Two years ago the family and I went to Universal Studios in Florida to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We'd been there in 2012 but they added a whole other section since that visit, so we were pumped. This time, you could take the Hogwarts Express to see Diagon Alley and see the Gringott's Bank and Joke Shop.
They tucked it away a little and you have to go through the entrance to see it all laid out, which is a little different than the other side of the park where the rest of the Wizarding World is. The train was really cool, with the outside of the windows showing the scenery as if you're headed to Hogwarts and the silhouettes of Harry, Hermione and Ron showing outside your train seats, as if they're in the corridor. Even though my kids are young adults, they really enjoyed it.
I did this two page layout with paper from Scrapbook.com. It already has the title on it and I just cut off the top and bottom of the papers and added them to a pine green scrapbook page.
Those cutie stickers are from Paper House and the Harry Potter in a frame was a ring from a long-ago cupcake that I save. We snipped of the ring part and I used glue dots to adhere.
At the bottom of each page, I added brochure elements and the ticket holder and ticket from the park. That's me hanging out at the Joke Shop and the edible Dark Mark ad.
This trip was a good one and we really enjoyed the park. Any Harry Potter fan would have a blast, and that's just part of the park's appeal. They have a water park, Marvel Comics and Dr. Seuss areas, Jurassic Park rides and more. Looking forward to going on vacation some day again!
For the first time in a few years, my kids (a senior in high school and a new elementary teacher) had the same Spring Break...so we packed up the car and road tripped to Florida from Ohio and spent some of it at Universal Studios. Both kids are Harry Potter fans and the last time we were there was when my daughter graduated high school 6 years ago...and in those 6 years, they have added a ton of HP stuff, including a Gringott's ride and a dragon outside that shoots fire periodically...it's pretty warm, even down there on the ground! You can visit Diagon Alley in the new section and wander down Knockturn Alley or visit the Weasley's shop.
Here's a pic from the line inside the new-to-me Gringott's ride.
They used to have just one HP area in the Islands of Adventure, along with a Hogwarts Express engine for pictures that didn't move. Now, there's a train that moves from park to park (you need a park to park pass for the same day to ride it) and my big kids were thrilled with the experience. It just adds a little touch of authenticity to the world they've recreated.
What I love about the new HP area is that it's not marked clearly, you have to really look for it just like in Muggle London...there are tons of shops and a great London facade...it's just well done. The more HP the better! We did other stuff too, of course, including hanging out in the Mardi Gras area, which for some reason, extends the Mardi Gras season until the week after Easter. Here's a pic of me and the kids with gigantic float heads. There were food stalls along there, but no beignets for us, as we apparently never were there at the right time.
And 2/4 of us rode the Spiderman ride and deemed it awesome.
There were two log rides that 3/4 of us rode...one of us, okay, me...knew it would be a wet afternoon and chose not to get completely soaked. But they had fun even if it took forever to "mostly" dry.
I highly recommend Universal if you like Marvel, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter or Dr. Seuss...or just theme parks in general. They have a few roller coasters, lots of 3-D and 4-D rides (including the King Kong Skull Island ride that I did ride and got a tiny 4-D splash here and there, Shrek, Minions and Simpsons) and great shops and areas for younger kids too.
We never made it to the Volcano Bay waterpark, but it never really got hot enough anyway. Luckily, the weather was gorgeous and sunny and breezy and it cooled off in the mornings and evenings really quickly--which is why we chose Spring Break over Summer Break to visit Florida.
It was fab and a wonderful way to spend time together as a family! I'll be back with more craft stuff on Wednesday. Happy Monday! Chark
Hey, friends, back from vacation! We went to Minnesota (we're seeing the continental states alphabetically) and it was 1. fun 2. a long road trip and 3. exhausting, like all good vacations are. Here are some photo highlights of the trip...I'll be back Friday with some crafty stuff.
Mall of America, Minneapolis, Aquarium--Jellyfish (highly recommend)
Mall of America, Minneapolis, Nickelodeon zipline/climbing structure INSIDE the mall.
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Dave Chihuly sculpture (also recommended)
Museum of the Grand Prairie, Illinois (free and small but well-done, recommended)
Daughter, churning butter
MOA Aquarium, Minneapolis--Husband as fish (in cool tank you can climb into)
MOA, outside Aquarium gift shop--kids cramming themselves into the "fun" ride
Monster Mini Golf, Lafayette, IN (small but fun, with some good video games too)
Creepy glowing clown that I literally could not putt into.
Mental block or poor putting skills? We'll never know.
Museum of the Grand Prairie, Illinois--Me and Hubby posing as our parents did
on the same kind of moon that made its way through 1950s carnivals and beaches.
My mom is below on the one at Buckeye Lake and we have a pic of
Matt's parents at Lake Erie on the same moon.
What did we like about Minnesota? The people were friendly and were actually like the characters on Fargo in that they had slight accents and did the trailing off thing in conversation. "Well, it's a nice beach if, y'know..." um, okay.
The Mall of America is actually cool even though I thought, what a very odd thing to do on vacation. The Nickelodeon theme park inside is a marvel of engineering. How on earth do they fit all that in that space? There's a Lego store with those fab Lego sculptures, a Crayon store/experience that's probably for younger kids but my adult daughter had to go in anyway to see all the color-coordinated art supplies. The teacher in her was happy! There's an aquarium that is absolutely cool, with a tunnel with sharks/turtles/fish/sting rays/smol octopus that became my daughter's bestie while we were there. (She likes the cephalopods for some reason.)
They have a virtual reality arcade that my son and hubby had a blast at...inside the mall again. I ate cheese curds (fresh and squeaky) at the mall even though it's kind of a Wisconsin thing. You can't get away from the CHEESE signs at the exits all along the way. I prefer them deep-fried like this, but I still enjoyed them fresh.
What was less than cool? The nearly 20 dead deer we saw on the freeway...apparently they don't clean those guys up too often. And ohmygosh the mosquitoes. Our windshield and truck grill was plastered with them. We didn't venture out in the twilight and I'm so glad we didn't, we'd have been attacked. Just sayin' take your bug spray if you go!
All in all, it was a good trip and we had fun, though it's always good to get home too!
And I absolutely love the Go-Go's Vacation song, hence my blog title. If you're a fan of the Go-Go's, the 80s or just pop music, here's the YouTube video.
Hope you're having a fab summer too...if it's summer where you are! :)
In the last week, we finished a short vacation, sent the high schooler back to school, took the college senior to her school and our temperatures have dropped to chilly in the morning. I think it's officially time to say goodbye to summer. cry. I love the lazy days of summer and no schedules and spending time with the kids and going places we've not been. So, a fond farewell to my favorite season in pictures.
family being weird in hotel hot tub
the swings at Michigan's Adventure
daughter posing with Snoopy at MAdventures
Silver Beach, MI
random gull hanging out by me
fave pic of the son at the beach, gull in the background, setting the scene for me.
And, yes, I noticed that I didn't make it into the pictures...although I am in one that my husband took on his phone, so I have proof I was on this vacation with them :) Does that ever happen to you? Lots of pics of everyone else? I guess I need to take more selfies like the kids, who will literally jam my camera with their weird selfies if I leave it about for them to find. And someday, I'll put those pics up and maybe, just maybe, that'll keep that to a minimum :) Happy Weekend and Happy Fall! Chark
We went whale watching last summer in Massachusetts and saw literal tons of whales. I took a million pics, mostly because my new camera didn't have a viewfinder (I realized then) and the day was so sunny, I couldn't see the screen. So I just pointed and snapped and hoped for something good. I got some good ones, although some are far away. At any rate, I printed a lot of them, mostly because it was such a great experience that we probably won't repeat. Here's a page I made yesterday with the coolest clear overlay (the words are printed on there) and that I've had soooo long, the store I got it out has been gone for years. It was tricky to photograph, so this is what I got so it doesn't show the reflections in the overlay.
It looks as if I boosted the color on these, but if you look at the kraft page, you'll see it's a normal color. The ocean and sky were just these colors that day in June.
Check out my daughter's hair...it was sooo windy on the boat. And cold, even though the temperature was fine when we left. Luckily, I read that you should take a jacket, so we did.
I added some pebbled paper at the bottom to mimic sand (I just tore it in hill form) and used some gelatos on the pre-embossed kraft cardstock. I used white, purple, green and blue. It wasn't a hard page, but it took me forever to choose the pics and placement. It was a Whaley Good Time (you're welcome for the pun)! Happy Monday, Chark
So, there was a company called Northridge Publishing Company and they printed the little square magazines like this one.
I got a project accepted and then they stopped publishing, disappeared off the face of the earth and they kept my project! It still makes me mad. Some people were subscribers and tried to cancel but were charged for months and lost money, so at least I didn't get swindled. I just didn't get published but not returning it was kinda crappy, because it had pics of my kids. I took a picture of the front of the little tag album and that's all I have left. boo hoo!
I'll try to move on and leave the bitterness behind (I'm doing great so far haha), but I thought I'd at least share the project here. I used tags from Prima and lots of little travel goodies to make a mini album of our trip to New Orleans as a family.
Do you ever make mini albums? I have a few—including Halloween and Christmas that come out at the holidays as part of the decorations. What else can you do when you have a million pics? You can't make a million scrapbook pages, so mini albums it is! Plus, they're fun because they come together so quickly and you can make the subject whatever you want.
I might have to remake this one...I still have lots of NOLA pics leftover and I did two pages already!
Happy Wednesday and leave me a link to any mini albums you've made—I'd love to see them!
