The Lee Family: Harry Potter Crazy!

Sofia is officially a "Potter Head" and can not get enough of Harry Potter! It all started when we visited Washington D.C. and we spent our first evening at Karina and Dave's house. Their daughter, Annalise, carried a Harry Potter wand with her everywhere and had read most, if not all, of the books and was a huge fan. Sofia had never heard of it before and asked me at the end of the party if we could look into this Harry Potter character. I told her once we were home, I'd get the books for her to read. I actually read them when they first came out, but only read the first four books and never continued through the seventh. I kept the four books and had them on the top shelf in Olivia's closet, waiting for the day when Sofia would be ready to read them. I remember when I was in my early 20s, single, living and working in Washington D.C. and reading the Harry Potter books. I would stay up until 1am nearly every night reading "just one more chapter" and then waking up at 6am to go to work. The books were so hard to put down!

After we returned from Spring Break, I forgot about the Harry Potter books until Sofia brought it up a few weeks later. I got them down and she started on The Sorcerer's Stone....and has yet to put one down! She reads her Harry Potter book while eating breakfast, on the drive to school, at school, on the bus ride home, while she walks to the house from the bus, on the couch after school for at least an hour and then before bed. We've caught her reading at 11pm or later, although now we limit her reading to "the end of the chapter" which she's been good at doing. She is completely hooked and finished the first book in under a week! She's now almost done with book 5 and we've watched the first two movies, which are a lot better than I remember when I watched them years ago.

The only down side to the books is that she often has detailed questions for me which I can't answer because it's been over 15 years since I last read them. The other down side, is that she's now officially scared of using her bedroom's bathroom and goes downstairs to use the guest bathroom. In the Chamber of Secrets, the second book, a large evil snake gets into Hogwart's School by way of the girls' bathroom sink. I think she's convinced that it could possibly happen in her bathroom while she sleeps.... She also had elaborate stories about the snakes and the adventures they go on once she's asleep. Apparently the have an old wand and set up a magic, soundproof barrier so no one in our house can hear the dance parties and hide-and-go-seek games they play. She's so creative and I have no idea where she dreams up these things. I'm hoping there aren't other things in the later books that are scarier!

I've now started reading the books and they really are quite fun and very imaginative. It's been fun to be able to "talk" Harry Potter with her, although I'm only on book 2. I'm also finding that I can't stay up reading it like I used to and am usually fading to sleep after just a few pages. Yesterday, she said "No offense Mom, but you're kind of a slow reader. I mean, you've had the second book for almost 2 weeks and I read it in 4 days." She really is an amazingly fast reader!

She and I decided to host a Harry Potter birthday party for her in July for her 8th birthday and have found a ton of great ideas on Pinterest. In fact, there are so many great and relatively easy ideas that it's hard to decide on what to do and how much will be too much. Of course, other than our 10-year old neighbor, Brandon, no one else will even know who Harry Potter is for the party, but it will be awesome! We decided to make our own wands with dowels, hot glue and paint and added marbles to each top. Sofia has really gotten into it too and has made some great wands. She also "aged" the envelopes using a tea bag and then addressed them to Harry Potter, which we will string up as if they flew through the fireplace (a scene in Book 1). We've printed out containers for Honeyduke's Chocolate Frogs and are planning on making the chocolate frogs with a mold found on Amazon. We also plan on painting the Platform 9 3/4s on a drop cloth and that will be the entrance to our party. I've saved a few old pickle jars and other condiment jars, painted them with some leftover black, brown and bronze paint and will attach the free printable labels I've found on Pinterest. There are so many ideas and it's been such fun being creative with the many ideas. I know my Mom would just absolutely LOVE getting involved in this party and would have so many great ideas. It's really been inspiring to find my creative side and wish she were here to brainstorm with on this project. I can't wait to see what all we do for the party and know it will be super fun!

Sofia starting on Book 1.....