Tag goes to Hogwarts

This morning, an owl arrived with a letter addressed to Tag... sadly, not really, but Tag did go to Hogwarts.  The whole family went to The Making of Harry Potter at Warner Brothers Studios, just north of London and a little over an hour from our home.

Here are Tag and Ceri waiting outside with some of the actual chess pieces used in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

We have to go school uniform shopping this week, as school starts next week. Ceri wondered whether her school would mind if she turned up in Hogarts uniform.

The sorting hat said that Ceri should be in ... Gryffindor! (For the record, Roderic and I are Ravenclaw, Hari is Hufflepuff and Gwen is Slytherin.)

There was an introductory film presented by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. Then the main doors opened and there was the great hall!

Ron Weasley's broomstick

These are the costumes used in the last two films.

I managed to get a sneaky photo of Gwen and Hari with Hagrid, Snape and Dumbledore.

The Gryffindor boys' dormitory

Ceri admires the Goblet of Fire. It's carved out of a single piece of wood.

This is the dramatic entrance to Dumbledore's study.

Here's Molly Weasley's kitchen in the Burrow. I was thrilled to see that she has the same plates as my grandmother!

 This is the monument from the centre of the Ministry of Magic, showing the muggles being crushed by the might of magic.

Outside, it was raining (there's a surprise!) but that didn't stop Ceri and Tag going to knock on the door of no. 4 Privet Drive to see if Harry Potter or Dudley Dursley wanted to come out to play.

Tag, Ceri and Dad tried Butterbeer. It tasted like caramel-flavour cream soda. 

Tag, Ceri and Dad pose with the Knight Bus, the entrance to the bridge, and the Potters' house at Godric's Hollow (although it was actually right next to Privet Drive!)

Some scary creatures - Aragog and a Dementor.

 Diagon Alley was fascinating. I had to stand in the doorway of Gringotts to take this picture.

Ceri thought about getting an owl, but decided a bear was enough.

These friendly Quidditch players offered to teach Tag to play, but they couldn't find a broomstick small enough.

We all agreed that our favourite part of the day was seeing Hogwarts. It's a huge model, very detailed, and was used for all the exterior shots in all the films.

We had a wonderful day at Harry Potter Studios, and it was fascinating seeing just how much detail and effort went into making the films. We all agreed that we wanted to watch them all back-to-back as soon as we got home.

Splash Park and Hiking

We’re trying to cram in some good stuff before summer ends in a week! Last week we decided to head over to Pocahontas State Park, named after the famous Native American who helped Jamestown settlers. We often come to this park to go hiking, since it’s close to our house, but this time we came to SWIM!  

Tyson and Charmin check out the rules.

This is after we swam- we went outside the fence to have our lunch up on the hill at these picnic tables, and it was a nice view of the splash park & pool, so we took a picture. 

We invited our neighbors to join us, so they’re in the photos too!

Today we were blessed with yet ANOTHER gorgeous weather day- sunny, blue skies, in the 70’s F, so we knew we wanted to play outside but I didn’t feel like running around, so we stuck close to home. I let the big kids ride their bikes around the neighborhood while I took the girls- and Charmin- in the red wagon.

Teeny’s rockin’ her shades again. They loved relaxing in there!

After our neighborhood walk/ride, we decided it would be fun to explore the woods at the end of our cul-de-sac. There are all sorts of trails back there, so I let the kids bring their bikes. That blur back there is Tyson gearing up to take a jump.

Oh no! Charlotte’s in a hole!

Those big towers are for the electric lines that cross through the backyards in our neighborhood. We just happen to live next to those main lines. Charmin relaxes among the wildflowers and other various plants in the field. 

Charmin likes the woods.

When we got home Teeny and Charlotte wanted to give Charmin his own ride. 

We are loving this cool summer! Can’t believe it’s almost over!

Constable Country

On Saturday Ceri and Dad went to the Temple with the Stake Primary, and Gwen was ill, so Hari and Mum and Tag went to Ipswich again to visit Grandma and Grandpa. On the way back we stopped at Dedham.

Dedham is a hamlet on the River Stour in North Essex. The area is known as "Constable Country" because the famous artist, John Constable, lived in nearby Flatford, and walked to school in Dedham each day. When he grew up he painted scenes from his local area. His most famous painting are "The Haywain" and "Flatford Mill".

We decided to take a boat trip along the river. Here's Hari on the boat...

 ...and here's Tag.

It took about twenty minutes to cruise to Flatford. Here is the boat being tied up in Flatford by the River Stour Trust volunteers who operate it.

Bridge Cottage is now a museum with lots of copies of Constable's work. The door was tiny - Hari is 5'4" tall and she couldn't get through it without bending over.

The ceiling beams were very low, too.

Tag enjoyed looking at the displays of Constable's paintbrushes and sketch books.  

After we had looked at the museum we went to the gift shop, and then to the tea room for afternoon tea.

Then it was time to get back onto the boat and cruise gently back to Dedham.

I photographed this fence because I thought the sign was interesting. It says "Please keep to the right when passing other craft", but on the roads we keep to the left. There were lots of rowing boats and canoes on the river, and we did collide with a couple on the way, but boats travel so slowly that no damage was done. On of the volunteers who operated the boat told us that this fence was also worth photographing because Constable painted a picture of his horse jumping over it.

After the boat trip we walked into Dedham. It was a very beautiful little village, with lots of thatched cottages and very old houses. This pub was built in 1462.

This is the Parish church. It was extremely big, but unfortunately it was locked up so we couldn't go in. The pink house (we're on the border with Suffolk here, so lots of homes were "Suffolk pink") is the Old Vicarage.

Hari loved Dedham and said that she would like to live there. We found an estate agent and looked at the prices of some of the homes that were for sale. A two-bedroomed detached thatched cottage was £425,000 ($705,000) so I told her that she might have to wait a while.

Coming off the High Street were lots of little lanes like this, with tiny higgledy-piggledy cottages in them.

Here's Tag on the edge of the village, looking down towards the High Street.

 

There are lots of really pretty villages in Essex, and throughout England. There wasn't time to visit any others, but Tag was pleased he had the chance to see Flatford and Dedham.

Trivia questions:

1. Centuries ago, some Dedham villagers and their controversial preacher left Essex and sailed to the New World where they set up a community, also called Dedham. Which US state is it in?
2. John Constable also painted a famous landmark which Tag visited a couple of weeks ago. What was it?

(You can give your answers in the comments if you like, and I'll give the answers in the next post.)

Bouncy Bear

Today we had what I may start referring to as a “British Day”, after seeing all of Tag's rainy, cloudy pictures from England! We didn’t let the weather get us down, though. Despite the rain, it was bright and fun inside Monkey Joe’s, our local bouncy place.

Charmin selfie! There were 8 different bounce houses to play in.

Tyson and Teeny pose with Charmin on the pirate ship! This was one of Teeny’s favorites.

Did I mention that Teeny decided Charmin needed a necklace? 

Can you find the little bear hiding in this picture?

Charmin watches the kids play- he was too small to go in the obstacle course. We didn’t want him getting lost!

Charmin takes a ride with Tom & Jerry. Charlotte isn’t so sure about Tom.

Tyson helps Charmin climb the big slide...

And helps him come down, too!

Charmin and I get a photo together, courtesy of Charlotte.

Charlotte and Charmin pose in front of the obstacle course.

This was a special bouncy play area for the littler folks. Just right for Teeny and Charmin.

And a quick video! 

Charmin had a great time bouncing on this rainy day! Only two weeks of summer left...yikes! We’ve got plenty of fun left, though!