We have settled into our summer vacation at our house just off the Narrow River in Rhode Island. We have walked to the river beach numerous times with girls and they have spent hours swimming in the water--sometimes in their street clothes and sometimes in proper swimsuits. We are so happy the beach is dog friendly and we can have Cubby join us. He'll wade in the water for a few minutes, but he gets nervous as it gets deeper. He prefers sunning himself on the beach and keeping a close eye on the girls as they swim. 

While the girls have had a blast at the river beach, they were very anxious to swim in the ocean. There were threats of rain, but we decided to risk it and head to the ocean. In all honesty, my fair-skinned children do best with a cloudy day at the beach. We ran into the water and jumped into every wave that came. We practiced floating on our backs and riding the waves as they came to us. When she wasn't in the water, Anne worked on her ninja skills on the beach. Meg and Clare focused on collecting beautiful seashells--some of which they plan to paint. 

After a quick lunch at the well-loved local establishment, Aunt Carrie's, for some chowder and clamcakes, we headed to Meadowbrook Lanes for duckpin bowling. Duckpin bowling uses a smaller ball (without finger holes) and smaller pins. It is so much fun for kids and has become a favorite in our family over the last few years. My husband has remained the undefeated champion in our family games--until today. As the ninth frame approached, he appeared unbeatable, until Clare managed a spare. On the tenth frame, she scored another spare and was permitted to bowl another ball for scoring purposes. With that ball, she knocked down eight pins and beat her father by a whopping six points. 

While Anne came in last, the game was quite an accomplishment for her as well. For the first time, she bowled every ball herself and did so without the help of a ramp. During one frame, she even managed to get all ten pins down. She was a champion in her own right. 

Meg and I might not have been champions today, but we had a great time. We were typically within a point of each other throughout the game and were even tied for several frames. 

If it appears to you that Anne is in her pajamas in the picture above, you are correct. Anne's view of a vacation is that you stay in your pajamas as much as possible and linger at home. The rest of us force her out of the house more than she likes, but our compromise is that she can wear pjs, so long as she wears shorts or otherwise properly covers herself. That's our way of honoring her view of a vacation, though I am wishing I had packed her a lot more pjs. 

We finished out the day at the Twin Oaks Restaurant in Cranston, Rhode Island. This local favorite has been around since 1933 and has huge serving sizes. We brought home a lot of leftover spaghetti and meatballs. 

Today was a great start to our vacation adventures. 

I had recently heard several mentions of Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. When the Brontes are mentioned, typically one thinks of Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre. When Anne Bronte is spoken about, it is usually as the lesser Bronte and typically about her book Agnes Grey. I was intrigued by the renewed interest in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

I am now prepared to say The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is my favorite book by any of the Bronte sisters. In high school, my favorite book was Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. The Gothic setting and plot undoubtedly spoke to my dramatic-loving teenage heart. But as I matured, I found the novel too dramatic and Heathcliff absolutely terrifying. Similarly, while Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is a beautifully written classic, when Jane announces, "Reader, I married him," I find myself saying, "Why, Jane, why?" Overall, I was worried about the Bronte sisters' taste in men. 

Helen, the heroine of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, doesn't do much better in her selection of a husband in the beginning of her tale. She ignores the advice of her aunt and marries a scoundrel. Helen, however, pays the price for her ill-advised marriage. 

One of my favorite things about reading classics is seeing that human nature never changes. Jane Austen, for example, beautifully captures certain character types in the early 1800s that we still see around us today. In The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte shows us the character of a narcissist and addict was the the same in 1848 as it is today. Most believe Anne Bronte had an excellent example to draw on in her brother, Branwell. 

The husband in Tenant is a man named Mr. Huntingdon. After initially wooing his wife, we begin to see his true character towards her as he brags about his unwholesome conquests prior to meeting her in order to make Helen jealous. Once he has been entertained by this at her expense, he becomes affectionate again so that he can be assured of a loving wife. In classic narcissistic behavior, everything is in his interest. 

Mr. Huntingdon's group of carousing friends is his focus. He encourages Helen to dress up in a flashy manner, with which she is uncomfortable, in order to show her off to his friends. When he would desert his wife to join his friends for months on end, he would show his friends her letters to amuse himself and ridicule her. When Mr. Huntingdon felt Helen was too naggish, he would inform her of negative things his friends had said about her. 

Mr. Huntingdon regularly uses coarse names for his wife. He also notably uses cruel names for his infant son. Mr. Huntingdon has no use for his son while the boy is still too young to show affection for him. Mr. Huntingdon calls the infant "the little senseless, thankless oyster" and "the little devil." 

Interestingly, Anne Bronte also provides an amazingly accurate portrait of the impact of a narcissist on those around him. As Helen is abandoned for months at a time by her husband and verbally abused by him, she does appear more cold and naggish--especially in her husband's eyes. There is a brief moment, however, when she believes that her husband does love her and that he is changing for her. During that time, she becomes the life of their house party and even his friends note the difference in her. 

Sadly, it turns out that Mr. Huntingdon is even more cruel than we originally observe. Helen must make a decision in the best interest of her son, whom she believes is becoming too much like his father. Her decisions proved to be shocking to the Victorian audience initially reading the book. 

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is such an amazing character study. This book deserves so much more attention than it has received. I saw several suggestions that Charlotte Bronte suppressed The Tenant of Wildfell Hall after Anne's death. Perhaps she was uncomfortable with the social criticism it received in the Victorian era. Perhaps the story hit too uncomfortably close to home in regard to their brother, Branwell. Regardless of the cause, it needs be given its due credit now. 

Several weeks ago we attempted to go to the trampoline park, Flight. Unfortunately, Anne vomited as we entered, which forced us to turn around and go home. The staff at Flight kindly gave us vouchers to return since we were not able to use our tickets that day and we have been waiting to use them. 

Anne, however, has been totally resistant to returning. At first she was sick. Her low-grade fever continued for nine days. She was not significantly ill, but she had an ongoing headache that certainly precluded any visits to trampoline parks. Even after she was better, she refused to go because she was afraid she would vomit again when she walked in. We assured her that was quite unlikely, but she was not convinced.

Today, we told her that Meg and Clare were going. She could stay at home with daddy (who was working at home) or go with us. After several back-and-forths, she decided to go with the understanding that she might not actually jump. 

When we first arrived at the trampoline park, she grumpily sat next to me and complained about the loud music. She would sit in the foam block pit and then immediately return to sit with me. Periodically, Meg and Clare would try to persuade her to jump, but she was reluctant. Eventually, she jumped in the foam block pit as long as her sisters were playing with her, but when they would go back to the trampolines, she would mope. 

After quite a few attempts, her sisters finally persuaded Anne to join them on the trampolines. Anne is at the exact height that separates the small kid area from the big kid area. Had it been a busy day, she would have needed to stay in the small kid area for her own safety. But because it was a weekday morning, it was not crowded at all. So Anne joined her sisters in the big kid area and had so much fun. 

Anne tells us that she learned a valuable lesson today. She thinks perhaps she should trust us when we tell her she'll have fun and not assume she'll be miserable. I'm glad she's starting to trust us a little. 

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​We did it again. We threw a birthday party for a fictional character. In fact, we threw a huge birthday party for a fiction character. We had around 40 people at our party celebrating Harry Potter's birthday (July 31), with guest ages ranging from 2 to parents (we won't discuss the age of the parents). Lest you think that the party was only for the kids, parents came dressed in character as well. One mom had the best Professor Trelawney costume I have ever seen. 

This year we decided to make a few stores from Diagon Alley. I painted bricks and stones on folded display boards. The girls very much wanted to help and I was so pleased with their work. Meg made the sign for Ollivanders. Clare found an old display board we had used for another party and made the Apothecary entirely on her own. We initially placed these outside as a way to greet our guest, but the sky threatened rain, so we moved them into our front hallway. 

We also set up a wand making station for the kids in the front hallway. Most of the tutorials online suggest using hot glue to make the wands. With so many kids making wands at one time, I decided we should do the hot glue portion before the party and just have the kids pick out a wand and paint it. I used this website as a guide for making the wands.

You can see in the second picture above our line of spiders leading to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, which has become a staple of any Harry Potter-themed party we throw. Links in this BuzzFeed article helped us in creating our Moaning Myrtle bathroom. 

The girls worked very hard on their costumes. Clare embraced her red hair and transformed into Ginny Weasley. Meg decided to spray her hair purple and go as Tonks. Anne still loves all things medical, so she went as the school nurse, Madam Pomfrey. Amazingly, we had two Madam Pomfreys at the party as well as two Moaning Myrtles. I loved that people were so creative with their costumes! 

There is so much food in the Harry Potter books. We had a blast with the food for the party. For drinks, we served Pumpkin Juice (recipe here), Love Potion (Pink) Lemonade (that one was Clare's idea) and Polyjuice Potion Punch (recipe here). For effect, we put twinkle lights in the stand that holds the punch bowl, so the lights would twinkle through the Polyjuice Potion Punch.

For food, we again made pumpkin pasties. To make these easy, I used canned crescent rolls, flattened the dough and cut out squares. I scooped a spoonful of the pumpkin filling (recipe found here) and folded the dough over it. They weren't as pretty as many on the internet, but they served my purposes just fine. 

We added a few new food items from last year's party. I made Pensieve Jello, which is just blue jello with whipped cream on top. I got the idea for that one from here. We also made Butter Beer Popcorn, for which I found the recipe here (the blogger tells a sweet story about making this popcorn every October for her niece as they watch the Harry Potter movies together). One family brought chocolate-coated pretzel wands, which were stunningly beautiful. Another family brought butter beer cupcakes. Just after the party, Meg and I sat down on the couch and split one of the remaining cupcakes. I can tell you they were perhaps the best cupcakes I have ever tasted in my life. 

We decided to make a Honeydukes Trolley this year. I found the idea for the trolley here, but the focus on Honeydukes was inspired by a book Anne picked out for me for Mother's Day, which is a scratch and sniff Honeydukes book. She picked it out so we could read it together and we do, in fact, read it together all the time. On our trolley, we placed jelly beans, chocolate frogs and peppermint toads. Meg and Clare made the chocolate frogs and peppermint toads all by themselves in the days leading up to the party using a chocolate frog mold we purchased from Amazon. We have used this mold over and over again and washed it repeatedly in the dishwasher. It has held up beautifully.​

For our birthday cake, we bought a sheet cake at our local grocery store. Clare took off any flourishes on the cake and then topped it with store bought icing dyed pink. She then wrote "Happee Birthdae Harry" just as Hagrid did on Harry's eleventh birthday. Obviously, we could have made a cake, but we were pressed for time. For one of the families our party was their second Harry Potter party of the day. They graciously brought nearly half of a similar birthday cake they had made for the earlier party. Our cake was a white cake. Their cake was chocolate. It was perfect. The kids could choose whichever they preferred. 

We had several activities for the kids. Because we knew we would have so many kids running in different directions, we tried to make them self-directed. We turned a corn hole set into Quidditch by using a Sharpie to draw the Quidditch rings on the set. A beautiful example of a Quidditch corn hole set can be found here. We set out a Harry Potter "Would You Rather" game which I printed for free from here. We used several Harry Potter-inspired "Minute to Win It" games that I found here. 

I did set up a directed Potions class and I found this site extremely helpful in developing plans for that. However, the kids decided they would prefer to make their own potions. I knew from last year they would likely enjoy that more and so I did let them. Things did get out of hand initially because I had foolishly left the food coloring on the table from our guided experiment. Once the kids had only vinegar, baking soda and dishwashing liquid to play with everything was fine. Sure there was a mess, but it was a mess of cleaning solutions. Basically, my kitchen received a wonderful disinfecting from their potions experiments. 

I will leave you with pictures of some of our favorite decorations. As the girls get older, they help more and more with these projects. In fact, five-year-old Anne put together our golden snitches that you can see above in the food pictures. Clare put up the dementor that you see below. Meg and Clare made the floo powder pot together and created their own floo powder for inside. The party was very much a team effort, which makes it all the more special.