Let me set the stage first: My oldest son, who’s 8 1/2 now, has recently discovered the Harry Potter books. In the past three weeks, he’s devoured Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets. Right now he’s working his way through Prisoner of Azkaban. (Needless to say, I’m right proud of him for such a reading binge! Not to be outdone, Jake — who’s six and just finished with Kindergarten — has picked up Trevyn’s now forgotten collection of Magic Treehouse books and is madly reading them. This morning they were sitting side-by-side on the couch in their pjs reading. It was so cool and cute to see!)
Anyway, we had some friends over on Tuesday, the 4th of July, and the kids were playing in the backyard. We pulled out sparklers and gave each kid one to play with. They were all delighted, and the boys (5 of the 6 kids in the backyard) quickly transformed their sparklers into wands and turned into dueling wizards.
“Expelliarmus!” echoed throughout the neighborhood as they tried to disarm each other. Not to be left out, Ruby — my two (“and a haff” as she reminds us) year-old — jumped into the fray.
Wand at the ready she pointed it at the nearest wizard and unleashed her spell with a firm voice: “Bippity boppity boo!“