Harry Potter Book Release Party

We had sooo much fun Friday night at the book release party at the Barnes & Noble here in Boca Raton, Florida. The party started at 8pm. We signed in at tables outside and they gave you a color coded ticket for midnight when the book would go on sale- we were in group 2, orange. It was a costume party, so Shayna went as Hermione and Skyler went as Harry. We had the HP glasses from the event at the South FL science museum 2 weeks ago, and it was Manny's idea (thankfully!) to do the white oxford shirt for him (luckily we had it from the dressy outfit I got for holiday pics), and added one of his ties. we used one of manny's ties for shayna's too, and the dress shirt is from choir (although she can use it this year for school). then manny made a cape by cutting off some of the black fabric I use every Halloween. skyler's tie/shirt/cape combo was literally thrown together about 5 minutes before we left the house! they also have the Harry/Hermione wands, although skyler tends to use hermiones, and the official HP broom. the lightning scar was added at the event at face painting but we should have just done that ourselves...oh well.

here are shayna and skyler posing in the parking lot (we took pics here so we didn't have to schlep the broom around all night):

When we first got there, the photographers from the sun sentinel newspaper took a liking to skyler, and followed him around taking 100s of pics. it felt a bit like paparazzi! the palm beach post also took pics, and a store employee took pics too, he was like a little celeb. :-) Here is one of the photographers taking pics near the photo taking area (ironically):

This is the other photographer taking more pics:

The party was a lot of fun and had a schedule. the first hour was face painting, photos, a guess how many bernie botts game, and they had areas divided into hufflepuff, ravenclaw, and griffyndor, and slytherin. Then there was a magic show at 9:15pm, then a fashion show, and a trivia contest at 10pm(very hard one too- shayna's Qs were how old was Nicholas Flamel and in the movie sorcerers stone, at the end when harry was in the hospital, what flavor bernie botts bean did dumbledore want to eat?)

Here is Skyler after having the scar added, playing with the trains:

Below, Shayna and Skyler in the fashion show/costume contest. There were a lot of great costumes!! 2 Hagrids (one an employee), 2 sorting hats (one with table), one Umbridge, one mad eye moody, one Fleur, one luna lovegood, one madame maxine, 2 girls as girl versions of fred & george, a few Tonks, and lots of versions of harry and hermione. also, the employees: one mcGonagall, a moaning myrtle, and even a nargal. later I spotted someone brave enough to come as voldemort (saw him going the escalator and that's it- maybe he apparated to another event LOL).

After the hoopla of the activities died down, maybe about 11pm or so, we camped out for a bit in the childrens section upstairs with yummy frozen frappacinos, cookies, etc. ...read some, browsed some, until time for the big event. shayna even read a good deal of a summer reading book I picked out for her (the tale of emily windsap, about a girl who finds out she is a mermaid). they did the countdown at midnight, everyone clapped and cheered. I didn't realize it, but someone told me that they had a very dramatic unveiling of all the boxes. we weren't looking down at midnight. (duh I didn't know ...oh well). they were so fast at getting the books sold that even though we were in group 2/orange we were out by 12:15am!! not bad. overall, the crowd wasn't bad at all and it was extremely well organized.

I went out today, and Skyler made it into the paper!!! he was on the front page of section B:

I love how it says "Harry Potter Comes to Boca Raton" since we did just come-- MOVE to Boca Raton. The rest says: "LITTLE ACTOR, BIG INTENTIONS: Skyler, 2, of Boca Raton, is dressed as Harry Potter as he explores the bookstore during the release party for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Barnes & Noble at University Commons in Boca Raton. The book is the seventh and final volume of the young wizard's adventures."