Adventures in Babysitting: Harry Potter Edition

So I've been babysitting my nieces for the last few weeks. My sister's German au pair (and my friend ::sad face::) left to go home and she had no one else to watch them. So... cue my entrance. I must say, I am the greatest auntie in the world. We've been to an insect zoo, a civil war museum, the pet store, the SPCA, the movies to watch Ice Age 4, the pool... they've played with snakes and brought home frogs from church.

Unfortunately, I'd packed all of my awesome into the last couple of weeks and as of yesterday, I'd run out of things to do. Or at least, that's what I thought. Thanks to ideas from my wonderful boyfriend however, I quickly came up with rainy day funness and so more awesomeness ensued.

First we went to the craft store for clay and poster board and crayons, etc. Then to Walmart for Cream Soda, Butterscotch pudding, and some Powerade Zeros for myself.

We got home and I went to work drawing up posters with a name of each one of the Tri-Wizard Tournament contestants. So four posters total. I put a number with each name and had the girls pick a number randomly and then gave them the poster that corresponded with said number. Then they got to work decorating their "cheerleading" posters.

While they did that I got to work on my own project (this is where the polymer clay comes in). I'd always wanted to try making something out of clay... so I attempted a little Severus Snape and a little Quidditch Broom. Results were not wonderful, but they weren't bad for my first try.

See? Not horrible. But like I said... not wonderful either. I'm sure if I keep trying I'll get better. Who knows.

The girls finished up their posters and I moved on to phase 2 of their Harry Potter night. Butterbeer. I poured about 2-3 cups of Cream Soda into the blender, added a ton of ice and two Butterscotch Pudding cups, and turned it on high for a minute et voila. Frozen Butterbeer. Yum. Got Goblet of Fire into the DVD player, passed out the Butterbeer and had the girls sit down with their posters. And there they've been ever since.

Hooray for Harry Potter. I may not be able to get them to actually read the books, but at least I can get them to watch the movies and enjoy those.

Cheers!