As you know from the fact that we just can’t shut up about it, we attended LeakyCon 2011 a couple weeks ago. During this AMAZING Harry Potter fan gathering, we danced with wizards, ate pumpkin tarts, watched a Quidditch match — and gathered up lots of Harry-inspired goodies to share with YOU:

TWO WINNERS WILL RECEIVE A HARRY POTTER PRIZE PACK!

EACH PACK CONTAINS:
• A commemorative butterbeer cup
• Golden Snitch keychain
• Box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans
• Lightning scar temporary tattoo

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

Kids (under the age of 18):

Enter for a chance to win our prize! Just fill out this entry form and mail it back to us. (Don’t forget to have your parent/guardian sign it — otherwise, you won’t be eligible to win!) We must receive your entry before August 31, 2011.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. Legal residents of the 50 United States (D.C.) under 18 years. Void where prohibited. Sweepstakes ends 8/31/2011. See official rules.

Guys. We have a VERY important question for all of you. It’s extremely critical that you really think about this before you answer, because our whole happiness depends on it. So here goes:

Does anyone have a Time-Turner? We’d really like to travel back to the beginning of LeakyCon 2011 and re-live the whole experience. Because it was AMAZING.

Also, a little tiring — as you can see from this candid shot of Nancy on the last day:

Not a dementor. Just napping Nancy.

Since coming home, we’ve spent the last few days listening to wizard rock, re-reading the books, making plans to re-watch Deathly Hallows Part 2, and checking like maniacs for LeakyCon-related news anywhere across the interwebs. Because we may not be wearing our Hogwarts ties any more, but Harry’s always in our hearts.

And luckily, we’ve got all these photos so we’ll never forget the most wizardrific week of our lives:

Mischief managed.

— Nancy (Ravenclaw) and Karen (Hufflepuff)

Btw: Karen works at Scholastic and Nancy used to work there, but our jobs are not connected to LeakyCon, sadly. We’re attending for our own enjoyment — and yours — as the ridiculous fans that we are.

The LeakyCon program describes the Esther Earl Charity Ball as such: “Get ready to dance your face off!” And indeed we did — so in this photo, we’ve added fake faces so you’re not grossed out by our melted features. Focus on the snazzy dresses instead, maybe?

The ball is in honor of Esther Earl, an avid Harry Potter fan who passed away last year, after a four-year battle with thyroid cancer.

We decided to wear Muggle clothes for the ball, but plenty of people paid homage to their favorite Harry Potter characters. Check out a couple of Luna Lovegoods:

And another Luna dancing the night away with Tonks:

Even Dobby made an appearance, and he now has dress robes in his collection!

Fleur decided to make use of her lovely wedding dress again:

All houses were in attendance, including two lovely girls from Slytherin:

Some students even brought their owls!

A few witches seemed to channel Lady Gaga (or perhaps Lady Gaga channels them?):

Uh oh, poor Ron! Krum and Hermione look pretty happy here…

And speaking of Hermione, there were a few at the ball!

(No, seriously: Who do you think wore it best? Leave a comment and let us know!)

Other awesome things that happened: actress Evanna Lynch (Luna in the movies) came out and danced on stage, there were three sing-alongs to “Total Eclipse of Heart,” and Dobby crowd-surfed!

And so ended the last full day of LeakyCon 2011. More don’t worry, we’ve got a wrap-up post coming in a few days, so stay tuned!

— Nancy (Ravenclaw) and Karen (Hufflepuff)

Btw: Karen works at Scholastic and Nancy used to work there, but our jobs are not connected to LeakyCon, sadly. We’re attending for our own enjoyment — and yours — as the ridiculous fans that we are.

So, the reason we had to separate our coverage of LeakyCon Day 4 into two parts was not because we were inspired by the movie adaptations of The Deathly Hallows. Actually, we just had to take a little break to travel to the airport. Because LeakyCon 2011 is now over. And we are very, very sad. :’-(

It’s a good thing we still have plenty of LeakyCon coverage planned for this blog! It’s almost like reliving the magic. Because we are very, very sad. Did we say that already? Very sad. Moving on…

As we mentioned in our last post, LeakyCon Day 4 (yesterday) kicked off with two theatrical performances. For the second event, we were treated to a selection of songs from a group that has created more than one awesome musical based on the Harry Potter books:

After the singing was done, the group stayed on stage for a Q&A, led by Firenze the centaur — and when he trotted out, we both literally pointed and laughed. That may sound mean, but come on, look at this picture… Wouldn’t you gesture and snicker too?

Read the rest of this entry »

Wow, it seems that Harry Potter fans just can’t get enough of stage musicals — at least based on the response here at LeakyCon 2011. As you know from yesterday’s post, we’ve already watched two very entertaining musical productions inspired by the Harry Potter series. Yesterday, we saw two more!

(Hmmm… Why weren’t there any theater productions at Hogwarts? Or maybe there was a drama club that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were just too busy to join, what with Dumbledore’s Army and all. Luna probably would have been brilliant on stage, though! And Fred and George! Percy, not so much… Sorry, we digress.)

Anyway, the day started with a gothic opera based on “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart,” one of the short stories from The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

It was quite dark and dramatic — perfect for the creepy tone of the original tale. We definitely need to go back and re-read it again! With the lights on. Maybe in a crowded place. With a teddy bear.

Anyway… As we mentioned, there was a second musical event of the day, but more on that in our next post. Plus Quidditch! Stay tuned to Kidsmomo for continued LeakyCon coverage!

— Nancy (Ravenclaw) and Karen (Hufflepuff)

Btw: Karen works at Scholastic and Nancy used to work there, but our jobs are not connected to LeakyCon, sadly. We’re attending for our own enjoyment — and yours — as the ridiculous fans that we are.

These days, it’s not unusual to see cell phones waving in the air when you go to a rock concert. But last night at LeakyCon’s wizard rock concert, we all raised our wands instead!

Seven bands took to the stage to perform songs based on the Harry Potter books, and they were all — as Ron would say — bloody brilliant. (Also, we just now realized that there were SEVEN bands last night. Coincidence?)

The Parselmouths kicked off the show by showering the crowd with party hats and balloons:

Next, Hank Green performed ditties about his experience as a super fan, including a new tune that he said he basically wrote just for LeakyCon! That certainly got people’s hands in the air, in addition to their wands:

With the huge video screen behind the stage, it looks like there were hands EVERYWHERE -- but in an awesome way, not in a gross inferi sort of way.

Hank and his brother (author John Green) have a big following of fans called "Nerdfighters." Here, they show off their special hand sign.

But enough about hands. We’re not obsessed or anything.

Next up were Gred and Forge, and as you can see in these photos, they busted out onto the stage in a display of total ROCK. It wasn’t long before the crowd showed their love:

Read the rest of this entry »

It seems that getting only five hours of sleep is going to be a regular thing here at LeakyCon, so it’s a good thing that Day 3 kicked off with a high-energy stage musical!

Depicting the Final Battle for Hogwarts, this theatrical spectacle actually moved both of us to tears. After last night’s cry-fest during Deathly Hallows Part 2, it’s a surprise we had any tears left in us!

The afternoon was more chill. First, we attended a workshop to make our own Monster Book of Monsters book cover:

We spent the rest of the day in a screening of a different Harry Potter musical and at a presentation about the new Pottermore website (sorry, we’ve been sworn to secrecy on the details).

In anticipation of the night’s wizard rock concert, Karen wore her Harry and the Potters t-shirt today:

And we noticed lots of others showing their Hogwarts pride through t-shirts as well:

And now, if you’ll excuse us, we must rest because we just got back from the wizard rock show, where we danced like we’d been hit by the Jelly-Legs Jinx. Stay tuned for coverage on Kidsmomo!

— Nancy (Ravenclaw) and Karen (Hufflepuff)

Btw: Karen works at Scholastic and Nancy used to work there, but our jobs are not connected to LeakyCon, sadly. We’re attending for our own enjoyment — and yours — as the ridiculous fans that we are.

After our late night at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, it’s amazing we made it to LeakyCon this morning. But we were immediately rewarded when we spotted some superstar HP characters:

Are Bellatrix and Moody secretly friends?!

Uh oh! Umbridge is in one of her moods!

Wow. Just... wow.

Of course, we also loved all the Hogwarts students we hung out with! Here are a few:

But let’s not forget the most magic-tastic Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff of all time… us, of course:

After mingling, we spent the rest of the day in various presentations, including screenings of fan-made videos, a puppet show depicting Harry Potter’s life, and a discussion of book-to-movie adaptations:

And in the evening, we all headed to the movie theater to see The Deathly Hallows, Part 2 — a few hours prior to the official midnight release! But more on that later, when we post a special movie review starring our fellow LeakyCon moviegoers! Stay tuned!

— Nancy (Ravenclaw) and Karen (Hufflepuff)

 
Btw: Karen works at Scholastic and Nancy used to work there, but our jobs are not connected to LeakyCon, sadly. We’re attending for our own enjoyment — and yours — as the ridiculous fans that we are.

I’m not sure how we did it without Mrs. Weasley being around to nag us, but we are actually awake and out of bed this morning. And why is this such an amazing feat? Because we were out until 1 am last night — partying at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park with our fellow LeakyCon revelers!

The park was open 10 pm to 1 am just for LeakyCon attendees, and it was AWESOME. The event was called “Open at the Close,” and if you don’t know what that refers to, well, just wait until you read The Deathly Hallows (no spoilers here!).

Check out our photo gallery from the night — including lots of dedicated Harryheads wearing Hogwarts attire in the Florida heat. Plus a photo of us with our house colors!

— Nancy (Ravenclaw) and Karen (Hufflepuff)
Btw: Karen works at Scholastic and Nancy used to work there, but our jobs are not connected to LeakyCon, sadly. We’re attending for our own enjoyment — and yours — as the ridiculous fans that we are.

Say a prayer for us because we’ve died and gone to heaven… also known as LeakyCon 2011!

That’s right, we’re here! And check out some of the swag we got when we arrived, including a special LeakyCon yearbook full of info about this week’s events and photos of all the attendees!

The opening festivities have yet to begin, but already we’ve seen more people in Hogwarts clothing than ever before — and that’s saying something because we both attended Scholastic’s Book 7 release party in New York.

Stay tuned over the next few days for more LeakyCon coverage!

– Nancy (Ravenclaw) and Karen (Hufflepuff)

Btw: Karen works at Scholastic and Nancy used to work there, but our jobs are not connected to LeakyCon, sadly. We’re attending for our own enjoyment — and yours — as the ridiculous fans that we are.