Harry Potter Party

My kids have never seen any of the Harry Potter movies. I'm not one of those odd anti-Potter people, afraid my kids will go to the dark side if they view "witchcraft." My wee ones were just too young to get into the movies as they were coming out.

Now that they're a little older, I decided I don't want them to watch the movies until they've read the books. My theory on this is, I'm afraid they'll never partake of the literary masterpieces J.K. Rowling's imagination created if they view the movies first. Plus, books are better than movies, and how fun is it to watch a book come to life on the screen and see if the world you saw in your mind is similar to the movie's interpretation? I wanted that experience for my kidlets, so I've held off on buying/renting Harry Potter films for this very reason. . . until last month.

When Tralee started school, we started reading the first Harry Potter book together before bed. Hunter, Tralee, and I snuggled under my feathery bunk, and let the magic unfold every night. It took a few months, but we finally finished book one in the HP series. I promised the littles that once we complete each book, we'd celebrate by watching the accompanying movie and having a Harry Potter party complete with a feast Hogwarts would be proud of.

A few weeks ago, once the last page of book one was turned, I bought the DVD, made pumpkin cake with Tralee, Treacle Tart, butter-beer, and fruit tarts. We feasted in our black clothes (Tralee insisted we wear black), and then snuggled on the couch and watched the magic unfold.

We're onto the next book in the series and I can't wait for our next Harry Potter party!