Harry Potter Birthday Party

To kick off

Heidi shares her Harry Potter Birthday Party ideas...

I promised myself I wouldn't go overboard.

I lied.

But I had a blast planning my son's 10th birthday party. (And reminded myself why I only throw "friend" party for my kids every other year!)

I designed the invite to look like a train ticket to Hogwarts. And then performed little science experiments in my kitchen until I was able to stain and age the paper. It involved a lot of crumpling up paper, soy sauce, lemon juice, a little microwaving ... and of course telling my kids, "don't ever do this without adult supervision!" I found a super cool owl seal and had fun dripping wax onto the envelopes to give it that extra touch.

 I really had a lot of fun setting everything up ~ the "little details" really made a big difference. When the kids first came, they had to stop to get their photo taken for the "Daily Prophet" in front of this stone wall that took over our front entry:

 

I had a great time taking pictures of all of the party guests ~ here are a few of my own kiddos:

 

Once everyone was properly documented, it was off to Diagon Alley, which I set up in my upstairs hallway:

 

1st stop for everyone was Gringotts, where they stocked up on money to spend throughout the party:

 

Then they were off! "Buying" wands, cauldrons, feather pens, and even a Lego Harry Potter set.

 

The wands were so much fun ~ and easy ~ to make. I simply took a wooden dowel, painted it, used a hot glue gun to create swirly designs, added a top coat of paint, and then brushed on a metallic finish to make the details pop out. Finally I used some mod podge to finish it off. I guess I have some crafty in me after all ...

Once everyone was properly outfitted for Hogwarts, we took a quick break and visited Honeydukes for Cauldron Cakes and Pumpkin Juice. They had to return at the end of the party to go shopping for candy, though!

And then it was finally time ... to run through Platform 9 3/4 and head off to Hogwarts! First stop was the Great Hall where all the kids were sorted into their houses.

For the sorting hat, I held a cell phone on speaker and stuck it inside the hat. Then Derek called out the house names from a phone in the office. I loved seeing the kids' faces when the hat "called" out their houses :).

Once sorted, classes could begin! First up was potions, where we made two different concoctions. One using baking soda and vinegar that was only to be ministered to your worst enemy, and "felix felicis" which we made using Sprite dyed blue and poprocks. Everyone was brave enough to try drinking it in order to get some good luck!

 

Then we moved on to Transfiguration, where the kids transformed water into snow. I think that was the favorite activity of the whole party.

 

Our final classes were Spells and Charms where we practiced proper wand movements and then levitated balloons (using Wingardium Leviosa, of course).

 

Once classes were over, the students were all released to go send ministry of magic memos (aka paper airplanes) to each other to finish off the party!:

This party was certainly the most elaborate one I have ever thrown. But when it was all over, Wesley came to me and said, "Thank you, Mom. That was the best party I have ever had."

And that, of course, made it all worth it.

So maybe going overboard wasn't so bad after all :).

See Andrea's previous Harry Potter Birthday ideas here

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