Hogwarts in the Snow & The Hogwarts Express

A few weeks ago I took Midge with me to make the long journey to London with my mum. We stayed at The Jury Inn in Watford, a good place to stay as it's near the studios and near the town for dinner and shopping if you're there earlier. We met up with my sister and her boyfriend and went for dinner, then after a nice warm bath each we settled down for the night.

We all woke early for breakfast which although at £10 seems pricey it's all you can eat and I knew we wouldn't be eating at all during the day because the tour is as long as you like (long!) and cafe prices there are unsurprisingly high. Fully fuelled we headed to the Warnerbros Studio Tour. You can check in bags and coats, have something to eat and drink, use the loos, order Starbucks coffee and also dive straight into the shop (warning! this is definitely not budget friendly! Cheapest item is a postcard at 95p..I'm not sure I want to know the highest!) we did look around the shop however but didn't purchase anything at this point. We did marvel at the beautifully huge Christmas tree in the center of the waiting area and I measured my hands up to the 3 main stars prints, the one pictured is Daniel Radcliff's hand print.

We started queueing for our 12.30 tour, got our tickets checked and Midge got a passport to fill in, a great activity for the children (big and small!) the queue looks massive (because it is) but you get filed into a fairly large space so the line goes down very quick indeed. Make sure you don't miss the cupboard under the stairs and the 'flying' car!

I won't detail the next part, I know many have but it was the most magical part for me and I'd hate to tell you what happens before you enter the Great Hall. From this point on though it's spoilers all the way...

Midge with Aunty Issy

Beautiful wreath

Once inside the hall we were greeted with a huge feast which would've been in the films. The hall was decorated with trees, wreaths and looked amazing. The next section is full of props from the make up and dressing department, the portraits, Hogwarts gates, the Gryffindor common room, manikins dressed up in the actual clothes used in the films, dark arts props and so much more.

A huge spread

Chocolate table from the Yule Ball

The Philospher's Stone

Prison number from Azkaban

Fleur's hat and shoes 

Lord Voldemort and Harry's clothes at the start of the film on left// On right, the clothes by the end of filming

Gryffindor common room all festive

The newest installment is The Hogwarts Express. You can explore the carriages from the films (keep your eyes peeled on the carriage windows!) there is a shop specifically for the express with keyrings, mugs, jumpers and much more available here. There are luggage bags and of course, you can get a photo of yourself on platform 9 and 3/4:

Luna's trolly

Harry and Ron's first meeting

Me!

From there we saw more new props and then went on to outside. The Night Bus, Private Drive and Potters Cottage are all out here. There is also the bridge to Hogwarts and the famous East Anglia for you to snap a photo of or you can climb in for a selfie! Next you can see the special effects/mechanical props and more. There's plenty of amazing masks, animals and creatures to look at here. If you didn't appreciate the work that went into the amazing films before you certainly will over the last few sections.

Buckbeak is an amazing piece of art

The miniature dragons from the Goblet of Fire

Going into Diagon Ally is great fun! Look out for Gringots, Weaslys Joke Shop, Quiditch Supplies and more! As it was Hogwarts in the snow we got to see how they made the footprints on the snow (and earlier the different types of fake snow) that appear when Harry uses his cloak. Next stop is where you can view more truly amazing work. All the drawings and artwork and plans from the filming.

Once through the art and design you'll see many built up designs of the most well known houses such as Luna Lovegood's house, the Durmstrang ship and the Beauxbattons carriage plus much more. Brace yourself for around the corner though, the best bit is yet to come. No photo of Hogwarts castle could take away from the experience you will have at the Harry Potter studios; it's a piece of art in my opinion and can really only be seen in the flesh, so to speak. Below you can see the photos I took but believe me, they don't do it justice!

One you have dragged yourself away you can look for the names of all the cast, crew and actors/actresses on the thousands of wand boxes before heading into the shop where I bought a bunch of postcards and a chocolate wand for Little A. Midge had £10 pocket money which got her a chocolate frog and a couple of postcards.

It was such an amazing trip and I can't recommend it enough. Ticket entry is reasonably priced, the real cost is getting to and staying in London but Late Rooms was my handy tool for the latter! Now I've done the tour twice I feel happy, I don't need to go again (but if a friend needs accompanying I'm not going say no ha!)

Cupcake Mumma

October Bucket List

It's time for me to write up my October bucket list and to see if I managed my September list! I know a few things need to be carried over and I know that because i've made a real dent in the Christmas gift list the whole no spend September wasn't a success but here goes. Septembers list:

ME

-Write to my pen pals. I have written but have not managed to post all my letters as a few need to go abroad and I didn't have the extra pennies for them after shopping!.

-Celebrate national chocolate day on September 13th (by eating some tasty chocolate of course!)

can you believe I forgot! But I did eat some tasty chocolate the next day to make up for it!

-Clear out the cupboard to locate our Halloween stuff- This is done!

-Take part in no spend September- I have taken part in the respect of not wasting my money and going here there and everywhere. I can't call it a no spend month though because I bought a lot of gifts ready for Christmas!

-Continue to take part in The Great Bloggers Bake Off- I haven't done every bake, it's just been too pricey for me. I did make a chicken pie for pie week which was lovely.

-Start writing up gift lists for Christmas- All done and a lot bought too.

-Work out 3 times a week...Yeah this was a non starter! I worked out once the whole month!

-Celebrate my 4th blogging birthday- Done and celebrated with cake!

FAMILY

-Take first day back to school photos in our traditional way (this will mean getting up a bit earlier!)

Done!

-Go on a walk together- The children and I had a nice walk together and have been enjoying the school walks too

-Have date night with Mr B- Hmm well we didn't have any time in the evening to do anything, or the children didn't allow it but we did go for breakfast together once this month. I'm going to carry this over.

-Watch Mr B play football- Didn't get round to this one.

-Sort a day for Midge to have her friend over- Midge had a party to go to instead this month so that kept her happy. A planned play date fell through but we did try.

-Book myself and Midges tickets for Hogwarts in the Snow- All done and super excited to say we're going next month!

For October:

ME

Have a go at baking the chocolate tart I've wanted to bake for ages.

Get some exercise in at least 3 times a week no matter what it is

Check off 2 tasks from my Project Kindness and 3/4 from project zero

Catch up on all my happy mail

FAMILY

Do some Autumn crafts with the children

Have a date night/day with Mr B

Have a great family holiday in half term and a good birthday

Do something for Halloween with the children

Have a meal with my parents

Do you have any plans or lists (other than the boring 'to do in the house' lists? Let me know!

Cupcake Mumma

September Bucket List

Every month i see bloggers writing little bucket lists, lists of things they want to do or celebrate during the month. After reading many of these posts I thought it'd be nice to do one myself, so here's my list of things I would like to do this September:

Me

-Write to my penpals regularly. I'm hoping to have another international pen pal soon, several actually which is always exciting. I also have my regular pen pals that I love keeping in touch with but need to be more on the ball when it comes to to replying!

-Celebrate national chocolate day on September 13th (by eating some tasty chocolate of course!)

-Clear out the cupboard to locate our Halloween stuff.

-Take part in no spend September

-Continue to take part in The Great Bloggers Bake Off

-Start writing up gift lists for Christmas

-Work out 3 times a week

-Celebrate my 5th blogging birthday

Family

-Take first day back to school photos in our traditional way (this will mean getting up a bit earlier!)

-Go on a walk together

-Have date night with Mr B

-Watch Mr B play football

-Sort a day for Midge to have her friend over

-Book myself and Midges tickets for Hogwarts in the Snow. I know it's a no spend month but this was arranged ages ago with my mum and sister so I'm not counting it! We'll be going in November and very excited!

Cupcake Mumma

#BEDA Ten Years From Now

I'm going to go with a list post for today's prompt by Outmumbered. Enjoy!

In 10 Years...

• I *might* have another little one. Hubby wants to wait until A is a little older and that's fine by me. At the age of three he still loves his cot bed, has just started potty training and still gets tired out walking! I'm happy to wait but I'm sure we'll have a third by ten years!

• Hopefully I'll be qualified in something. What that is I just don't know yet.

• I'd like to still be living in the same house. There's plenty of room for us all, the garden is a lovely size and we're happy. As with any rental property you're always a little anxious but I'm hoping the family won't want to make any decisions on this house. I've often thought about moving more towards Cambridge way to be nearer family but renting is hard enough to go through in your own county let alone with housing benefits and another county completely!

• I hope we'll have chosen a really good secondary school for Midge to move up to. It's a big fear of mine because of my school years and the bullying I suffered.

• I hope Hubby is in a better job and one he's happier in. I' d also like to think he'd have passed his driving test and be driving a car!

• In ten years I hope we'd have explored a bit more the UK and complete some of the many attractions on my bucket list!

Where do you hope to be in ten years time?

 Cupcake Mumma

16/31 My Bucket List.

I've only just started jotting things down and calling this list my 'Bucket List'. If you look up there ^^ you'll see 'Project Zero' which is a whole list of things that I have until 2014 to complete. A Bucket list is a series of more bigger ideas I have thought of, ideas that perhaps need saving up for and certainly ideas that need more planning than seeing 5 films in a cinema!

Top of my list at present is going to London to view the Harry Potter Studio Tour. We're hoping to do this this year after our wedding which would be great but it's pretty expensive and difficult when you don't drive! Although we'll take the coach up there most likely there's a lot more to sort out. However, I have to see the studio because I'm such a big fan.

I'd also love to go to and have a tour of Kensington Palace and also The Tower of London. I want to go to wales for a family holiday and i really want to have my photo taken outside Buckingham Palace. I'm also on a misson to photograph the Olympic torch so watch this space!

Cupcake Mumma