Nora's Birthday Sleepover

I'm so sorry we didn't get any pictures from Nora's party. She had a sleep over the last day of school that was a combination of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. After making Camp Halfblood necklaces and eating hot dogs cooked on the grill, we walked up to the upper lawn of Rasmussen Woods where Rick had set up a quidditch pitch. We only had 8 players for our version of muggle quidditch so only one chaser and one beater on each team plus the keepers and the seekers. Rick had set up the goals on each end of the pitch by taping hoola hoops to the top of metal stakes. It looked great as we walked up the hill and saw the goals come into view! But of course we forget to bring the camera with us, we were so busy making sure we had the quaffle, bludgers, the snitch, and team head/arm bands. Ravenclaw (blue) beat Gryffindor (red) by finding the snitch first.

Then came a game of capture the flag, Percy Jackson style. This took place in the woods with basically no boundaries so it took a long time to play (which I was hoping would make them all tired and sleepy). They were all armed with Nerf swords or light sabers (a little Star Wars thrown in for good measure) and at one point all the members of each team met up in the meadow for an epic battle. Nora was in her element! I think we can say that this game ended in a tie when two of the players on opposing teams showed each other where their flags were and raced to the top of the hill.

They all came back to our house for smores and butter beer (ala HP) and then watched the Percy Jackson movie. I was hoping that they might go to sleep after that, but Rick and I each had to take a turn to go yell at them to go to sleep. The next morning they headed back to the woods for another round of capture the flag, which left me entertaining parents until they came back. Unfortunately, we left the quidditch goals in the park overnight, to find that they were gone in the morning. Stolen by some young rascals or confiscated by park police? I think Nora was pretty satisfied with the whole affair, but we really should have taken some pictures!