It's Birthday Season

Birthday season for us is the end of August. It all starts next Sunday the 21st with Kate, then two days later it's me, then 7 days later it's Ethan. Yes, that's 3 birthdays within 9 days. That makes for one very busy, and expensive month! If the kids would have been born on their due dates we would have had all 3 birthdays within 5 days, so I guess I'll count my blessings. Needless to say by the time September rolls around we are all caked out.( if you click on the pictures you can see the them all bigger and better )

We have decided in our family to do a "friend" party every other year. Last year was supposed to be the year of the friend party but with a new baby, a cross country move, and not knowing anybody here we didn't do that. So... it's been 3 years since Ethan had a party so we figured it was about time to do it up right.

Ethan is very into Harry Potter these, days not unlike a lot of people. He is currently nearly the end of book #4 and loving all of them. I can't even count how many times he has checked out the HP movies from the library this season.( Just through 3, we told he has to wait until he's older to see the others, which he thinks is SO unfair) We thought that given his love of all things Harry Potter it was only fitting to throw him a Harry Potter birthday party. Thanks to my new obsession, pinterest, I've gathered some great ideas and we started things off this weekend with his invitations.

see exhibit A:


I originally wanted to just make a scroll for his invite and tie it to an "owl" but Ethan informed me that Harry in fact received letters to Hogwarts, NOT a scroll...my bad.
Here is the invitation itself. We were going for an old "Maurader's Map" type thing. I think they turned out really well. Below is what the invite actually says:

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

26a Walnut Street, Summit NJ 07901

Reagan Hymas Closet Under the Attic, Second Floor 344 Park Ave., Berkeley Heights , NJ

Dear Sir,

We are pleased to accept you to the Hogwarts School of Wizardry. A special
term will be held on Saturday, August 27, 2011 in celebration of Grand Sorcerer
and Supreme Celebrant of His Ninth Birthday Ethan Wilson.

Prof. Severus Snape teaching Potions, Prof. Rubeus Hagrid teaching
Care of Magical Creatures, and Wand Making. Classes will begin at precisely 2 of the clock and will end promptly at 4.

Please R.S.V.P. by owl no later than 20 August 2011
(or use your muggle phone to call 801-404-2143)

Yours Sincerely,
Ashli Wilson
Deputy Headmistress

It's formatting weird here, but that's what it read with the hogwarts seal at the top.

Then we sealed them with red wax (crayon) and put a letter "H" stamp on it for Hogwarts

Then we drew owls on a white helium balloon to and attached one to each envelope to deliver. You can see in the top picture what it looked like altogether.

It was so fun to deliver each of them and see how excited the kids were about receiving it.

You can imagine our surprise when this afternoon after church our door bell rang and on our door step was this box with a scroll in it. It had apparently come by "owl" and informed us that they would be honored to attend etc. It was addressed to Grand Sorcerer Ethan. If you noticed in the invited they were told to RSVP by Owl or by "muggle" phone. Never in a million years would i have thought someone would be so clever with their response.


Needless to say we are getting all excited around here for the party. We have ordered our frog molds so we can make our chocolate frogs and will have botts beans and cauldron cakes and the like.

For a special gift on Ethan's actual birthday, Rand is taking Ethan and Anna into Manhattan to see the Harry Potter exhibit. They have real sets and all the actual costumes from the movies. We've heard from others that it's great. I think the kids will think it's awesome, in fact I wish I was going!

Palmyra Falls

Rand's parents came to visit recently and we all went to visit Palmyra NY, and Niagara Falls. The kids could not get that straight and we finally just started calling it "Palmyra Falls" just to cut down on the arguments and confusion.

Palmyra NY, is just a short 5 hour drive from here and yes a 5 hr drive for us anymore is just no big deal. We spend a lot of time in the car around here and have done several little road trips and the kids have done well. Although, I will say that very recently Jane is getting to that difficult and busy age where another road trip will not be on the calendar anytime soon.

We chose to go to Palmyra the week after the Hill Cumorah pageant had finished, to avoid the craziest time of year. While we have heard great things about the pageant itself, we have also heard horror stories about the crowds, the lack of hotel availability, mosquito's and a very late night at the pageant with crying kids. We've even had friends who went all the way to see the pageant and ended up leaving half way through because they and their children were so miserable.

Anywho, I was happy with our choice because all of the sites we visited were quiet and we basically had our own personal tour everywhere we went. The weather was absolutely perfect and of course it was special to see the sites where the beginning of our church all started. It was really special to walk in the same places that Joseph Smith walked and even touch some of the things he touched.

The Palmyra temple was beautiful and now sits on part of the Smith family property. One amazing feature of the Palmyra temple is that while usually all the windows of the temple are covered with beautiful stained glass, there was one window in the temple that is clear that gives a perfect view out over The Sacred Grove. It is amazing and even a little strange to see the temple just sitting out in the middle of nowhere.
We arrived in Palmyra in the afternoon the first day and went straight to the visitors center. One of the biggest reason's we went to visit was also to see Rand's mission president and Mom who are now serving their 5th, yes 5th mission there. The are an amazing couple and have been such positive examples to us throughout our marriage. We have seen them a handful of times over the years and we are grateful that Rand has such a close relationship with them. When Randall was in Albanian and the missionaries were evacuated (twice) there were times that Randall and his companion were the only missionaries actually in the mission and not allowed to proselyte so he spent a lot of one on one time with President and Sister Lenker. They spent a lot of time playing Scrabble and just talking so they know each other very well.
While the Lenkers finished up some business we took some time to climb up the Hill Cumorah to see the spot where it is believed that Joseph received the golden plates. It was a beautiful day with a beautiful view. The kids were more than happy to get out of the car and run a round a bit.

The kids with Grandpa and Grandma Wilson

The is the view from the top of the hill. The "squares" in the grass are where the people sat to see the pageant.
The is the first of the Smith's home. It was a very small log cabin that had 11 people living in it. It is not the original home but was rebuilt on the original site as far as they can tell.
This picture is looking out the back door of the home onto The Sacred Grove. Joseph Smith walked out that door to go and ask God, which of the church's was true. This view held the most significance for me and left me with a deeper impression than at any other time while we were there.

This was the upstairs room Where many of them slept and where Joseph was visited by the angel Moroni several times. The kids surprisingly loved to walk through these homes and Anna kept asking to go back to "Joseph's house" . I wondered if they would enjoy this trip at all and if they would get anything out of it, but Ethan and Anna seemed to both understand and enjoy it.
This is a view of the Palmyra temple down the lane from the Smith home.

This is the second Smith home that was built, and it was actually a very nice home. I was surprised. It made me not feel so bad about wanting a nice home of my own someday :)

This is the fireplace where Joseph at one time hid the plates from the mobs that were searching for them.





I love this picture of the kids running down the road from the grove. When we went into the grove we weren't expecting anything miraculous, but what we did experience were large swarms of bugs and flies. Needless to say we didn't last long.

The second day we drove two hours to Niagara Falls. I was looking forward to this, but it way exceeded my expectations. It was so amazing and so. much. fun.
We all rode "The Maid of the Mist", a boat that takes you as close to the falls as the current will allow. If you don't wear your poncho, and even if you do you can get very wet. It was amazing to be up so close to something so huge and amazing. The power the falls generated was awesome. The boat was reving it's engine so hard just to try to fight against the current. The pictures don't do the falls or the experience any justice but it was something I will never forget and would love to do again someday. If you ever go it's a must do.





The third day, we went E.B. Grandin's where the first Book of Mormon was published. The church now owns the site of course and it is a beautiful visitors center with the original brick and floors from when The Book of Mormon was first published. It was amazing to walk on the same floors that Joseph did and see the original ink spills on the floor. The kids were taught how the pages were printed, folded and cut. They even each made their own "signature" copy, the first 16 pages. Again we were the only ones on the tour. We then spent a little more time with the Lenkers before we filled our bellies and headed home.




Randall with President Lenker. He and his wife are both converts to the church. He was an LAPD motorcop and a tough dude. He was special ops in the Marines and has done some amazing stuff. One time in the marines he and some other marines were released from a submarine under the water and had to swim to the surface, from hundreds of feet below. I don't know how they did it. He still runs about 6 miles each morning and lifts weights and his wife walks an hour and a half each morning to keep trim and fit. See? Amazing people.





The trees in the far back of the picture are "The Grove"
This is the view from the temple, to what would have been still part of the Smith Family farm.
The kids with Grandpa and Grandma Saturday morning before they left for the airport.
We were glad that Rick and Shelley joined us on our little trip. We hope that while the kids may not remember everything they saw, or understand the significance that they will remember that it was important to us that we go and see where some of the most significant things happened in our church's history.