Months ago Kalani got into Harry Potter. It all started with her getting Lego Harry Potter video game for her birthday day. She started to watch the movies and talking about it with my sister. Finally we got her to start to read the books. She has wanted me to throw her a Harry Potter party for a few months, but I just kept putting it off. We had some pretty fun vacations I wanted to enjoy before I thought about having a party.

Finally the vacations came to an end and I had time on my hands. I googled “Harry Potter party ideas” and my search gave me LOADS of ideas. I couldn’t do everything that I saw or read about, but I did do a lot. We had around 30 people attend and I think everyone had a good time…even the parents.

"A Magical Day" sign on our garage

They had to run through the "brick wall" to find the correct platform

Sign on our front door

Professor McGonagall had to give some instructions to all of the 1st years

The sorting hat told everyone which house they belonged to

Everyone got to choose their own wands

Each house had their own class schedule

They all practiced spells using their wands

Potions class

Mixing the ingredients to see if they made "Goblin Goo"

Our bearded dragon was part of the Magical Creatures class

Everyone hatched their own dragon egg and inside the slim was a baby dragon (dinosaur)

The Magic 8 ball was used for Divination (the art of fortune telling)

Everyone went home with one of these "fortune tellers"

Transfiguration class = dress up class. A witch, wizard and house elf

End of year feast in the Great Hall

Dragon Snot

Butterbeer

Everyone enjoying the feast

We also played my version of quidditch, but because it is so hot outside we didn’t play for very long. I had a lot of fun hosting this party. I don’t know if I will take the advice of one of the students and have a party every year though.

We have had a busy summer. It seems like something was going on every week.

First off was Girls Camp. I was the camp director for about 28 girls from our church that were between 12-17 years old. Camping in Texas is different. It is hot, humid and you have to worry about hurricanes. And to get to any location where there is water or hills is FAR from Houston…like 5 hours away far. We planned and planned and then things changed. Then we planned some more. It all turned out really well and I was happy to be able to teach these young women and get to know them better.

While I was at girls camp, Matt had a work trip to the Philippines. He thoroughly enjoyed himself and wants to go back. He already has a post about his trip here.

Then Matt returned home for a day before he left to Florida for a conference.

The following week we had some friends from California come to visit for a few days. We would love it if they would move here so we could see them more often.

The last week of June we flew to California for a Farley family reunion. It was great to see our extended family again and Kalani really loved being around a bunch of cousins her age.

These cousins are all about the same age

Grandma & Grandpa with most of their grandkids

Grandma & Grandpa with most of their great-grandkids

The month of July has been a little bit calmer…at least not needing to be in the car for hours or take an airplane. I watched my cousins for a week while their parents attended a funeral in Utah. And I was busy planning a super fun Harry Potter party and decorating for a couple of weddings.

One more trip for me this summer and then we start back into school, co-op, gymnastics or swimming, choir, art, book club, and any other fun activity that we can schedule in. And I also have the great blessing of being the young women president over 30 girls ages 12-18 in our church. My life is busy. I may go crazy. But I’ll have fun going crazy!

Our final destination on our European vacation was Barcelona, Spain. It took us 7 hours to drive from Nice, France to Barcelona but we all survived. It was also nice to have a really cool hotel room waiting for us…after we found it. The only down side to our hotel was that it was off a main road and Barcelona vs. Madrid in the Champion League was happening during our stay so we didn’t get much sleep.

Barcelona has some really crazy cool buildings. Antoni Gaudi was the architect for many of the Dr.Suess looking buildings.

La Sagrada Familia ... still 30 years away from being completely finish

Casa Batlló aka. House of Bones

This was how we saw Barcelona. With really only one day there and with kids, this was the best option

After 2 weeks in Europe, this is what the Farley boys looked like!

We had a wonderful time seeing another part of the world and being together with family. And luckily we didn’t kill each other or get into any accidents.

More photos of Barcelona

Another famous area on the French Riviera…Cannes. We walked from our hotel in Nice to the train station where we then took a train to Cannes. The kids really enjoyed riding the train and kept switching seats…good thing it wasn’t crowded.

When we got to Cannes we headed towards the beach so we could walk along the Promenade de la Croisette. More specifically we went to the Carlton Hotel.

350 - 5,000 EUROS for the night

Another thing that Cannes is famous for is the International Film Festival…so that was our next stop.

Cannes International Film Festival located behind us...we were there a month too soon

And the last thing that we really wanted to see in Cannes was The Île Sainte-Marguerite. The island is most famous for its fortress prison (the Fort Royal), in which the so-called Man in the Iron Mask was held in the 17th century.

The island is approximately 3km in length (East to West) and 900m across.

Museum of the Sea & prison where the man of the iron mask was held

And to finish our time in Cannes we walked around and enjoyed the scenery and sights.

Sandy beaches in Cannes...and this sand sculpture was pretty cool

Jedi Master Kalani

More photos of Cannes

We stayed at a Hotel in Nice, near the French Riviera for 3 nights. Again, the French Riviera was a place that I had heard about, but never thought that I would visit. We spent a whole day just enjoying Nice and it was nice!

Seafront of the city

A park above the city with cool features and a playground for the kids

War Memorial

We rode this train to see the sights and hear information about Nice...and no one had to carry a sleeping child

These two brave the cold and got in the water...they stayed there for a couple of hours

No sand to bury his sister in...so he used rocks (the only thing on the shores of Nice)

More photos of Nice