Magical Birthdae

 

 I love Harry Potter so when it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago my parents gave me lots of magic things. I got a wand (it is just like Hemione's), Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, a book about King Arthur (and Merlin), fabric to make wizard robes and a quill & owl notebook. I also got a book called Wizardology and The Apprentices Handbook (but I can't tell you any more about them because it is a secret). What I can say is that my home education days are going to be fun from now on.

 

 When my friends came over for my party we turned my bedroom into the Gryffindor common room and ate my beans and chocolate frogs. We had spare wands (chopsticks) for my friend.

My favourite chocoltes in the world are After Eights so mum made an After Eight cake. It was chocolate cake with mint cream in the middle. Yum Yum Yum!

 It wasn't just an After Eight cake, it was a Harry Potter After Eight cake. It looks just like thecake Hagrid gave to Harry Potter (with the same spelling mistakes) when Harry found out he was a wizard.

Spring Photoshoot - Tavasz

 

Spacey

Last week I went to see Oulu Symphony performing Holst's Planet Suite at the cathedral. Jupiter (the bringer of Jollity) is my favourite movement in the suite.
 

I'm an Anorak Little Editor

For my birthday last year I got a subscription to Anorak. It is really cool. It is great for everyone, boys or girls. The stories are funny and the pictures are spectacular. Every issue has book reviews in it and they inspired me to write book reviews here. Mum say on the Anorak website that they were looking for Little Editors to review books so we asked if I could be one. A couple of weeks ago I got a book from them. The review of that book will be published in Anorak not on my blog.

Thanks Anorak!

Yule Traditions: Holidays are Over

Yule Traditions: Doctor-Who-Christmas-Special-Day

The day I wait for most is Doctor-Who-Christmas-Special-Day on the 26th. We ususlly have to wait for months after the normal Doctor Who season has finished until the Christmas special. I really like Doctor Who so waiting is really hard. This is the prewiew from the one we watched this year. If you have never watched Doctor Who before then you shoud . It is fantastic!

Doctor-Who-Christmas-Special-Day is such a big part of our Yule that we even decorate the tree with Dalek gingerbread biscuits (The Daleks are The Doctors worst enemy).

I was talking to Mum and Apa about the Christmas story and we made this nativity scene. The ony things we could find to be the 3 wise men were the 2 Daleks and the Cyberman figure.

Yule Traditions: Festive Feast & Present Day

We don't really celebrate Christmas but when everyone around us is celebrating it would be rubbish to miss out. We like to eat yummy food and get presents too.  We pick and choose and mix up traditions from Finland, Hungary and the UK.

People in Finland and Hungary normally celebrate Christmas on the 24th December. They eat their dinner and get the presents afterwards. We normally decorate our Fényfa in the morning (remember it only got the lights on at Solstice) then do a lot of cooking and have our feast. My favourite things from our feast this year was the onion tarts we had to start and the garlic spinach. We don't get our presents on this day though.

When we all wake in the morning we light a lot of candles and last year I made a pretty candle for mum which she saved to light this year. Then we opent the presents tht are under the Fényfa. Our presents aren't from Santa or Jésuska (Little Jesus brings presents in Hungary not Santa) they are just from our family. When I was little though I used to think it was the postman who put the presents there adn I was 6 when I realised it was Mum and Dad who did it.

This year I got lots of books, a clarinet, a spirograph, a Star Wars Lego game and my very first Pointe shoes for ballet. Because we ate our feast the day before we have the whole day to play with our new things.

 My dad made these really nice catupults. You will ssee more of them later...

Little Flat Lily in the Big Wide World

A few years ago I made Flat Lily (inspired by Flat Stanley).

Me and Mum got a bit behind in updating her blog but we are trying to catch up now. Last week we added some posts from Austria, this week we will add some from when she was here in Finland with me and soon we will add some from the Czech Republic, Kuwait and Tanzania.

Here is the postcard Flat Lily sent from Finland.

Our Snow Castle / A Hóvárunk

Book Review: The Folk of the Faraway Tree

The Folk of the Faraway Tree
by Enid Blyton
(read in English)

The Faraway Tree is in the middle of the Enchanted Wood. It is very magical, it is the worlds biggest tree and inside the tree lives lots of weird people. There is Moon Face, Silky the Fairy, and Saucepan Man.

There are 3 children who live close to the Faraway Tree. Connie comes to stay with them and she is really spoilt and it takes her a long time to believe in the Faraway Tree.

My favourite part was when Connie went to the Faraway Tree not believing in it and comes back covered in ink, water, her dress is ripped and definitely believing in magic. One bit I didn't like was when the children are telling Connie not to be nasty but were being  nasty to her at the same time.

I got this book as a present from Auntie Heather, Uncle Kenny, Drew and Elsa. Thank you very much I really enjoyed it.

Book Review: Rumini

Rumini
by Berg Judit
(read in Hungarian)

Rumini is a mouse who travels on a boat. This mouse has a wonderful mind and that is a good thing because to get to the kingdom where they are going he and the rest of the mice need to pass through lots of dangerous places. For example, they must pass the giant octopus (who likes to eat wood) and their boat is made of wood so they are in a lot of danger. Or the dragon in the mist who will not let anyone go past him.

It was an interesting book, I liked it but I didn't love it as much as other books. The book was adventurous but is a little slow in some parts.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
by J.K.Rowling
(read in English with Mum)

Harry Potter is one of my favourite books, you can almost always see the pictures in your head when you read it.

It is about a boy called Harry who goes to live with his aunt and uncle because his mum and dad died. It was horrible living with the Dursleys. Once Harry got a letter (or lots of letters), but his aunt and uncle just burned them. Finally a giant comes to say he is a wizard! He goes to a school for witches and wizards called Hogwarts.

Harry makes friends with Ron and Hermione. Together they discover secrets. There was once a wizard at Hogwarts who turned bad, his name was Voldemort. Harry finds out about the Philosopher's Stone and then about the entrance to the chamber where the stone is. If Voldemort gets the stone he will get his own body and will destroy the world.

I just loved this book!

The bit that stuck in my head was when Ron's brothers were in the train station and their mother said "If I get an owl saying you've blown up a toilet seat...", "A toilet seat? We've never blown up a toilet seat, but good idea, thanks Mum."

This book is dramatic, sad, funny and mysterious. I just pick up this book and it became my favourite book (or one of my favourite books). You would love this book as much as I do. This book is worth reading.

Yule Traditions: Biscuits

Yule Tradtions: Solsice Breakfast

On the morning after the longest night (normally 22nd December) we have friends over for breakfast and have a party. We celebrate that the longest night has gone and thet from ten on the sun will get stronger. 

We have friends from all around the world so they bring lots of different kinds of food. This year we had breakfast food from Finland, Korea, Japan and chocolates from Brazil. There were lots of cakes, my dad baked apple pie, banana loaf and fresh bread. My mum made traditional Finnish rice porridge. I really liked te Korean food (I can't remember what it was called) and kept going back for more.

We were too busy having fun to take any pictures.

Alice in Wonderland

This is a piece from the Alice in Wonderland ballet. It is really funny. The Queen is trying to make everybody dance with her but they don't really want to but if they don't it will be "Off with your head!". The Queen wants to look elegant and graceful but instead she looks heavy and clumsy.

I enjoy watching ballets, I have watched quite a few. In this one I like the costumes, the visual effects and the dancing. I think this is a good way of presenting the story of Alice in Wonderland.

Yule Traditions: Solstice

The 21st December is Solstice. We light lots of candles and sometimes we light a bonfire. We put the lights on our tree but don't decorate it yet. Our tree is called Fény Fa (fény = light, fa = tree, the Hungarian word for pine tree is fényőfa).

We live so far north that it gets very dark in the winter. Solstice is the darkest but after Solstice it gets lighter so that is why we celebrate Solstice.

Yule Traditions: Télapó

On the 6th of December Télapó comes to our couse (and the houses of other Hungarian children). Télapó, which means Winter Father, is a bit like Santa. On the 5th we put our boots on the window sill and after we go to bed Télapó comes and puts small presents in them. This year I got LIZARDS! All of us got sweets and different kinds of exotic fruits. Mum got some chocolate so Télapó moved the boots to the piano because our window sill is right above the radiator and the chocolate would melt.

This year I helped our friend Annemarie teach all the children in her school about Télapó when thay had Hungary Week.