landlord and he was out of town but he called a plumber. Randy then decided it was time for him to go to work. :) The plumber came straightway and apparently the pressure from the stuck flat plunger and trying to flush the toilet in the other bathroom made the seal come apart. He fixed it and was on his way. I then ran to another friends down the street and got her rubber gloves and lots of bleach and started cleaning up and scrubbing. Went to clean the shower and ended up dumping water all over the floor. Finally disinfected the place and heard the doorbell ring. It was our gardener here for his weekly lawn cutting. I was out of cash. :s I wanted to quit for the day. A few other small things happened like buying the wrong light bulb at the hardware store and I just realized that "Momma said there would be days like this".

Flat plunger