Halloween is coming!

 The epic question...it comes around every year...What are you going to be for Halloween?

With two young boys in our home, we have had the usual...Ninjas, Mario and Luigi, Dragons and various Star Wars favorites. This year is no exception! The oldest, Dain (9), has been reading the Harry Potter series- I believe he is on book 4. He is hooked- which I love :0) How could you not love that your kid thinks Harry is the most awesome kid on earth! So, of course, he wants to be Harry this year. Tage, our 6 year old loves Ron...which I think is adorable because he is very much like Ron!

So here is the look they want to dress as: 

The school robes! Now, we live in south Florida. Robes and hot, humid weather does not mesh well!!! But really, what costume does mesh well with ubber hot? They don't seem to mind though- so Harry Potter it will be!

We will find the robes, I'm sure they are everywhere still. If not- I will head to my favorite place to make costumes...Goodwill!!! I plan on looking for ties there anyway :)

We will need some cute little round glasses...no problem...and wands. Now, a few years ago the boys got the Harry Potter lego Wii game and lego Hogwarts castle- so we had a brief love of Harry then too. I found this really cool shop on Etsy that made wands, so we ordered the boys one each. Needless to say, Dain's is no more. He had the Dumbledore wand- but it ended in little pieces :( Tage still has his Ron wand- and all it needs is a little paint touch up. Dain still needs a wand though. 

So, last night I got creative! I made a wand out of chop sticks, rubber bands, hot glue and paint!

Here are the old and new wands:

Can you tell which is which?

I made the bottom...the bumpy gnarled wand. The Etsy bought wand is the smooth top one. 

Dain loves it- I mean LOVES it!  So if you are looking for a cool wand this year for Halloween...try to make your own! 

We are on a hunt for the rest of the costumes for now...but at least we have the most important part- the wands!

Because how can you do magic without one?????

Cheers
~Casey

Happy Halloween and Legoland review

Howdy all! It is my favorite day of the year...and I am super excited to get the kids (and me) all dressed up and go out trick or treating!

To celebrate early- we went to Legoland Florida on Friday! It was a blast! Really- the kids loved it...and the grownups too! Thank you VIP free passes!

I am so happy they kept the garden parts of the park- from old Cypress Gardens.  It was really beautiful- but be warned...FULL of mosquitoes.  The garden was lovely but half way through the walk we were swarmed by small bird sized mosquitoes...and man they bite!  But just look at this tree- beautiful!

The rides were great...food was even good! :O) All in all it was a great trip! If you are thinking of a trip there- and are on the fence- we all say GO!

 Look at this happy 3 year old driver- got his license and even avoided 2 collisions! Future race car driver!

 Please do not feed the animals!

Look- we went to New York! heheheh

 See- even the grown-ups had fun on the roller coasters...that is Mike that looks like he is jumping out of the cart- and me with my eyes closed....scary!!! heheheh

OK- so highlights....very neat carousel that is 2 stories, my little one's loved the wizard roller coaster in the castle area...just the right speed! We had hamburgers for lunch- they were tasty, good bread...and the kids loved the fries.  There were playgrounds of sorts all over- our favorite was the ball enclosure. Kids fill up shooters with soft balls and shoot them at each other- great fun!
The one ride we felt was not worth the wait was the safari ride- though the animals are amazing- the ride felt like 30 seconds...and waiting in line for 20 mins with restless kids to do that was not worth it to us!

The whole driving section was so cool- boats, cars, make your own vehicles...very popular spot with us! The kids really liked the sky ride- which is not really a ride as it is a large space ship thing that just rises above the park (from old Cypress Gardens) but they loved seeing the park from up above! Miniland was great for us older lego builders- ohhhs and ahhhhs at the amazing sites.   Bathrooms were clean and abundant.  We even saw giant Lego people ski! hahaha 
Hit the BIG store on the way out - because everyone wanted a lego from legoland!

I am leaving off many highlights-  but I don't want to give everything away! If you go- hope you have as much fun as we did!


Happy Halloween all! Spook it up tonight!!!

Mario Brothers

We are a family of Mario Kart'rs. From the very early versions of Nintendo- to the Wii of today...Mom, Dad and both kids compete to win that cup! My kids are small- 6 and 3, but have big opinions of what they want to be for Halloween...Nintendo characters of course! Tage always plays Peach or Mario.  We tried on a Peach costume- because he REALLY wanted to be Peach...but the costume was too big- so Mario wins! Dain LOVES Luigi...swears he's the fastest kart there is! Obviously Dain wanted to be Luigi!
So here they are- the Mario Brothers- true to form- Luigi is even taller than Mario- nice!

They are saving the real mustaches for Halloween night- so we make paper ones with sticky tape for play.  And they get lots of play- I have already washed them (they stand up great in the machine) because the kids wear them every day! Gotta love a well loved/worn costume! Yea MarioKart!!!

Happy early Halloween!!!