And The Prisoner of Azkaban

I've been looking forward to today since I started planning Harry Potter Week (MONTHS AGO!) Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite book. There's so much to work with- the third years going to Hogsmead (The Three Broom Sticks! Honeydukes!), the Dementors (and Chocolate!), Care of Magical Creatures Class with Hagrid in charge, the time turner! My gosh, the possibilities! Plus, after this book they turn darker and darker so it was a little harder to come up with activities. (Except, I mean tomorrow is Goblet of Fire Day, which first 100 pages --or so it seems-- covers the Qudditch World Cup, so there is that)

If you notice we have one extra class than usual. That's all thanks to the time turner. It gives us more time for more lessons! Today we had Charms, Herbolody, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies. 

Today was lots of sweet treats for the boys- But come on, Honeydukes! They even got some chocolate in their owl mail this morning, you know, in case the Dementors come for them. (I found the printables online with an easy google search) 

We had two howlers this morning, a couple of house point gems, and some worksheets. 

We had some new classes today. Charms saw the boys randomly drawing their brothers house colors, and having to "Charm" their brothers with a nice letter. 

For herbology, we checked on our Mandrakes. No sprouts, so we don't have to wear any earmuffs, yet. (You can see in the background Calib used his scarf to cover his ears, just in case) 

Then we mixed some special potions to magically change our white flowers colors (You know, we did the whole flowers in colored water experiment, we even split one stem in half and put it in two colors. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.) 

For potions today we started our Magic Crystal Snowflakes. We took some wired yeti hair ( pipe cleaners) and made them into a star shape- attaching them with dragon heart string (thread) to a Muggle pencil. Then we placed them in a jar with some boiling gillywater (just plain water, folks), and about 9 tablespoons of ground mountain troll crystals (borax) 

Stir the ground mountain troll crystals in before you put the pencil over top. 

And make sure your wired yeti hair star doesn't touch the bottom or the sides. 

Then tap your jar with your wand and say "Crystallus"

Let it sit undisturbed overnight. 

We already have some crystals forming! 

Today we also saw the first Care of Magical Creatures class. I was SO excited about this one- I ordered owl pellets from Amazon. So, I swear it isn't gross--- see they're sterilized-- but it's owl puke in pellet form! Owls eat the WHOLE animal and then puke up the pellets to get rid of bones and beaks and such.  So you can break open the pellets and find bones! 

The kit was pretty inexpensive and came with three pellets, a tweezers, a carving tool, and a magnify glass. 

At first Peyton's face really says it all. 

But they all got REALLY into this. 

I swear he enjoyed this, he always looks annoyed when I take his picture. 

Peyton got a really cool skull in his... 

While they worked this morning on their charms, I rand out their socks, and threw them in the dryer. 

They turned out fun! 

So they wanted to take a picture with the 'Free Dobby' (the house elf who is freed by his master's socks) sign. I had totally intended to just hang them up, but the boys wanted to wear them, and have me write on the bottom of their socks instead. 

(And oh my gosh was this fun. I knew it tickled, but I told them it would turn out WAY better if I wrote on them WHILE they were on their feet) 

Even Calib was totally on board. 

I finally got to use my chocolate frog mold I got for Christmas today, because made some chocolate frogs. 

But we made them buckeye style, complete with peanut butter on the inside. YUM! 

In book three Harry Potter's meals include sausage and fried tomatoes, so Asa whipped that up for us while I worked on some things for tomorrow. 

And we had to have Butterbeers! I know theirs a lot of recipes out there, but mine is super easy. I just take some vanilla ice cream, mix it with some butterscotch syrup and some cream soda and blend it all together. 

It might not be the way it's made at the Three Broomsticks, but it is a hit here. 

After a pop quiz, with house gems being awarded, Peyton came out on top. He won by ONE gem, and Calib was not happy. I think his attitude will be earning him a howler in his morning owl mail. 

But for the next 24 (or so) hours, Gryffindor is on top once again. 

Oh, and there was lemon meringue pie today too- a favorite of Harry's in book three. So many sweets. But, it makes sense, with Hogsmead and all. 

The boys did run around at the playground for about an hour with the neighbors while I worked on some things for Saturday. I'm totally excited about our last day, but I still don't have it all put together--- ekkkk! 

Next up: And the Goblet of Fire (No Triwizard cup here, though it will be Qudditch heavy, hopefully nobody is too disappointed with that)