Last year for Halloween Drew decided to be a vampire. It was great and he looked awesome, but with the craziness of getting all three kids ready on my own, I didn’t get a decent photo of him. Yes, this is just one of many things that cross my mind in the middle of the night. Gotta love that self-inflicted mommy guilt! I made a sacred vow…ok, fine, I simply hoped I’d remember to do better next year.

We’ve been reading J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series together. I LOVE these books and I never made it past the fourth one because for whatever million little reasons it was set aside and I never picked it back up. Drew was hooked from page one. He even went back and read the first three after we were through. I told him he wasn’t allowed to read beyond where we were, which makes things a bit more exciting. We also have a book before movie rule, which I’m so happy we have. Drew truly loves the suspense of watching the movie and has now reached the point of saying, “Oh, that movie is out?! I can’t wait to read the book, so I can see the movie, too!” Brilliant!

Anyway, I came through on my sacred vow hope of getting photos of him in his costume this year. He owned it! He truly got into character and added a bit of the essence of Drew in there, too! I treasure these books, as so many do. You can read them over and over and always find something new, or something old that has new meaning in your life. The lessons learned within these pages are something to hold on to.

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” ~Dumbledore

“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” ~Dumbledore

“It’s the quality of one’s convictions that determines success, not the number of one’s followers.” ~Remus Lupin

“We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” ~ Sirius Black

The stories we love best live in us forever. ~ J.K. Rowling

Until next Halloween! 🙂

~Melissa