She's NINE!!!

For some reason, Sydney seemed to get sick a lot as a baby. I would obsess over all the awful things that could happen and the what ifs. Nine years later, I think she's one tough cookie:) Here she is with her new skateboard that she got for her birthday. She's a natural.

For her birthday, she had a Harry Potter party. Being a Harry fan myself, I couldn't stop myself from going all out. I think I may have set the bar too high for me to keep up with. First an acceptance letter from Hogwarts for the kids to participate in special midterm classes.

The letter was signed...

sealed...

and delivered by Hedwig.

The goodie bags included: Bertie Botts ever flavor bean (which is a hoot to watch the kids try),

A chocolate frog with trading card,

and all the things they made during their classes. These are the bags.

First class was charms with Professor Flitwick and her lovely assistant.

They learned "nox" (un lighting a light),

"Aparecium" - revealing invisible ink,

and "wingardeum leviosa" (levitating a ping pong ball).

Next class was Care of Magical Creatures taught by Hagrid (or his opposite:)

The kids were taught about some magical creatures (using information from this handy textbook entitle "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them") then sent on a scavenger hunt to find them.

Next they were taught fortune telling by Professor Trelawny.

They used signs of divination: an all seeing eye, a crystal ball, astrology, and the Deathly Hallows.

Professor Sprout taught herbology, helping the students plant a magical asphodel using magical essence's to enhance it's potency.

These magical enhancers included: Dragon's Blood, Essence of Pumpkin Juice, Urine of a Quiphade, powdered Shamrock leaf, waves of the Agean Sea, Sea Serpent venom, Pegasus saliva, Fart juice of a Centaur, and Unicorn blood.

Potions class came last with a fantastic concoction for Felix Felicis or Liquid Luck. It tastes nasty so I recommend you only consume if you are in DESPERATE need of luck.

The last class we went to was Divination where each child got to look into the crystal ball and predict what present Sydney was going to receive. It was really fun!

Last we ate snitch cupcakes and drank butter beer (cream soda with butterscotch syrup mixed in). No one really loved the butter beer but the cupcakes were a hit!

After all that, they pretended they were Dumbledore's Army and practiced Defense Against the Dark Arts. Kassie was a dementor they practiced their Expecto Patromum spell on and they took turns being Bogarts hiding in a box and popping up so the spell caster could say "Ridikulus!"

I realize it was a little much but for those of you who are Harry Potter fans, wasn't that awesome?!? Sydney loved it, which is all that matters. She had such a good time and one little girl even gave Sydney a real Firebolt broom as a gift! Love you Syd!