Year Six at Hogwarts Success!

Sorry I was much too busy to post any further updates before the party, but that’s the way it goes!

Last night around 10pm, Ben went in dementor costume, along with Jen in full Ravenclaw Quidditch gear to the Sunnyvale Borders to stand in line for our 18-book order for the party. At 11:30pm, Melanie as a Muggle (slacker because her costume was all finished! Admittedly it would not have fit in the Briata over to Borders, so probably just as well) and I as Bellatrix joined them, staying until 1:30 to actually get our books! Ben left his in the batch until leaving the party to avoid temptation, but Melanie read the first chapter this morning. I did not want to be tempted to keep reading vs. party prep, let alone be careful when talking to party guests, so I have not yet opened the books, let alone even reading the inside cover!

It was overall a successful day amongst many glitches, even though not necessarily a success in the way I envisioned. Too hot for many planned activities, and not enough table space for all the food that did actually arrive (some fabulously creative entries!), but people (I’m counting about 83, but it really seemed like more I think!) all still said they had a great time, which is what matters!

Black wigs itch horribly on a hot day! Hopefully my couple Bellatrix photos came out okay even though I was literally melting. At least I have some good photos from last night at Borders when I wasn’t melting, so those might have to do. I had to take out my contacts & rinse them twice this afternoon because sweat kept dripping into my eyes! But everyone loved how I stored my wand in my cleavage…like a breast dagger from renfaire lore…I figured out last night on our way to Borders to pick up the books when I had no pockets that my new shorter, more “sinister”-looking wand from Simone from Brazil fit very nicely there, and it seemed a very Bellatrix thing to do…oh, and I have been christened “Brittatrix” by several different people now, even though that sounds more like a dominatrix than a Harry Potter character…*raises eyebrows*!

Somehow the majority of the voting ballots went missing before counting! I had seen a ton overflowing the cauldron where everyone was putting their votes, but when Ben offered to count them for me, there were only 25 ballots, including only 4 for the Best Edible Creation award, which of course was a 4-way tie. Very suspicious! Someone accused Draco Malfoy (no one came in that costume by the way), and I said someone must have cast Evanesco to vanish them… I still haven’t found them, but when it’s light I’m going through all the trash anyway. Gilderoy at St Mungo’s won Most Creative, the most elaborate of several Dobbies, this one complete with makeup matching his ears, won Most Authentic, and Ben the dementor won Best Costume. Of those who were left around 10ish, we awarded the quiz winners, including Ogle the Owl, Spot the Spell matching game, and Whirled Words (anagrams), but since most of the votes went missing, plus so many people had already started leaving, the First Annual Dobby Award for Best Edible Creation (a statuette of a gilded sock!) went unawarded….darn!

Again, no Best Potion was awarded since it was so hot, people mostly stayed outside to catch a breeze when they could, meaning they only drank the lemonade or the canned/bottled drinks in the large cauldron cooler. However, the creativity displayed with all the Best Edible Creation entries replaced the Best Potions creativity more than enough! I will definitely need to post all the entries eventually when I work on BOTH websites (yes, the Year Five webpages never got done before Year Six happened – too bad I know but oh well).

I have to admit my personal highlight was that long-lost highschool friend Amanda convinced her gracious friend to wait around while we reminisced about highschool & caught up on what’s happened inbetween, long after the majority of guests had already left (only 11ish). Amanda beats my overnight guest for longest distance traveled to the party, since she now lives in Las Vegas but was in Sacramento visiting so she could come to the party…hooray!

It was when showing Amanda the highschool reunion pix from 1999 reunion she didn’t attend that I saw my email that my mom had checked the webcams at 7ish & saw the outside cam had stopped broadcasting…why does it only cause problems during parties – argh! It has been broadcasting just dandy all week long…I see from the captures it actually stopped about 6:12pm, but we never really did anything outside, so not much was missed I don’t think. No Quidditch at all – too hot! Kids kept asking when we could play, but I kept telling the kids they could play Quidditch when they adults left the cool grass in the shade, which of course never happened! We did do the kids treasure hunt, but since several kids were older this time, I let them read the clues, which wasn’t loud enough for the smaller kids to hear, so many smaller kids who had been looking forward to the treasure hunt were overwhelmed by the speed & inability to hear. Unfortunately that’s what happens when I don’t know the exact ages & abilities of the kids, but I did have enough variety of kid activities (pretzel wands, potion mixing, blowing bubbles, decorating hats & capes, and free drawing) that they all seemed to have a great time anyway.

Since it’s much too dark at this hour, after a bunch more chatting into the wee hours with my overnight guest, the leftovers I’d like to save to eat later have been put away if they need to (cookies & breads last fine) with the major cleanup to happen tomorrow when I can see clearly. Before we can try waffles for brunch since I’d like to play hostess to my overnight guest, I need to find the kitchen counters in all the mess!

Oh, and my cat has gotten out after being social after it was down to just the 5 of us towards the end, and being a black cat I can’t find her for anything…this will be the first night she’s been out by herself ever, so I hope she’s okay. I even poured out some crunchy food so she’d hear, so I’ve left her a way back in & hope she’ll come back when she’s hungry…

Update: Kylie was back inside, acting nonchalantly, as of ~4:30am…whew! I’ll be able to sleep much better now knowing she’s safe inside…