Green-Letter Day

As in the green ink of the official Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry acceptance letter.

Because today we all watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

(After our friends from Philly visited, no mean feat for two very eager kids.  But they enjoyed talking about HP and Legos in the meantime.)

Covering the bed with a tablecloth, we camped out with all manner of sugary and crunchy snacks, from popcorn and animal cookies to fruit jellies and chocolate bars.  We saved the jelly beans for the Hogwarts Express scene when Harry and Ron ate Bertie Bott's beans.  They'd even brought their Gryffindor cloaks to wear but decided to eat instead (and there is a no-eating-in-costumes rule).

And we loved every minute of it.  Bud gleefully called out everything he recognized, from Prof. McGonagall as a cat to the acceptance letter, from the Leaky Cauldron to Ollivander's, from the Sorting Hat to the Mirror of Erised, and everything in between.  Sis sat much more quietly, taking it all in.

They marveled at the glimmering enchanted Great Hall, at the fast-paced Quidditch Game, at the magic of the Cloak of Invisibility.  Even the scary bits--the screaming book, the bloodied unicorn, and of course He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named--didn't phase them too much.  Though, Bud later admitted he was surprised by all the explosions in the giant wizards' chess game.

So thrilled were they with the film that they raced straight downstairs to build all the sets in Legos, happily planning the cupboard under the stairs of the Dursleys' house and then helping Mama with the Diagon Alley set.

It was indeed a magical movie experience.

(Though, they were glad to have read the book first, they said.)