Lost in a Harry Potter Book

Where does every true Harry Potter fan need to visit? The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, of course. I just arrived home from a three day visit at Universal Studios Florida, and though my feet can’t walk anymore, I’m still telling stories about the experience.

Being a fan of the books since they debuted, I appreciated the movies bringing the story to life. Ultimately, there was always a bit of disappointment at the scenes and characters left out. I’ve always found it to be true that books are better than movies. So I was curious as to how I’d like my favorite books being turned into a theme park with rides and attractions.

With the first peek at the castle’s spires, excitement and awe grew. One doesn’t see too many English castles in the South. At the entrance to the world, it’s as if the pages of the book have opened and sucked you inside like Harry was sucked into Riddle’s Diary.

Hogsmeade Village with its post card snow-capped roofs was as I imagined it from the page, except I was able to walk into these story book shops and browse the same items Harry Potter buys in the books. Caution: If you’d like to take these goodies home with you, be prepared to pay real money and not galleons at these stores. A single chocolate frog that Harry always loads up on was ten dollars. I’d like to know the exchange rate between muggle money and Gringott’s because I think their currency is faring much better in our economy.

The ultimate experience is the castle. In the long hour queue, one walks through the dungeons pass the potion’s classroom and storeroom. You then precede forward through the herbology classrooms, and then pass Dumbledore’s staircase into his office. Then Harry, Ron, and Hermione greet you in the Defense Against the Dark Arts’ classroom until you finally reach the ride. The ride is the best ride I’ve been on with a mixture of digital images of the characters and dragons and animated creatures like Aragon and the dementors. You whirl, you turn, you fly, you fall, you’re chased by a dragon, you play Quiditch. It’s the ultimate Harry Potter experience.

I would have waited the hour and a half again, but my son wouldn’t return. Too much spinning and falling backward for him. It's certainly a ride for the older fan.

We then journeyed to the Flight of the Hippogriff, to which we walked pass Hagrid’s hut and gardens. A barking Fang could be heard from inside the hut and Buckbeak waited for you as you passed by on the roller coaster. This was the kid’s version of the roller coaster, and I have to admit, I didn’t do the grown-up version. As I tell my son, I don’t do anything that flips me upside down. I guess he gets it from me.

At Olivander’s wands, my son wanted to choose a wand so we waited in line for over an hour to watch the scene where Harry Potter’s wand chooses him. The scene was performed by an Olivander that looked similar to the actor in the movie and a boy from the audience. My son then selected Harry Potter’s wand to go along with the broomstick he had bought after the ride through the castle. He paid thirty plus dollars apiece for these Harry Potter items. All money he’d saved for his journey into the books he loves.

Through this long line at Olivander’s, we also sampled Butterbeer, which is the drink of choice for the Hogwarts’s students in the book. The frothy cream on top was like homemade vanilla ice cream that had been whipped to the consistency of whip cream. The drink under the cream tasted like a sweet cream soda. The line during the afternoon was extremely long (fifty plus people at a small kiosk in the center), and we were able to sample it without too much wait because we tried it in the morning. While there, I also purchased a bottle of pumpkin juice that I haven’t brought myself to taste yet. (I wonder if it tastes like pumpkin pie?)

We visited Zonko’s joke shop and Honeyduke’s. We even looked in at The Three Broomsticks restaurant. My only complaint of the park was the amount of people. In the morning the line to get into the world weaved throughout the park, and they only allowed so many people in at a time. During the afternoon, the world was open, and you could barely walk from the amount of people on the streets. I’d say I’m not the only fan that wanted to see a book come to life.

That’s what makes it the ultimate experience though. How often do we get to see a book come to life not just in our imaginations, but something tangible that we can experience. I’ll definitely return one day. Maybe I’ll even try that Dragon Challenge. (I doubt it though).

Shopping Addict Takes on Back to School

It’s the time of the year when parents begin thinking about back to school and the dreaded back to school shopping. As a child, I loved back to school shopping. Of course, shopping of any kind for me is like an addict's next fix.

It’s not just the clothes, although my closet can speak for itself. I confess that I love school supplies: the notebooks, shiny pencils, pink staples, the whole works.

When I was in fourth grade, everyone who was anyone had a Trapper Keeper. I coveted every single one of those lucky kids whose parents were willing to plop down the cash for one. I gazed at them longingly in the store, begging my mother to spend what she thought was too much on a binder that hadn’t been part of my school supply list. She finally relented, and at the store, I selected a unicorn Trapper Keeper with shades of pink and purple rainbows framing it in its glory. I cherished that binder and kept it for years, even after it split at its bindings and frayed at its no longer white edges.

What I didn’t have to think about when I was a student was the price of anything. Taking my children school shopping this week, I no longer felt that excitement when the register rang up all the required items on their supply lists.

My daughter was completely oblivious to this (like her mother had been, of course). She behaved like a child without her ADHD meds, bouncing around the store requesting if each item she touched was on her list. If it wasn’t, she wanted to know why. She’s in love with shopping, and has been since at eighteen months old she’d run through the children’s clothes section and hold up clothes to herself to see if it “fit.” I knew I was in trouble then, and she hasn’t done anything to change my mind since.

I don’t call her mini-me for nothing.

Thankfully, she hasn’t figured out that you can buy items that aren’t on a school supply list. I probably need to start saving for when she figures it out.

As a teacher, I still have the occasion to buy office supplies, and I still enjoy the excitement of back to school shopping. I’ve already prepared myself with tons of pink staples, plenty of purple ink pens, and all the sticky notes a person could use in a lifetime.

Though I love to prepare, the dreaded first day of school is a different story. And you better believe the day and the story is coming.

Birthday Party Hits and Misses

Andrew celebrated his eighth birthday today, which means between my two children, I’ve planned thirteen birthday parties. I admit that most of these parties have been on the outlandish side.

For his fourth birthday, I took a can of white spray paint and painted a race track in my backyard. I made card board replicas of the cars from the movie Cars, and the children raced around the track.

Once, I even set up an entire circus in my yard complete with tent, carnival games, and a cotton candy machine (yum…that was a big hit). We had clown costumes, and I made my daughter the perfect circus dress to wear. Of course, she was two and only remembers it from the pictures.

Through the thirteen parties, we’ve had water slides and jump houses, treasure hunts, mystery games, tea parties, and we even slayed a dragon once (I created an elaborate story for the birthday guests where they were all Princes and Princesses and needed to slay the dragon- complete with take home story books, of course). All of these ideas have worked out great but were in the exhausting, I need a year’s break, sort of way. But here are a few pointers for anyone looking to go further than that prepackaged box of birthday supplies you could order online and be done with it.

First, not all children like the birthday song. For my son’s second birthday, as we broke into the familiar chorus, he broke into screaming tears. I’d seen it once before with a cousin and thought it funny; I did not think it funny with my own child. So the next year, we took baby steps. I made a small cake, and we had two cousins sing to him, and by the time we go to the real party, he put his head down, but there was no tears. Of course, I noticed as the children sang to him for this birthday, he zoned out. I can’t make him like it, but at least there are no more tears.

Secondly, don’t play competition games for prizes if your child cannot take losing. For my son’s fifth birthday, he spent a good deal of the party pouting and upset after he didn’t win any of the games. My daughter will cry and whine if she doesn’t get a prize at any birthday party. I had to stop at a Wal-Mart once on the way home from a birthday party just to get her to stop. (Some would say this is bad parenting, but they’ve never seen how long she can hold out. She is my daughter after all.)

If you’re considering doing it once and being done with it, consider this. Children get used to it- and want more. My children start requesting as I’m cleaning up the mess of the current party. They’ve requested fashion shows and costume parties and any activity imaginable. This brings me to my last lesson…

Keep it simple. The year of the circus fiasco, I didn’t have time to speak to any of my guests. For the cars party, I ran around and fell over exhausted at the end of it. For some of the most outlandish parties, I can’t tell you who actually came to the party because I was too busy trying to get it to come together.

For my son’s birthday party this year, I kept it simple. Of course, I didn’t know what to do with myself after I’d prepared in under two hours. I’d almost forgotten how to greet guests since usually I’m running around with only time for a quick nod. I even sat down and talked with good friends and family.

There were no requests put in for next year yet, but at the end of the day, he’d had a great birthday. Now as far as his present of a Rip Stick, I have a feeling he’ll be providing me with story material in the future.

Five for Five

Mini-Me begins tumbling camp today. Nothing brings as much apprehension or fear as her learning how to do tricks. The idea of her using my sofa as a trampoline or my living room rug as a gym mat sends chills through me.

So why would I put my five-year-old in tumbling?

I want her to learn how to fall; the way that doesn’t involved hurting herself.

You see, she’s had stitches in her chin five times.

The first time she dangled herself between a sofa and a chair as if she were on the parallel bars with the result that she fell splat between the two. Through profuse bleeding, I could see into layers of skin to what lay beyond. In the hospital, I held her and watched as the doctor sewed up her chin as she stared at me with big, watery eyes, too brave to cry. I remember thinking I never wanted to do this again.

Fast forward a few months when she and her brother decided to wrestle on the rug, and she landed off the rug directly onto her chin. I bravely took her to the hospital all by myself because I was the mom, and I could handle this. (Mind you that when I was a teenager, I passed out watching my mother get a blood test.)

Two weeks later the redness hadn’t disappeared yet, when at a wedding she danced over to the chair I was sitting in and came down directly on the top of it with her chin. Luckily, the wedding was next door to the hospital.

Did I mention this was all before the age of four? Three times in three years. The doctor stopped telling me that the scar would fade. It would be permanent now.

She managed a whole year without falling. My running joke at the time was that as soon as I finished paying the hospital, she would fall again. I should have known it was coming since I hadn’t sent a check to the hospital for a few months.

You’ll notice that I managed to remain calm through three incidents. In my defense, that kind of patience eventually runs out.

My children decided to fight over a wooden block that I’d bought when my son was a baby. I told them to share. I told them to stop arguing. I told them all the usual mom things. When my son began chasing her, I yelled for them to stop. Seconds later, my son was on top of her, and of course, Mini-Me had smacked her chin against the ceramic floor once again.

To say I was angry was an understatement. My mother-in-law commented as I sped to the hospital that she should have driven. I forced my son to stand at the foot of her hospital bed and watch the doctor stitch his sister’s scarred chin once again. My mother-in-law kept asking to take him from the room, but I was determined he would learn to stop playing rough with his sister. (I know, not the best idea for my son’s mental health, but still, at the time it seemed right).

It worked for awhile. The month before her fifth birthday, she attempted a trick on her scooter that she’d seen her brother do and flipped off head first, and you guessed it, landed on her chin. Back to the hospital we went. This time while she was sitting on her bed with her anxious brother lecturing her on how she wasn’t old enough to try the tricks he could do, I decided to have the talk.

You know the one about she didn’t have to have stitches for every year of her life. Five for five is a descent record to end this streak.

So that brings us to tumbling. I’m hoping that this will work. Otherwise, I think I’ll have to continue my search for a permanent chin guard or a padded suit.