March 2018

March was surprisingly cold and wet this year in England. As if the December snow was not enough, we had another storm in early March which again left us with icy, slick roads and the car stuck in the driveway. Here is John using our small garden shovel to try to remove some of the snow from the driveway - not the same as our snowblower in Utah! The kids were excited to have another day off from school.

Mother's Day is early in England - March 11 this year. We had a yummy Mother's Day brunch and some time to play at our local playground.

We celebrated Carson's 11th birthday in March - he was very excited to receive some new Lego sets.

In late March we visited the Harry Potter Studio. This is a VERY popular attraction here in England - we purchased these tickets in December! The tour allows you to see many of the sets, costumes, and props that were used during the filming of Harry Potter. It was great fun!

Harry Potter's bedroom under the stairs

actual costumes used during filming

The Great Hall

Gryffindor common room

Green cape is the invisibility cloak!

Quidditch!

Dolores Umbridge's office

This set demonstrated how they can make a person appear larger on film. Rachel's seat is higher up and closer to the camera, making her seem bigger then the rest of the family. They had to use techniques like this for Hagrid's character to make him appear large. 

Spell lessons with wands

Hagrid's Buckbeak

Hogwarts Express

Diagon Alley

One of the most amazing parts of the tour was the castle. Although it looks life-sized in the movie, the castle is actually just a large model. Its set in a room with no windows so they can easily make it look like daytime or night time. After this tour I was left with a new respect for the amount of time and effort that went into making these movies.

Toward the end of March the kids started their Easter school break, almost 3 weeks without school. We went into London one day to Blackfriars to visit the Confraternity of St James where we purchased our pilgrim passports for our upcoming pilgrimage in Spain. Below the kids are on Blackfriars bridge, with St Paul's cathedral in the background.

This was a weather report for March 28 which I took a snapshot of from my phone. Gives you an idea of our weather in March!