CYO Harry Potter Day!

I sometimes liken myself to a voracious reader and despite my love for Young Adult novels like the Hunger Games trilogy and Twilight series I never read any of the Harry Potter books when they were first published. This shocks a lot of people and me too, to be frank. I wish I had read them years ago because I can still recall how bookstores would have launch parties when the next book was released - oh how I would have loved to have participated in that excitement. Despite not reading any of the books I have seen all of the magical movies (own them too), am a huge fan and have been dreaming of reading the books with my kids ever since they were babies.

Last year when our oldest was 7 we started reading the illustrated editions and this past May finished the Prisoner of Azkaban. The oldest two love listening to them, looking at the beautifully illustrated pictures and ask at least 5 questions per page. The books are quite long but keep the kids interest which is important as they sometimes take us months to complete. Finishing a book is a big deal for the kids and we always celebrate by watching the corresponding film. This has worked well with the first two films and would have worked just as well for book three except that we were in the grips of a global pandemic and the kids have barely been allowed to leave our backyard. So our celebration for finishing the Prisoner of Azkaban escalated a bit and became Harry Potter Day!

Before I share my TAKE on what a Harry Potter Day is and how you can create your own I want to back up a bit and explain. A few years ago I was down a rabbit hole on the internet and discovered all of these Harry Potter LEGO sets from 2011 and even dating back to 2001. Of course, they were all sold out or cost an arm and a leg so when LEGO started releasing new sets in 2018 I was thrilled and started collecting them and have been since that time. Initially, I had planned to give the kids a set or two for Christmas or their birthday but either forgot or decided that they already had too much and eventually I had compiled 12 Harry Potter LEGO sets! What was I to do with all these sets?

Well, my slightly impractical mind concocted the idea of a creating a Harry Potter Day where we build the sets all day while watching the movies. I thought what could be more memorable and exciting for a child than that? I imagined we would do it on Harry’s actual birthday or that it would rain that day so it was best to be inside, that we were in a larger home so we could properly store the completed sets and that my kids were a bit older so they did most of the building and that my youngest didn’t grab pieces and hide them under furniture. Basically, I was holding onto this fabulous idea for another year but then the pandemic hit and we were self isolating for months and this idea was pushed to the forefront of my mind…even more so when we finished the third book and needed to find a way to celebrate the end of the school year. The lesson here being there is never going to be a perfect time for anything so if you want to do something to create memories with your family there is no time like the present. Read on for my TAKE on a creating a Harry Potter Day with your family! I hope you have as much fun as we did…much to my husband’s dismay I just found out that there LEGO will be launching new Harry Potter LEGO sets on August 1, 2020 so perhaps we will get to this again next year!

• Surprise kids with a ticket on the Hogwarts Express and a letter explaining about Harry Potter Day. I found this template for the ticket and this for the letter on Pinterest. The letter can be used for various things like a trip to Universal but I just changed it to suit my needs. You can even download your own Harry Potter font - so there are really endless options to make this special! Our letter shared that they would be watching the first three Harry Potter movies, building LEGO sets, eating candy and pizza while in their pajamas. They were thrilled!

• We surprised the kids with their Hogwarts Express tickets after lunch so they quickly got dressed into their pajamas and costumes and settled in to watch the first movie. Once our toddler took her afternoon nap we started in on the LEGO sets. There were 12 in all and they ended up taking three days instead of one but these sets are really spectacular and having them all set up together is awesome. It’s hard to narrow it down but our top three favorite builds were: The Knight Bus, The Great Hall and The Whomping Willow. Also, I’m not sure why we’ve never done this before but we used these trays (we mostly use them for kinetic sand) and they were amazing in helping us to avoid lost bricks.

• For snacks during the movies we popped popcorn and I picked up some Harry Potter themed candy from our local shop, Amy’s Candy Bar or you can order a selection of candy from Amazon. The gummy slugs and chocolate frogs were the favorites in our house. If you want to be a bit EXTRA you could even make themed Harry Potter food from The Exclusive Harry Potter Cookbook, including a batch of butter beer!

• If amping up a celebration with decor is more your thing you could add Hogwarts house pennants or a customizable banner. We had pennants from a prior business trip to Orlando and I ordered the banner from the Krafty Hooker on Etsy. The Etsy shop was able to personalize the banner based on my request, accommodate an expedited timeline and I was so pleased at it how it turned out.

• Depending on the attention span of your children you might want to plan for time between movies…maybe even a walk. This helped our kids focus and get some energy out. If you’d like some non movie or LEGO activities you can also incorporate some activities and/or games. Harry Potter Paper Flyers and Harry Potter Labriynth and/or Harry Potter Headbandz.are all excellent and would be a great addition as a gift or perhaps as an alternative to playing with LEGO.

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Five Tips to Make A December Birthday Special

I don’t think I’m alone here when I say that December birthdays are just hard. Our eldest daughters’ birthday is six days before Christmas and without a doubt, it’s one of the busiest weeks of the year. We’re inevitably wrapping up school and work before break, attending Christmas programs, doing some last minute shopping, attending parties, without childcare, battling some sort of illness and trying to celebrate this girls’ birthday all at the same time. I know that we’re not the only ones with a busy December schedule, which makes it a challenge to celebrate her day with anyone other than immediate family. Finally, after a little bit of trial and error I think I’ve got the December birthday down. This doesn’t mean I don’t end up exhausted but it does mean that I’ve discovered a few tricks to help make the birthday stand out from the rest of the month while maintaining some form of sanity. Read on for my TAKE on making a December birthday special!

1. Be consistent with your Birthday traditions. This helps both in preparation for the day and establishes baseline expectations for the kids. Some of our favorites involve starting the day with a donut cake aka tower of donuts and ending it with a birthday present scavenger hunt inspired by the book, The Secret Birthday Message by Eric Carle.

2. I often incorporate paper products into a birthday celebration and when that birthday celebration is in December…I stay away from typical holiday colors and go for something colorful and bright! This is an easy way to separate the birthday from the upcoming holidays. These are some of my favorite paper plates and napkins!

3. Perhaps my number one trick…is to forgo any birthday celebration with friends until after winter break. I didn’t catch onto this until a few years ago and it saves me ever year! Plus it spreads out all the celebrations and gives your birthday kiddo something to look forward to! Honestly, a birthday party in mid January is a godsend for kids stuck inside during the cold winter - you may end up with more RSVP’s than you had planned for! If celebrating in January isn’t your thing and you want to do something in December…plan way in advance (at least two months) so friends can get a date on the calendar. Another option is to poll some of your childs best friends about their schedule and settle on a party date based on availability. I’ve done all of these things but in order to enjoy the season a bit more…I’m sticking with a larger celebration in January!

4. Because we don’t host a birthday party in December we make sure to do something special on our daughters birthday…this can be something like dinner out, a play, ice skating, a trip to a museum, a movie etc… Something that marks her day and is not tied to the holiday in any capacity. This year we got manicures and went to the Toys R’ Us Adventure pop up in Chicago!

5. Being December it may take a little extra effort but carving out time to talk to or face time with relatives and friends on your childs’ birthday is a great way to make them feel special. Whatever you do, just make your child feed loved on their birthday and enjoy the day!

Happy Celebrating!

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Birthday Traditions

In the midst of December, six days before Christmas to be exact is our eldest child's birthday. I despise the fact that her birthday is right before Christmas. Like, REALLY despise it. It's such a busy time that the added component of celebrating her birthday almost puts me over the edge. I try to remind myself that I should be thankful her birthday isn't on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and I'm trying, REALLY trying to be better about voicing my negative opinion on this matter. I would feel terrible if my daughter ever felt bad or disappointed about her December birthday and don't ever want to feel that wer'e diminishing the day.

As a means to help keep my sanity I've developed a birthday template of sorts that makes both planning easy and the day (albeit in the midst of December) extra special for our daughter.  As an added bonus most of our traditions are really cost friendly which is helpful during December (actually, this is helpful all the time). Read on for my TAKE on birthday traditions.

Kate's Take Birthday Checklist

Streamers - We hang streamers from our children's bedroom doors the night before their birthday so they wake up to a fun surprise. This takes no more than 20 minutes and literally, entertains all the kids for a week until I get sick of them and tear them all down. We started this when my daughter turned 3 and have done it for our son as well.

Balloons - We started this tradition for all of our kids on their first birthday. There is nothing better than a large foil number balloon for a photo op. Just think...you'll never forget how old they were when you look back at photos with a number balloon in the background. I opt for gold or silver depending on the year.

Birthday Crown - This tradition also started on our eldest daughters first birthday and all of the kids wear this crown on their birthday. We got our crown from Oeuf and it's beautifully made and holding up quite nicely. There are a few other color options if a gold crown isn't your thing.

Donut Cake - I don't have anything against a real cake, I promise. However, I typically reserve a real cake for celebrating with extended family and/or friends. On the kids' actual birthday there is nothing better than a tower of donuts aka a donut cake for breakfast. We started this tradition for my daughters 3rd birthday and we've done a few different variations (mini donuts from Stan's in Chicago, a tower of glazed etc..) but the Hostess Donettes are at the top of Lucy's list. I love to add a number candle to the top (of course, we make her blow out a candle on the donut cake) and this year added some unicorn decorations for fun!

Birthday Cereal - This is a new tradition that I adapted from my sister-in-law who has done this for years. At the start of the week (Sunday) my husband took our daughter to the grocery store and let her pick out any cereal she wanted. This was a big deal as we typically stick to the non-sugary cereals. Our daughter was thrilled to pick out Lucky Charms which she then can eat for breakfast all week long. When it runs out, that's it. No more sugary cereal until her next birthday. I have to admit that she may be sharing a few marshmallow morsels with her younger brother so maybe just maybe he will reciprocate when his birthday rolls around. 

Scavenger Hunt - This is probably my favorite tradition. Again adapted from my sister-in-law (she has really good ideas) and is best suited for kids 4 and older. Eric Carle has this book called The Secret Birthday Message which is essentially about a message this boy receives that takes him on a hunt using shapes to find his birthday present. I love Eric Carle and children's books so naturally when I learned of this tradition I knew I wanted to start it in our family. We typically read the book the night before their birthday and in our case, give our daughter her "Secret Birthday Message" after school on her special day. It's so much fun to watch her run around the house in search of her most special gift. The night before my husband or I craft the message by using a mixture of words and drawings. Don't forget to keep the old messages as it helps in terms of coming up with different clues etc... This year our daughter discovered her gift behind her shower curtain.

Birthday Dinner - As the number of kids in our family has grown to three we like to take advantage of some one-on-one time when we can. One of those times is on their birthdays when we take them (starting at age 4) to a special dinner with Mom + Dad. Our daughter loves to go to Crosby's Kitchen in Chicago so she can finish her meal with a skillet cookie. And if your wondering...of course, I bring along that candle from the donut cake in the morning so we can sing Happy Birthday one last time.