Night at the Museum with Harry Potter

Bailey, Addie, & Cam with Tonks.

So, for some reason I wasn't able to type above the first picture, so I'm starting here. On Sat. night I drove the 3 oldest kids over to our good old city Lehi to visit the Hutchings Museum. They were having a Harry Potter night with only $1.00 admission so I surprised the kids and decided to check it out. There were people dressed up as characters from Harry Potter through out the museum, we saw Ronald Weasley(who had a very bad accent), Hermione Granger(who didn't have an English accent), Professor Trelawny, Gilderoy Lockhart, Tonks, Rita Skeeter, maybe Hagrid(not for sure), and other random people in costume. The kids started out by going to Olivander's Wand Shop (I think that's his name), where the wands chose each of the kids. Addie's had Fairy Wing in hers, Bailey had Veela hair, and Cam had Adder Fang.

We met Professor Trelawny with her barn owl perched behind her where she read our fortunes. Then the kids played a game of throwing spiders into a cauldron and won some candy. We visited Diagon Alley and the kids got to purchase all sorts of weird candy from Honeydukes with their "galleons". We met Gilderoy Lockhart and got pictures with his autograph. He asked if I would like one too and when I told him that I was fine, he said we don't have to tell your husband. Not sure if he was just trying to be in character, or what...kind of creepy.

Then we went over to the Magical Animal Menagerie where I think the caretaker was supposed to be Hagrid, but not sure, he never introduced himself. They had a bunch of fossils and 2 live animals which I thought were the coolest part of the night. He had a Golden Eagle which was huge and a Great Horned Owl. He told us that he had rescued the Great Horned Owl when it was a baby being eaten by its siblings in the nest I guess. The owl's wings had been chewed down. He rescued it and raised it and now he says the owl thinks he's her boyfriend and demonstrated by making some owl "hoots" and the owl answered back. It was pretty cool.

Next we paid a visit to Azkaban where they have an old jail cell down stairs and we had to pass some dementors which scared Addie and Cam. I had to drag Addie along and Cam was ok, until he realized the dementors were following us. He freaked out and grabbed onto me telling me that someone was following us. Once we got to the jail we were greeted by someone with a hershey kiss to ward off the dementors.

Then we headed over to the magic show to watch the magician Magical Johnson. It wasn't quite the show I thought it would be, but it was alright for a buck. The kids got to sit on the front row. By this point Addie was not happy about the dementors and Azkaban and was angry, saying she hated Harry Potter and wanted to go home. Cam was not very happy either, but I talked them into staying for the magic show. The show started out very slowly with the magician spending about 10 min. just asking questions about the books and then tossing out chocolate gold coins to those who answered. When he did start the actual show, every trick was proceeded with a long drawn out "Harry Potter" adapted explanation. Cam kept turning around and asking me when the magic show was going to start, even though it had. He was expecting a rabbit being pulled from a hat, but I guess that was my fault, because I used that in my example as to what the magic show would be. He and Addie were both skeptical that the show wouldn't involve more dementors. Addie perked up after she got chosen to help with a trick and received a chocolate coin afterward.

Magical Johnson's first trick was having 2 adults stick a large needle through a balloon to determine whether they were muggles or not. Then he pulled out his balloon and you could clearly see the tape where he stuck in the needle and then it ended up popping anyway. A couple of his tricks didn't work all the way like that. He was decent enough, like I said, we paid a buck to get in. His last trick was really the only one I found impressive, most of his tricks you could figure out how he did it just by watching. The last trick he smooshed up a banana, put it in a handkerchief and made it dissappear. All in all we had a fun time, but I think Bailey appreciated it the most because she's actually been reading the books. She just finished the 3rd book and watched the first movie, so she was very excited about all of it.
Rita Skeeter interviewing Addie.
Honeydukes candy: Pepper Imps, Jelly Slugs, Bat Bones, Fizzing Whizbees, Chocolate Frogs, and of course Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
We were surprised by Moaning Myrtle, complete with a tape recording of her talking to us while we used the bathroom. A little weird.
Addie dressed as Professor Trelawny assisting the magician with his trick.
Cam, Addie(still mad about the dementors), Bailey, and Magical Johnson the magician in the background.
Bailey holding the animal book that comes to life, not sure what it's called.
Caretaker guy explaining all the fossils.

Cameron intensely examining a snake skeleton with his magnifying glass.
The kids standing in front of the owl and eagle.
Great Horned Owl
Golden Eagle
The pics of the eagle don't do it justice, this thing was huge with massive tallons.
Bailey, Addie, and Cam getting their fortunes read with Professor Trelawny(a barn owl is perched behind her head).