Halloween 2015

Second year in a row we stayed home for Halloween! I don't mean stay home as in not going out and trick-or-treating, but as in not traveling abroad. This is the week of the boys' half-term, so they are out of school, and usually it's so nice to go travel somewhere without missing school. But this year we, again, wanted to go to base for trick-or-treating, as the kids just love it. 

We did the obligatory pumpkin carving a couple of days before Halloween.

The British people don't carve their pumpkins as much as the Americans do. We didn't want to have ours out too early so it would mold with all this humidity here.

In England, if you have a porch light on AND a pumpkin by the door means that you have candy for trick-or-treaters. 

We had a busy schedule for Saturday, Oct. 31st. We first had a church party with chili and trunk-or-treat.

That was fun, except they did trunk-or-treating first, and then waited way too long for chili eating (and we had to leave early), so we didn't get to see the costume contest or chili tasting and results. 

Robert is telling Mallory a secret about how he found this costume at the BX at Lakenheath last year.

Mark was the cutest Harry Potter AGAIN.  

After this party, we ran to meet our British school friends so we could go trick-or-treating on base together. It was quite an experience!! Lots of dressed up people, lots of candy and fun. Our friends couldn't believe how great it was and how much candy their kids got;).

Our last Halloween in England... (you'll be hearing lots of "lasts" soon).

Lyana.

Harry Potter Studios Halloween Treat

We are at the point of our family life when ALL three children love Harry Potter. Mark is the newest fan who loves HP movies (except the kids haven't seen then last two) and loves when we read HP books to him. He was anxiously waiting every night to listen to us read to him but we stopped in the middle of Book 5 now because he's been reading more and more books on his own and not wanting us to read to him...

Argh...I keep getting distracted. So during the half-term (British school break Oct. 24th-Nov 3), we booked tickets at the Harry Potter Studios in London (near London). We kept the trip an absolute secret from the kids until we were in the car and driving to it. I can't describe how excited they were! I packed Mark's new HP cape and tie just in case he wanted to wear it, and that turned out to be a great idea! 

Our time was 17:30 but since the place doesn't close till 22:00, we had a lot of time to explore.

Little Mark near the under the stairs Harry Potter room. 

Hogwarts dining hall. 

This place actually doesn't have an actual roof since for the movie they had to keep changing it and modify decorations with the green screen and technology. 

Death Eaters in every alley since it was Halloween time after all. 

Welcome to Hogwarts! 

This room was amazing! So much detail! This is the common room for Gryffindors.

Alex:)

Mark

No Katya. Potions!

Some pictures are just cool pictures of bits and pieces of the set, like this one with the Hogwarts clock.

Hey, they could be kind of like Ron, Harry and Hermione:)

Mark was too cute for the Death Eaters.

The newest addition to HP Studios attraction is this Hogwarts Express. 

You can actually go inside and see where they filmed certain scenes in different films.

And here is even Ron's handprint on the window. 

We couldn't miss the opportunity to take our trolley through the Platform 9 3/4 AGAIN.

A view from inside the Hogwarts Express. That's Katya in the blue coat, hoping to find some jelly beans she could buy.

This was a "green screen ride" where you sit in a train compartment watching the scenery go by as if it's real. It's pretty awesome:)

And finally we got to the part with the butter beer (glorified cream soda) and butter beer ice cream (delicious!). 

Outside we found the famous Knight bus.

And Harry's house.

Squishing them all into Ron's car. 

I think Mark would make a great motorcycle driver:)!

This crazy trio. 

I know...I know...everyone had to have a turn.

This was quite awesome! Amazing how they built it very wobbly and uneven inside. 

Looks familiar, right?

The exhibit of various technological things that they used on the set was quite amazing! 

And Diagon Alley did not disappoint. 

The final exhibit was this majestic detailed replica of the Hogwarts Castle. The light in the room dims so that you can see it as if it's lit up for the darkness as well. It's just incredible how much work and how many hours went into creating this thing.

Outside we found the chess pieces that were not so kind (do you remember the giant chess game?).

And finally--it's after 9 pm and we are done! What a fantastic night! 

It was Katya's second time going here. The first time she went two and a half years ago with Robert. This time I was thinking of sending Robert and the boys alone since it is quite an expensive treat, but then we chose to do it as a family instead. Great fun and totally recommended if you are a Harry Potter fan. 

 Lyana.

Wales: Harlech Castle

On our way back from Wales (and the Snowdonia marathon) we took a bit of a scenic route stopping at Harlech, a coastal town south of Snowdon.

Driving through this part of the country, you find a lot of slate mountains. They look amazing! Many slate mines and lots of black flaky rocks.

Right in the small town of Harlech you find an imposing castle--Harlech Castle, a majestic Welsh castle built by Edward I in the 13th century as part of his "iron ring" of fortresses designed to contain the Welsh independence seekers. In the 1404 it was taken by a Welsh leader who organized a parliament here. This was the place where during the War of Roses a very-very long siege occurred and the reason people were able to sustain themselves was the positioning of the castle. 

See? The castle is located really close to the Irish Sea. The crazy thing is that in the 14th-15th century, the sea was a lot closer to the castle, in fact, so close that boats could come from Ireland or wherever and provide supply to the people at the castle to their back gate.

The weather was miserable this day--very windy with stormy clouds. And of course, somehow it turned out that we left Mark's coat at home, so he had to wear Alex's coat (miraculously we brought an extra jacket for Alex). 

The kids had to find a few clues throughout the castle to spell out the answer to their puzzle. That kept them occupied. That and the fact that it was so windy AND then rainy. 

Here is Mark in his oversized coat with the puzzle pamphlet.

We love ruined castles like this the most, especially when there is no one else around. 

Since we were the first people at the castle, we were able to wander around wherever we wanted.

I know my coat and hat are not matching, but who cares when you are freezing?

Although the warning signs specifically said "No unsupervised children", ours kept running away to explore the very top of this castle wall. It was so scary! Low walls and two dozen feet above ground.

That's the side of the castle that faces the sea. So maybe technically this is somehow the front? 

We got a bit soaked at the castle, but still enjoyed our time very much. After this, we went into town, got a pizza to share as a snack (it was not even 11, but this was the day that the clocks were turned back so we were hungry as if it was already noon), walked back to our car, stopping on the way at a cute village shop with ice cream and pasties. We ordered a few Welsh pasties for lunch to be ready after our drive to the beach (5 min away). 

It was so horribly windy, that we knew we wouldn't stay on the beach for a long time. The beach here is nice though...

The white sand and the dunes are play heaven for kids. 

Alex wanted to stay for a while. 

Oh, how I wish this was not a cold beach...

After we were done with the beach, our pasties were ready, ice cream was there as well (made with Welsh cow milk, they said), so we were good to go home. Three hours later--we were back in Brampton.

Lyana.