WEEKLY ROUNDUP - A Very Harry Halloween

 First off here's a link to Dave's Halloween video! https://youtu.be/bGhfHvrHSJo 

Muchos Halloweenness to come, but first! Last Friday we had Dom's student-led learning conference. He was so nervous the whole week leading up to it, but he did awesome. He showed us his picture he drew of his bike in his journal, his "Creation" booklet he made, and some of his projects around the room. They showed a little self-reflection activity, and I could tell he was so proud. I'm all emotional about the kids lately and this didn't help! He's growing up!

That afternoon we made our annual trip to "Whimsic Alley" to see our friend Caitlin's Harry Potter set up. They have a whole house, tons of man power and a good budget and they use all of those things to the max every year! It's amazing. Their crafting is such high quality. Unfortunately the wind took down part of their display the day before, but it they didn't tell us we wouldn't have known. 
Eva was terrified (and I mean TERRIFIED) of the moving/talking frog and the cawing crows. I've never seen her so spooked before haha. 

They crafted this thestral... CRAFTED!!! I mean wtf

Friday night we were looking at the weather. The plan was to set up for Halloween Sunday and Monday (actual Halloween), but there was a rainfall warning and atmospheric river set for Sunday afternoon/overnight. Ermmmmm, our set up will not fair well in that kind of weather. We made the difficult decision to change the days to Saturday and Monday, but that caused us to lose a day of prep time and lose a main person because Scott works Saturdays and had plans that night. That meant I had to be a primary helper, but also deal with the kids and one of the busiest work weekends for me leading up to our event on November 4. SEND HELP! I asked Ashleigh if she'd be willing to take Eva for a few hours and she came to the rescue, keeping Eva over nap time and everything. Ohh my gosh. We would have gotten nothing done with her there. Thank you Ashleigh & Phoebe!!! 

The big kids just got to watch a ton of TV that day so they were happy haha. In the end we got it all set up (including a tarp over the yard in case it did rain), the weather turned out beautiful, and we had probably 100 people show up from out of the neighbourhood to check it out. It was a success, but we were tiiiired. 

Snuck in a quick play when I dropped off Eva

Opa came by for a bit to help out!

This Knight Bus! I thought of it last year after Chamber of Secrets was such a success and we were trying to figure out how to uplevel. It came to fruition and we're proud haha!  It's 8ft tall and 8ft wide.

Dave did the draping, and then I was in charge of the "Trelawny" corner

You have... THE GRIM!

Had to sneak in a quick play at pick up too of course :)

Coming together. Dom & Emilia were so excited running around the road. Speaking of which, we shut down half our street and took it over with cones, the knight bus, and crowds. So grateful there's no parking on our street.

Didn't get pumpkin shots last week, so here's Emilia's pumpkin

Dom's on the left and Dave's werewolf

He should have been named Mooch.

The set up is cooler at night with all Dave's lights, fog, music, etc. 

The book stack is pure magic!

Monster Book of Monsters

Essence of Dittany & the Gaunt Ring. Dave had a scavenger hunt and had 5 horcruxes hidden around the set up

So the picture does it zero justice, but Dave made a dementor that was in the back corner. It breathed fog and loomed over you as you came up to the last table. So creepy!

Sunday was a quiet morning at home and then Gramma, Grandpa, Aunty Val, Uncle Bill and cousin Amanda came over for dinner! We missed the anniversary party the day before because of naps and Halloween, so I'm really glad we got to hang out still.

Dom came strutting downstairs in the morning looking like a stripper

Her next sip went right up her nose

Racing cars back and forth on the table. Everyone was busting a gut!

In looove with her dress Gramma and Grandpa got for her in Hawaii! <3

Then comes Halloween Monday! Dave set the yard back up again which was MUCH easier than Saturday because it was all prepped and ready to go. In the afternoon/evening on Halloween our house becomes a bit of a revolving door. My mom made some casseroles and brought them over and people came in to eat and get dressed for trick or treating as it worked for them. Dom & Emilia were so excited to go out. Eva had no idea what was going on, but she did great. 
It was sort of hard to trick or treat because it felt like only one in three or four houses was actually handing out candy! What happened to Halloween?! We didn't hit that many houses, but we were gone for about an hour I'd say. Emilia didn't complain once. Just marched around in her Elsa dress somehow not freezing. 

"Mom, take a picture of my scary face!"

Emilia - "Mommy, here are your instructions for my makeup today"

Elsa, SWAT man and the owl <3

"Nobody told me there would be strippers here."

We actually managed to get all 5 of us into the knight bus!!

Eva could have hung out there all evening

7 attempts to get Eva to stand in one spot for more than two seconds. Gave up.

Grandpa & Uncle Bill couldn't stay away. They ended up driving out from Agassiz to check out the set up! 

Ended the evening chatting with Ian up the road who is the other Halloween house in the neighbourhood. He and Dave bond over this haha.

Can I just say what a miracle the weather was that day?! After the torrential storm the day before, and the rain that was anticipated, it turned out clear, dry and cold! Another perfect Halloween weather. 6 years straight! If this is part of climate change, I'll take it!

I leave you with this sweet picture of my little sweetheart <3 She brought Eva and I for a walk through the forest at school before preschool on Tuesday and was very proud of her giant maple leaf. 

But I really leave you with what my next few days looks like! 
Tomorrow is the Complete Champions Reception at work and it'll be a 12+ hour day for me. 
Saturday I'll be working lots again trying to catch up, and also we will drop the kids off at their grandparents' places and we'll be finishing up some packing because...

Sunday we go to MEXICO!!