It was Harry Potter night at the kids’ elementary school. Although they’ve been playing Quidditch in gym for years, our school was fairly late in adopting the sort of Hogwarts extravaganza that other schools have been doing for years. But the organizers did an awesome job. The decor in particular was fabulous. Here’s where we entered:
And here’s the Whomping Willow:
The kids had options to craft or make potions or play in the Quidditch tournament or purchase some butterbeer or a snack in the cafeteria. The kids loved it. I loved having a little structure: our usual occasions at the elementary school involve a lot of running around like maniacs in the gym. So it was a vast improvement.
There were many other fabulous decorations hither and yon to give us more of a castle feel, but there were also crowds of people, so taking pictures was tough. Here’s a faux window I liked:
Anyway, the organizers did a terrific job. The fall event always ends with a raffle of fabulous prizes donated by teachers, which is tremendously popular among the students. I, however, pretty much hate it. It’s not a fundraiser, so the kids all get an equal number of tickets and get an equal chance, but it’s still a pretty tough proportion of disappointed children to thrilled children. We always fall into the disappointed camp. In fact, one year one of my girls won and–you’ll never believe it–it was something that we already owned that we won by mistake because one of them had dropped her raffle ticket in the wrong bucket. And we didn’t even find out until late, so we it was too late to re-gift it to someone else who’d actually wanted it.
So our walk home was a little grouchy, because J had wanted to win The House of Hades, the just-released Rick Riordan. Which I knew. And then, as we walked home, J asked about what I’d bought at Flourish and Blotts (aka the Scholastic Bookfair at the library). She kept asking, and fishing, and I finally realized that after the crushing disappointment of her non-win at the raffle, she’d convinced herself that I’d secretly purchased the book for her. Alas, I hadn’t. You know I don’t like to cough up for hard-back books. J knows that, plus she’s still got a gift card left over from her birthday. Although, come to think of it, you know what books I couldn’t resist purchasing before the paperbacks were available? The last few Harry Potters.
