A day of Harry Potter fun

About a month ago I saw an announcement about a Harry Potter day in Staunton.  I actually heard about it last year but since we had not yet done the Harry Potter thing I made a mental note to look for it again.  When I saw it this year I knew Jared would love to go.  We put it on the calendar and he and Lydia have looked forward to it all month.  It was really well done and amazing to hear about people who drove hours and hours to attend.  Staunton is a 45 minute drive for us but we met some people who came in from New York and Connecticut.  Lydia was actually kind of a grump most of the time we were there but overall we all had a fun time.  Mark does not care for Harry Potter much he has never read (or cared to read) the books but he was a good sport and Staunton does have a cute downtown.  We did have to wait longer than I thought we would to catch the shuttle to the event but it was a good time to see people's costumes and chat with people.  One person walked by dressed as a dementor and as he walked by us Jared called out "Expecto Patroneous!" and they guy ran away.  It was really fun.  He was a dementor and the person he was with dressed up as Harry's patroneous, a sparkly silver stag. It was super cute. They were my favorites.

The Chamber of Secrets. 

Book 2 is their favorite.  Well they have only read 1-3 so out of those it is their favorite. 

Our first stop was the train station to meet Harry and Hagrid as they came off the train.  It was nice to walk through the downtown area and see what they had done to make it feel Harry Potter-ish. 

On our way to Hufflepuff Village we stopped and got sorted.  Lydia and I were sorted into Hufflepuff, Jared was Gryffindor but he totally answered the question so he would be put in that house (red is not his favorite color!) and Mark was put into Ravenclaw.  This was Mark's first time being "sorted" in any manner.  Huffflepuff village which was located at Mary Baldwin College.  Their school colors are yellow and black so they were a natural fit to host Hufflepuff activities.  We tried our first ever Butterbeers and Lydia bought herself a snitch cupcake. 

We stopped by the Herbology classroom to complete a scavenger hunt (finding plants) and meet Ginny.  And then walked over to the arts and crafts area.  They practiced writing with a quill much harder than you would think and made snitch's. 

We met the four founders and stopped by a chocolate shop on our way back to the shuttle pick up spot.  The chocolate shop had lots of fun Harry Potter themed chocolates and were super busy.  Jared and Lydia each got a chocolate frog and Jared also got some of the beans of every flavor. 

Lydia ditched her robes about 30 minutes in. 

There were selfie spots all over the place but this was our favorite one.

It was a very well organized event and tons of people showed up.  I'm really not sure why Lydia was so grumpy so much of the day but they both want to go back again next year so we will have to look it up again.  It was fun to see everyone dressed up and the things they came up with.  They even had life size wizards chess.  It was a great day! Jared was in heaven.