Halloween couldn't have come any faster this season. I've 

always wanted to throw a family halloween party and this was

the year i was determined to make that happen. We are big 

Harry Potter fans and with the new movie coming out, I loved

the idea of having a Harry Potter theme, so I thought why not

combine the two. I started looking on Pinterest of course and

found lots of ideas. I wanted to spend less than I would have

if I had a budget of abundance, but that wasn't the case. 

luckily there are lots of ideas out there using dollar store 

items. I love DIY party ideas so, I knew I needed to start as 

soon as i could. What would a Harry Potter themed Halloween

Party be without the infamous floating candles? My thoughts

exactly. 

I started saving toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls 

and got a good little stash by the time October rolled around. 
I found an awesome tutorial on Pinterest on how to make them. 
You can find them Here

They were pretty easy to make, just gather your crew and
perform an assembly line and you can get these done
in two hours. I used the hot glue gun to make the wax drips
 and then painted over it. I bought a pack of 24 led tea light candles from Amazon and it just so happened that, that was 
how many candles i made.  I hung them up using fishing line, 
thumb tacks, and tape.

I had so much fun with this project, that I thought 
ok this is so much better than spending top dollar. 
I went to the dollar store again and bought some basic
books, that had some old weathered paper and the books 
were already black so that was great. I found a tutorial
on Pinterest again, and followed the tutorial. This was
more of a process, because you are using mod podge. If 
you've worked with mod podge before, you know that it takes 
a while for it to dry. If I were to do these books again, I 
would not have used the paper towel technique, I would have 
used halloween gauze. All in all they turned out great. 
You can find the Potion book Tutorial Here

This Spell book was my favorite to make. Again I used a book from the dollar store and the pages were already weathered so it worked
out perfect. I found this spell book tutorial on Pinterest again 
and you can find that Here

I wanted to make my own house flags, because I didn't want 
to buy anything off amazon. So I set out and bought some
Felt fabric, some Twine, used handy dandy glue gun. I 
downloaded the harry potter font, and printed off the first 
letter for each house. I traced it onto the felt and cut it out. 
Easy as pie right. The best part was using the glue gun, that part 
went pretty fast. You can find the tutorial Here

These Harry Potter Textbooks I made using Pic Monkey. 

I had to make my own 9 3/4 Platform, which was not that bad,
a little time consuming but cheaper than buying one online.
I used my own white butcher paper, a rectangle sponge and 
some craft paint. I mixed a red and added a little black 
to get that darker brick color. I downloaded another 
Harry potter font and printed on card stock. I then used
some gold metallic craft paint for the finishing touch. 

          

Those were all the major Harry Potter Decorations I made.
I printed out some Wanted posters as well and put those on the
wall. You can goole those. 

I made simple Apothecary Bottles, using old bottles from 
my local craft store. I made labels on pic monkey. I filled
them water and food coloring, and used plastic mice and white 
sand. 

The Rest of the house had simple Scary Halloween touches.

These Bats were my favorite, Mr. Wettstein did a good job.

My Beautiful Sister was Dressed as fair Lady from the Renissance.
My Mom was some famous lady, I can't remember the name. lol

Sirius Black and Ariel

The Best Chocolate Chip and Nimbus 2000 Broom Stick Treats

Sorry for the horrible iPhone pictures. I was 
dressed as Bellatrix Lestrange, and Wade was Sirius Black.

Finn Was of course Prince Eric to Match Addie

This was the only decent shot I got of all the kiddos. 
drives me crazy when I can't get a good shot, guess you
just have to roll with the punches. Liam was Harry Potter 
of course and Emma was Hermione Granger. 

I actually hand drew this on black chalkboard paper, not bad huh? 
We had a Great Halloween Season, we hope you enjoyed our 
Harry potter theme Halloween party. Thanks for stopping by.

Wettstein Summer 2016

Summer has come and gone and it seems like laying by the pool and eating popsicles outside are a distant memory. the school year has been in session for 2 months now and the layer of holidays are amongst us. We had a low key summer this year, which was pretty nice. We didn't have any big vacations but we made sure we had a good one. We spent the summer outside at the park, swimming at the pool, the local waterpark, and going to the beach. all in all it was a great summer and i'm already missing the sticky popsicle fingers. 

We Started the summer by finishing up Swim team. This year wade and I decided that the kids needed some extra practice and so we signed them up, groans and all. Emma did not feel up to it, but once it started and she saw her friends from school and church, she quickly changed her mind. They were such good sports, especially since the water wasn't exactly summer warm. it took a while to get used to. 

It's amazing how much better swimmers they became after it was all over. Having practice everyday Monday through Friday was an awesome bonus. we couldn't beat the price for all that practice and one on one time with the coach. They will definitely join the swim team next summer. 

What's a summer without a baby pool, this year Addie requested

a bigger pool, okay it was actually me, I thought the older kids

would have a fun time it. sadly it only lasted one summer season. 

Mr Finn and I..How cute is he? Anytime I can get this little guy

of mine to smile at the camera, you can bet i'm snapping a picture. 

Miss Addie sure loves the swings, well for a short period of time 

that is, i think she gets it from me. I was never able to stay on

the swing for a long period of time, I used to get so dizzy all the time. 

We sure love Miss Parker, she has the best smile and is the 

sweetest. We always look forward to pool playdates with our 

cousins. So lucky they have each other, they are only a few months 

apart. Her mom and I used to play together all the time. 

the long summer days playing barbies and watching movies. 

These were just a few of from swim team and swimming at the pool, and playing at the park. Towards the end of summer Wade's siblings all rented a beach house in Galveston for 4 days. It was so nice to 

end the summer with family, laying out at the beach and yummy food. 

The beach house was super cute and just the right size. 

If your ever in Galveston, you have to make a stop at Rita's Italian ice/ custard. Its Amazing! The Custard and the Italian Ice make a great combo. 

If I could post all the pictures I would, but there are too many, and of course i was usually behind the camera. excuse the poor iPhone pictures. Now comes the chaos with the holidays.