Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Photos: my sisters Mirriam, Michelle and Sara reading the first pages of their new HP books!; Jared posing at the HP Release Party with Sirius Black; and my sister, Katie, Caitlin and Jared just as we arrived at the party! (see how nothing appeared to be wrong with Cait's eye? This is why I originally thought she was just putting on some drama... turned out I was wrong.)

About the party:

So, I thought I'd post a bit about our vacation to Boise, Idaho. You may know that I was looking forward to the release of the newest Harry Potter book. In fact, my 2 sisters, SIL, mother and I had planned a Harry Potter Book Party for ourselves. We pretty much coerced the men into watching the kids at my brother's house and planned a relaxing, fun time to read at my parent's home.

This being the last book, I wanted my kids to be able to go to the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book release party at Barnes and Noble before we bought our books. I dressed them up as Harry and Hermoine, costumes complete with cloaks, ties that I sewed by hand and wands. They looked so cute, and we were all excited. On our way to the party, my little Harry accidentally poked my little Hermoine in the eye with his wand.

Caitlin pretty much cried the whole way to the bookstore. She stopped briefly to get sorted by the Sorting Hat but, when she was sorted into Slytherin the tears started to come again. At this point I was just frustrated with her because she had been revengeful to her brother and then she just seemed to be "emotional" and attention seeking. Well, to make a long story short I took her to the bathroom, put some of my contact eye lubricating drops into her eye, & tried to help her calm down... she was so upset, she needed her rescue inhaler. Every time some stranger would ask her if she was okay she would start howling again because she was embarrassed. So, still up to this point I thought it was all the preteen emotional drama.

Unfortunately this never ended. I sat on the floor of the bookstore (next to the bathroom- picture "Moaning Myrtle") with her head in my lap and she cried herself to sleep. It wasn't until around 10pm when she woke up and was calm but, unable to open her eye that I thought something might really be wrong with her eye. We waited in my parent's car while my sister, Mirriam, stood in line for me and bought my book. Then we drove the kids (my nieces and nephew were there too) to my brother's house. My dad watched Jared for me and I took Caitlin back to my parent's home for our party. She fell asleep right away (1:00am at this point and I was exhausted from having been up at 5 am that morning). The next day, with Scotty's help, I found an emergency number for an Opthamologist that was willing to meet us at his office to check her eye. Turned out that she had a scratched cornea which was painful for another 12 hours or so after he treated her with antibiotics and drops to help control the pain.

So, not much reading went on for me, sadly. And I'm not sure if Caitlin will have any happy memories of the Bookstore's Harry Potter party. (SIGH) My sister's kids (Sara's kids) probably won't either as they were late to get into the bookstore before the line started to form at the door because they had filled to capacity. At one point, I actually traded my two kids for Carlee and Garett so they could do something... then, I left them in care of my mother and left the store to take Caitlin and Jared to the car to wait for it to all be over. Jared really enjoyed himself. He went around to all of the booths and events with Mirriam, my SIL (Michelle) and my sister Katie. Jared gets really into character and it was funny to watch him point his wand at dementors and yell "Expecto Patronum". Some people had some amazing costumes on and I got a great picture of Jared (Harry) with Sirius Black. I wish I had been able to take more photos. Jared got to make a wand, pick a thought out of the pensieve, make a Magical Creature among other things.

Overall it was exciting just to be part of one of the release parties. I wish it worked out differently on many levels but, it is what it is. It took me two days to finish the book. I finished the last chapters at the bowling alley, my brothers, Aaron and Josh were shaking their heads at me. They just don't understand. How could I put the book down to bowl at that point???? The most exciting part?? I liked the book, was disappointed about a few things (won't go into detail here- wouldn't want to be a spoiler) but, most of all I am going to miss anticipating and reading new Harry Potter books. I love this series!