InsanKnitty

I’m dropping my HPSK package in the mail after I bring Abby to school this morning… I want so badly to post the picture I took of the ‘loot’ here… but I’ll just put this one little sneaky peek

This is my first ever swap and I’ve had a lot of fun putting this together… I just hope my spoilee likes it! The knitted bag was my favorite part… which of course I cannot explain now… but I had fun trying to stick to the Harry Potter theme in everything I chose to add to the bag, including my Sock DPN Invisibility Cloak shown above and the super cool stitch markers I designed with Sunne. I’m fearful just a little bit since my spoilee is an accomplished quilter, and my sewing skills are basic at best… the quality of the sewing on the black shimmer velvet and satin(ish) little bag are barely ‘ok’… but hopefully she can see beyond that and enjoy the humor of the Ravenclaw jab I made on the blog site about stealing Harry’s cloak!

My spoilee is allergic to chocolate, which is a shame because they make some cute Bertie Botts chocolate frogs that I’d have loved to put in, instead she’ll hopefully enjoy the few other Bertie Botts goodies I found amongst other things I put inside.

Tammy, I hope you like your package!

Well, we didn’t take photos of the various houses we saw… mostly because we had sheets with the info and some basic photo to remind us of each house, plus we can see them online anytime…

I did catch this photo of the kids resting after one busy morning in the hotel pool…

I also got a few photos when we went hiking in Rickett’s Glen…

Of course we saw and enjoyed mother nature’s creatures.. a cool millipede and millions of caterpillars (Eastern Tent Moth’s)

We did a waterfall hike, and only saw about 5 of the MANY falls… the kids were getting tired, and the thunder was booming overhead, so we turned around…

This is one location we’ll certainly visit regularly once we’re Pennsylvanian’s…

Yep, we made it.. and right now all I have time for is answering the trivia question of the week for HPSK

Who said this:

“I’m not trying to say what she did was sensible. I’m just trying to make you see how she was feeling at the time.”

“You should write a book, translating mad things girls do so boys can understand them.”

Hermione to Ron (and then Ron to Hermione) in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

We made it home.. I’ve got loads of wash to be done, and unpacking too.. and some hungry kids to tend to.. I hope to post again later…

I’ve been having a terrible headache for about a week. I’ve never had a migraine, and I don’t think this is one… today it seemed to be set off by one of the homes we visited (which was gorgeous by the way)… it happened to have various candles burning in nearly all the first floor rooms and at least one in the upstairs rooms… the mix of potpourri scents is likely the trigger… don’t get me wrong, I love candles.. but mixing scents always seems to be too much stimulation for my senses. Littles arguing on the drive from home to home didn’t help… nor did being hungry..

Speaking of houses… we have it narrowed down to 3 we like… we have generated our list of pros and cons and things that would need to get done at each house… and now it’s just a matter of discussion I guess… it’s not an easy decision actually… all three are almost the same commute to John’s work, two are more expensive, and one is in Move in quality… (meaning no fixes over time, except general home maintenance of course)… the schools in both towns are great.. so that isn’t even a concern.. it’s just down to which we like best.. which is hard because two are SOOO great for some of the same reasons…

On the knitting front.. I’ve knit (from my stash) (though not finished… gotta seam and ‘decorate’) two hats that will be christmas gifts for my niece and nephews in NY, and three and a half dishcloths (also gifts)… I have come up with a cool idea for a tank dress for Chelsea and maybe for Abby if she likes Chelsea’s enough.. gotta take some measurements for it though… thanks Isabelle for the idea… my top will be different than the one she did but I have the colors picked in my head (from my stash at home!)… I may recruit my sewing/quilting/knitting friend Lee to help with the final construction if I run into troubles…

I now have all the knitting done for my dishcloth swap pal… so I can mail that when I get home on Monday! Wahoo!

So, we’re here in PA… and this afternoon we’ll be house hunting… in the meantime, we’re suitcase hunting. Somehow my suitcase got left on the rental car bus.. and in the confusion of 3 kids, 6 bags, and 3 car seats.. we left MY bag on the bus… or at least we think we did… we’re trying to track it down…

Under normal circumstances I’d be ok with this, however, my Littles want to go to the pool… I’m not so sure the Chelsea will be cool with staying on the stairs since I don’t have a bathing suit to wear…

ON the drive from the airport in Philly to our hotel here in Wilkes-Barre, I was able to finish my stockinette scarf in Collinette… it’s so yummy soft… I’ll take a photo and add it here later… I still have to weave in the ends… I also started a gift dishcloth for a surprise for a friend.. I have a few of these to make, and plan to knit them in between swap items My HPSK is ready to mail, however before leaving I didn’t have a chance to run to the post office… which is good since I also forgot to photograph it… I saw on the site that there have been packages going out, and arriving! Exciting!

I also wanted to post here some pictures that the preschool teacher had for all of us parents in her room on the final day of school… they are soo cool because they are pics of each of our kids during the first week of school and the last week of school… standing in the same spot to show how much they’ve grown and matured during the year… Here’s my JJ… in the fall of 2006

And here he is now… spring 2007

Off to a hotel breakfast and then an attempt at the pool… should be interesting for sure…

So yesterday was the last day of preschool, and the preschool graduation. It was so sweet, and so fun to see them excited and happy to be moving on to something bigger and better in their world… KINDERGARTEN!

JJ is on the end (to the right) of the middle row.. looking at the camera…

two seconds after this photo he nearly walked into a mom down at the front taking pictures… he was staring at us the whole time and didn’t look where he was going.. classic!

Mrs. Terri’s graduating class

Hugs from JJ!

All graduated! JJ and Mrs. Terri

JJ and Cam, his best buddy, it will be hard to say goodbye to Cameron…

Chelsea had her goodbyes the day before to Mrs. Jane, and I snapped a few cute pics of the moment… she really really enjoyed preschool, and I only wish I’d gotten her in sooner in the year.

The preschool graduation was a little harder on me than I thought it would be… because we’re also saying goodbye to our friends as we move to PA… saying goodbye to Cheryl will be the hardest for me…

Anne has a contest on her site about the LYS that she posted after a series of ‘unfortunate events’ and discontinued yarn… Her post prompted me to venture off to my LYS, the one in Cary that I never go to because it’s farther away, and while it should be etched into my mind due to the uniqueness of it all… I somehow manage to forget about it..

Shuttles, Needles and Hooks should be visited by any yarn lover.. .it’s this little hole of a place, with 6 rooms and a hallway crammed floor to ceiling in delicious yarns… there’s even a sale section upstairs… I don’t know if they have the same issue with discontinued yarns that Anne ran into at hers… but it’s still such a cool place to go and oggle yummy yarns!

Add:
Of course I purchased yarn… but it was for swaps only.. I am participating in a knit from your stash through labor day… though I am considering an ammendment since we’ll be moving from the area and I won’t be able to shop there again…

If you have three children ages 7 and under… you are always wary of ‘quiet’ moments… they are few and far between most of the time.. but taking a moment to revel in the quiet generally means that something is up… something messy, and something that is going to take a long time to clean up…

something like mudpies…

and pea soup (made in EVERY plastic child bowl we own)

That’s probably the prettiest mud pie I’ve ever seen to be honest… it certainly had Abby’s influence in it’s creation… the ‘mess’ was created for…

A whole host of critters for the ‘dinner party on the deck’…

This was one of those times when I didn’t get mad… it was just too funny to be angry, even with the big cleanup and trip after trip (that the kids had to do) to get the guests back inside…

Trivia
1. Who is the Fat Lady’s friend?
- Violet
- Rose
- Lavender
- Lily

2. When the Fat Lady was attacked by Sirius Black and fled her portrait, who took over for her as guard of Gryffindor Tower?
Sir Cadogan

3. Usually when Harry is in Dumbledore’s office, what are the portraits of previous headmasters doing?
- Humming
- Snoozing
- Giving Dumbledore advice
- Arguing with one another

4. Which one of the Triwizard champions did not go to the World Cup?
- Harry Potter
- Fleur Delacour
- Cedric Diggory
- Viktor Krum

5. Who did Harry give his Triwizard winnings to?
- Mr. and Mrs. Diggory
- No one, he kept them
- Professory Dumbledore
- Fred and George Weasley

The next two are anagrams. Rearrange the letters to get the correct words.
6. Live gong cram la man (two words)
Minerva McGonogal

7. Owl or video
Oliver Wood

8. What author’s name appears on the book “Quidditch Through the Ages”?
- Albus Dumbledore
- J.K. Rowling
- Kennilworthy Whisp
- Newt Scamander

9. What does the Keeper do in a game of Quidditch?
- Keeps the brooms in good working order
- Guards the goal
- Keeps the score
- Holds the Quaffle

10. In the Goblet of Fire why did the Mad Eye Moody imposter put Harry’s name in the goblet?
- He wanted Ron to be mad at him
- He wanted Dumbledore to expel Harry for entering the tournament
- He Wanted Harry to be killed during the tasks
- He wanted Harry to win the tournament

And I’m NOT going to miss it this time… sheesh…

I’ve got the photos for the scavenger hunt gathered, and am working on the trivia questions… so here’s part 1 , the photos…
Dobby and his sock from Harry

Hermione with Victor Krum at the Yule Ball

Harry and Cho’s first kiss

Mad Eye Moody!