Sports Day

We got lucky and had field day twice this year. At the beginning of July, James and John had their Sports Days. James' was done with the Main school (Years 3-8) and John's was done with the Lower School (Reception - Year 2). The Main School sports day was quite an experience. The mom's from each year got together and put together a picnic of sorts. The year 3 mom's put on quite the spread. I have never seen so much food before. The weather is always sketchy so we put up canopies to keep everything and everyone dry during the various rain showers. Jude, Jonah and I had a great time watching James compete in his various events. By far, the most incredible thing was the House Relay. I think I posted earlier how the school is divided up into 5 houses. Well at the end of the sports day, all the kids from each house compete in a relay race. It was just incredible to see all the kids from 5 different grades run and pass the baton to one another. In the end once all the points were tallied, Welsley house (the house James belongs to) won! You should have seen all the kids jumping up and down! They were do proud of themselves. 

John's sports day was the day after James'. Unfortunately, the boys and I got there late and had the hardest time finding a place to park. Thankfully we didn't miss John's first race. It was so great to see him running and having fun. At the end, he told he that he didn't win but there wasn't a trace of disappointment on his face. I think he was just happy he made it all the way to the finish line. It was so cute to see the young kids doing their races. There were some super cute ones for the littlest kids and the mini hurdles were hilarious. They finished all of their races just before the heavens opened and it started pouring down rain. We all headed to the Performing Arts Center for a little awards ceremony. The boys and I had to duck out early because Jonah was getting restless and both boys were getting hungry. We found John and said good-bye before heading out. 

All in all, both days were loads of fun and we can't wait for next year!  

Harry Potter Studio Tour

I must admit, I had been looking forward to the Harry Potter Studio Tour since it was first announced online back at the very beginning of the year. Alas, you have to book tickets well in advance and it was extremely hard nailing down a date when there was nothing going on. We were finally able to get tickets for the evening of June 16th. Unfortunately we later found out that James and Brian were supposed to go camping that weekend so it looked like John and I might not be able to go. Brian's grad school classes had been wearing him out so he decided to skip the campout and so I was able to go on the tour and ended up taking James with me instead of John. 

First and foremost, if you love Harry Potter and you are coming to London, this tour is a MUST. It was just incredible right from the moment you pull into the car park (what they call parking lots here). James and I collected our tickets at the window and headed inside. We then walked into the lobby. Holy cow!! There were photos of the various characters around the room and the flying car hanging from the ceiling. James and I arrived in time to grab some dinner and hit the gift shop before starting our tour. We got our little headsets and made our way into the queue. While we were queueing, we got to see the cupboard under the stairs!!! The first stop was a room showing the various movie posters for all 8 movies. We watched a little film before heading into a larger auditorium to watch another film about what we were going to experience. After that, they raised the screen and we were introduced to the doors leading to the great hall. I was on cloud nine!!! Next stop was the great hall. Only one of the house tables was set up. The rest of the room was filled with costumes of the various houses and teachers. There was another tour guide in this room asking various questions and telling us all sort of interesting facts about the films. 

After this we were allowed to wander through the remainder of the tour at our own pace. It was so great to see all of the costumes, props, and sets they used to make these incredible movies. There was so much to see and do while we were there. Once of our favorite things was trying to find 15 hidden golden snitches. There was a little book that the kids got before the tour that had various things to look out for during the tour. James and I had to ask for help on a couple but for the most part, we found them on our own. 

The only complaint I had was that I felt a little rushed. We were one of the last tours of the day and as the group progressed past certain points, the staff sort of closed off the area. James wanted to do this broom riding experience that added quite a long time to our tour. When we finally finished with that, they had closed off the Burrow. :-( Thankfully all the workers were incredibly kind and pulled aside the ropes so I could take a closer look and take photos. After that, I was sort of half looking at everything and snapping as many photos as I could. The remainder of the tour was incredible. We got to see 4 Privet Drive, the Knight Bus, the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow and most importantly, Diagon Alley. James had so much fun running up and down the street looking at the various stores. We then breezed through the model section and ended at the most incredible sight of all. The model of Hogwarts Castle. It was just awe inspiring. I was brought to tears, first because it was just the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time and second because my memory card was out of space. 

After seeing the castle, it was a quick walk through Ollivanders and back through the gift shop. We picked up just a couple more things before headed out. It was just a wonderful evening. We got home really late but it was so worth it. 

Again, photos (and loads of them) will be coming soon. 

Long overdue

It's been a very busy "summer" for the Hadley's. I put summer in quotes because there are two different summers going on. One is the traditional summer starting just at the end of May and going through the beginning of school and the second is the end of school through the start of the new school year. 

This year the traditional summer began with the boys' half term break which coincided with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Brian took James, John and Jude up to Scotland for the week. They had an absolute blast touring the western and southern part of Scotland. They even made it out to the Isle of Harris where Brian went crazy buying various Harris tweed items. While the boys were away, Jonah and I chilled at home. It poured down rain for 4 days straight so we were stuck indoors the first part of the break. After the rain let up, we got out and about a bit but didn't do anything adventurous as Brian had my Sat Nav with him and I don't like to get lost. 

After their week off, the boys still had an additional five weeks left of school. It was so hard to see all the posts on Facebook of our friends back home having their last days of school and getting ready for summer. Mainly it was just knowing that I had 5 more weeks of getting everyone up, fed, dressed, in the car, and on the road by 8:10. Thankfully they went by fairly quickly and the boys were out for summer vacation. 

Pictures of the boys' Scotland adventures coming soon. 

Here Comes the Sun...

Whoops! Looks like I forgot to finish this post and get it actually up on the blog.

After quite a lot of rain, we finally had a day of sunshine. We took full advantage of it and decided to hit Stonehenge and then we went on to Salisbury to see the cathedral. We must have had the same thought as most people as both places were packed with people enjoying the sun. I'll add some photos in a bit.