Baseball Wands

We have been really busy enjoying Ginger's baseball season. She plays twice a week, which is plenty, so thank goodness the coach was smart enough not to have practices. Tuesday was picture day, but no one seemed to be aware of that fact (me included!), so we decided to have our own picture day last night. Since Rophone got me such a nice camera, it made sense that maybe I should be the picture taker. Hopefully none of the parents will be disappointed.

I took some team photos and then individual shots of each player. Here is one that I snapped of Ginger (note the correct left-handed grip on the bat!):

  

Coach Flo (short for Florence-- she's a nurse) needed an individual shot, too. (I took another of her, but decided not to post it due to the fact that her aggressive and competitive face might scare my young readers). Thanks for a great job, Coach Flo!

I have also been busy the past few days making Harry Potter style wands. My nephew, Newton, wants to be Draco Malfoy for Halloween this year, so I told him I'd do my best to duplicate the wand. Having a little trouble dedicating myself to the task, I hope he'll accept something close.  

My first wand-making experience came about last fall when Pen had a Harry Potter themed birthday party. It was quite the bash! I sent out formal request letters to her friends (on cool sparkly paper), asking them to come attend _______worts (insert last name in blank) Preschool of Witchcraft and Wizardry to begin instruction in subjects they would later be encountering at Hogwarts. The kids had to say the password (Wattlebird) before they could enter the school, and then once they were inside they went straight to Potions class, where they created a bubbling, sizzling, colorful creation.  

For food, the "students" had a feast of cucumber sandwiches, treacle tart and pumpkin pasties served with "pumpkin juice". When it came time for the wands, I played the part of Olivander. I took funny measurements (of noses, pinky toes, tongues, etc), and had them feel the wand and wave it around a little until we found just the perfect wand for each child. We did a bunch of other things and had a good time (if you want more details, let me know). I'm not sure how I'm going to top it this year.

Anyway, for Pen's party I made a bunch of wands-- all looked very Harry Potter-ish. This time around, I made some classic Harry Potter wands, but also made a few colorful ones, too. Here are some photos (not the best pictures, sorry) of a few that I made.

The "Draco Malfoy":

A fun blue and green wand with silver:

Pen's new wand (sort of like Hermione Granger's, but a little darker):

Now, before you start thinking I'm all clever and crafty or something...I got the know-how for the wands here. I plan on making a bunch of wands, both in classic browns and in all sorts of bright color combinations (fairies have wands, too, you know!), to have in my "present drawer" so I can tie them on top of birthday gifts for something a little extra.