We May as Well Live at Hogwarts

My kids are going through a serious Harry Potter stage right now. The other day I walked into the family room, and this is what I saw:

Haha! No, just kidding. But almost. This is what I really saw:

(And I just happened to be holding Henry and my copy of Harry Potter #7, and I thought it would make a cute picture.)

But seriously, we are all about Harry Potter these days. Tristan started reading them last year and really liked them, so for his birthday he got the Harry Potter movies. After we watched the first movie, Oliver decided he wanted to start reading the books. Normally I would think they were a little advanced for a kindergartner, but Ollie's not really an average 6-year old reader, so I checked out the first one from the library for him. Since then there's been no stopping him. I've also been re-reading the series, and they're even better the second time. So I guess a more accurate picture would be of me and the boys all reading our Harry Potter books together. Yes, Daniel maybe thinks we're nerds.

We thought it would be fun to wait to watch each movie until Oliver had finished the book, so he could read each book without knowing what was going to happen at the end. Tristan wasn't so thrilled about the idea - he wanted to watch all the movies right away. We ended up letting Tristan decide what to do, and he and Oliver made a little deal that Oliver will have 2 weeks to read each book. It's actually been really fun to spread the movies out. After he finished book #2, we all watched the movie, and then we all rooted for him as he read #3, and we just watched the movie about a week and a half ago. I thought there was no way he'd finish the fourth book in 2 weeks (it's over 700 pages), but he has until this Friday, and he only has a few chapters left. After that, I think Tristan's in trouble, because he's still in the middle of the fifth book, and I think Oliver might try to pass him up.

Anyway, it's been fun to see them enjoying the books so much, and I really do find them reading all over the place. There have been a lot of "Hey, where's Oliver?" moments, when he's disappeared for a few hours to read. On Sunday he asked if he could take his Harry Potter book to church, but I decided that was taking it a bit too far.

To tell you the truth, Rachel and Elizabeth might actually be our biggest Harry Potter fans. They are always pretending to be Harry Potter characters. Rachel usually likes to be Harry ("Wouldn't you rather be Hermione?" "No, thanks.") Lizza loves to be Ginny, and also loves to assign everyone in our family a character. I can never remember, and whenever I talk to any of the kids and call them by their real name, she never fails to say, "You mean Ginny?", or "You mean Harry Potter?", or "You mean Professor McGonagall?"

They painted some chopsticks black to use for wands, and they are always running around shouting spells at one thing or another. "Wingardium leviosa" and "expelliarmus" have become common phrases around here.

Also, Oliver and Rachel have been having a hard time eating their dinner lately, because they are always involved in some big Harry Potter discussion. The other night I overheard Rachel (who was being Harry) tell Ollie (who was being Ron) to give her a hug. He must have said something about how Harry and Ron didn't like each other that much, and I heard Rachel say, "Are you kidding me?!!! Did you see the way Harry's face looked in the first movie when Ron sacrificed himself in the chess game?!!! They are like best friends!!!"

It's just really funny to see a little four-year old girl get so into it. Once she ran out of toilet paper in the bathroom, and when I told her she shouldn't have started crying about it, she glared at me and said, "Well, what would you have done, Mom? It's not like you have magical powers or anything!"

Here she is as Harry - she has a few outfits that she thinks look extra "Harry Potter-ish", and if she comes downstairs dressed up in one of them, I know I better watch out.

She loves to make little "shopping lists" on the 4x6 cards that I keep in my desk, and the other day I found this little list on the kitchen counter:

(I still need a wand - Harry Potter)

I guess she had been shopping for school supplies, and that was the one thing she still had to get (Cauldron? Check. Magic wizard books? Check. Wand? Oh, wait. . .)

Speaking of cauldrons, though, she and the other kids have also had tons of fun brewing up special "potions" on the back porch. Here they are whipping up some Polyjuice potion for me. They brought some inside and dared me to drink it, but I wasn't brave enough:

Then they made me go inside because they didn't want me to see the secret ingredients they were adding. Hmmm. Should I be worried?