July 2005
Harry Potter and the Asheville Wolf Pack!
(continued)
During Chamber of Secrets, Simon wandered back into
the homeschool
room (where the computer/DVD viewing was) to watch Malfoy and Ron fire
their wands at each other (the scene where Ron shouted "Eat slugs!" and
his wand backfired), and it wasn't long before he and Ethan ran out of
the room, wands extended (they had a bunch of takeout chopsticks
spraypainted silver as wands), chasing each other and yelling various J
K Rowling incantations ("Expelliarmus!" "Lumos!" "Impedimenta!"
"Stupefy!" "Wingardium Leviosa!"). Then Jameson ran out with her wand
and sweetly cried in her very dainty high-pitched happy 3 1/2 year-old
voice, "Eat slugs!" which sent me and Ginger into fits. Of
course,
then the chorus of "Eat slugs" continued between the three, with deadly
wand pointing (which could have been six feet away and I'd still flinch
-- I suspect no longer wearing glasses after 30 years of protective
eyewear contributed to my paranoia), and it wasn't long before I was
proclaiming the living room off-limits to underage wizards. Ginger
quickly rallied to my defense, assuring the kids if Marilyn wasn't
happy and quit helping, the robemaking was all over! (I loved it when
she tried to get Ethan to go play outside, and he said he wanted to
practice his spells.)
Meanwhile, Maida the cat was determined to walk over
the pattern
papers and cloth I was trying to cut (at one point deciding that the
pattern paper I was actually cutting around would be a good place to
rest, and she remained quite restful and inert as I tried to cut the
cloth under the paper under her). And Ethan asking Ginger if his
robe
was ready yet (Simon had requested buttons, but Ginger finally said
that was an embellishment he could sew himself, and he was trying,
which naturally required assistance from Ginger). Jameson also
wanted
more toast, but Ginger preferred she have real food instead and offered
her an alternate piece of fruit until she could make something.
"No...
thank... you..." she pouted very politely, walking out of the
room. Ginger thanked her for her manners.
Eventually, Ginger sent them off to pseudo-nap
("quiet house")
because she knew they wouldn't make it to the party, let alone through
it, without some day sleep. That was an hour and half of some
peace,
although continually punctuated with little running footsteps upstairs
and Jameson singsonging and talking to herself from the sofa the entire
time. Allan came in from his office to hang with us, bringing his
laptop so he could keep working, and we three sat at the kitchen table
and ate the delish rice dish Ginger had made for lunch (even though it
was nearly dinner time -- I'd offered to pick up pizza or something for
dinner so she'd have one less thing to deal with, but lunch just sort
of ran into dinner), she at her sewing machine, he at his laptop, me
not on the floor. Then the kids were allowed to stop pretending
they
were resting and came down to eat and point wands and yell incantations
at each other.
Ethan's robe in process, Jameson's to go, plus their
hair needing
to be dyed -- I tried not to look at the clock, although it was getting
late in the day. I wondered which of the things might get
dropped, or
if two things were going to get half-dropped, but Ginger was pushing
along with no intention of letting anything get dropped if she could
help it. And then Ginger asked Jameson if she wanted to go to the
party, or did she just want to sleep? (I'll see your dropping the
hood
from the wardrobe, and raise you a dropped third robe...) Jameson
said
sleep, but we knew that wasn't true, but it was nice to imagine some
breathing possibilities, if only for a moment. Although it did
give me
an idea, and I suggested doing something with the cape I brought in
case we were running out of time -- I'd still cut out the pieces for
her robe, but, y'know, it's a thought. Ginger was open to any
possibilities at this point regarding the sewing -- she assured me the
hair was getting dyed, that was going to happen (except for Jameson --
that wasn't going to happen, her hair was fine, she looked good, nope,
not Jameson, just the boys). And Ethan stepped back in to ask if
his
robe was ready yet, and to please let him know. (We'd memorized
this
request, as he'd also called it down from his room during "quiet
house.")
It was sometime during this process when Ginger
announced to me and
Allan that, really, she didn't intend to start working on these robes
on the last day, she's not crazy, it just happened!
Simon and Ethan's robes finished, it was time to get
out the cape
and try it out with Jameson. Ginger told her it was a special
cape,
and Jameson was all smiles and happy and I thought we were home free,
and then she sweetly commanded that we put up her hood (the boys were
always pulling their hood over their head), and happy dreams over, as
the cape didn't have a hood. She started to get upset, and of
course
we didn't want to deny her a hood, so I suggested maybe sewing the hood
pieces from the pattern onto the cape? Ginger was worried about messing
up my cape and I assured her it was a disposable cape as far as I was
concerned, and we also needed to cut off the bottom, because it drug on
the floor with Jameson. In no time, Ginger sewed on the hood and
cut
off the bottom, and Jameson was happy with her cape robe. Except
shortly afterward when she wanted it off because it was pulling on her
neck. (Best possible little-invested-time investment of the day.)
While Ginger was finishing Jameson's robe, the hair
dying adventure began!
Ginger sent Allan into the kitchen to mix the
various hair dyes
with the boiling water while she was still at her sewing machine.
Allan looked a little concerned with knowing exactly what Ginger had in
mind (since whatever she used yesterday had turned Ethan's hair
blue/green and she had a plan to mix that one with a brown one or
something to achieve the desired effect), but Ginger assured him and me
that he could mix as well as she could, and okey dokey, mixing dye in
the kitchen! Allan was way ahead of me on the mixing scene, and
he was
stirring away some combination of dyes that I trusted they knew because
I sure didn't -- the only thing I was sure of was that it smelled
AWFUL. It was some henna dye, and it smelled worse than turnip greens
cooking (which was probably close to what it was). Once it had a
chance
to cool, Simon was on a stool on the deck with a towel around his
shoulders, and Ginger was spatula'ing the dye on his hair.
Shortly
later, Allan was spatula'ing dye on Ethan's hair, Ethan was fighting
every desire to scream and run away (he really REALLY hated the smell),
Ginger finished up with Simon and started working on the other side of
Ethan's head to hurry the process, and I HAD to have a camera (such
regret not getting one before I'd arrived).
Finally (which was pretty quick, but it didn't seem
to feel like it
for Ethan), Allan and Ginger proclaimed Ethan's hair done, and they
popped a plastic cap on him, and he'd survived (but he was still a
little wonky). I got the okay from Ginger, and announced that
while we
were waiting for the dye to set, it was Harry Potter feast time!
And I
pulled out the bag of Chocolate Frogs, Ice Mice, Fizzing Whizbees, and
a new one on them, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum -- plus a cauldron of
magical hot chocolate mix for later. They were thrilled (earlier
in
the sewing day, Ethan yelled a thank you to me for the chocolate frogs,
and Ginger and I looked at each other in panic that he'd found them
hidden in the closet and had eaten one, and we gave him the third
degree, and he was all, y'know, MOM, when she SENT them to US that
time??? And we were all, like, oh... okay...).
By now I'd decided it was now or never on getting a
camera -- we
would be walking to the bookstore, it turned out, so no driving by a
store to pick one up. So I grabbed Ginger to go with me to the
local
Bi-Lo (because I didn't think I could get the right groceries and
figured she could use a break), and we returned with the appropriate
groceries (except catfood, Maida's unearthly meowing reminded Ginger)
while the boys were showering out the dye.
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