Brooklyn finished all the Harry Potter books just weeks before her 9th birthday, and loved them just as much as Ella and I. So, naturally she begged to have a Harry Potter birthday party with all of her girlfriends from school. We sent out invitations immediately and got to work planning.
We did some of the same things we did for Ella's party, with lots of new ideas I found on Pinterest. We had the best time ever and Brooklyn was one happy nine-year-old birthday girl! If only we were real witches and wizards and could have this much fun every day - minus Voldemort of course (he's no fun at all!)
It's sad that Hudson knows so much about Harry Potter and has never read the books or seen the movies. He begged for me to make him H.P. glasses and scar, which I did by drawing them directly on his face with my black eyeliner pencil. It worked brilliantly and he is the cutest Harry Potter I've ever seen. The white owl balloons above the signs were hand-drawn by Ella - she made 15 of them for me which we put up all over the house and on the mailbox outside. They were AMAZINGLY awesome!!...
When Brooklyn's classmates arrived at Diagon Alley, they got their school bags and a school supplies list. Then they "visited" each "store" in Diagon Alley to pick up their supplies - money at Gringotts Bank, school books and quills at Flourish and Blotts, robes at Madame Maulkins, wands at Olivanders, and pets at Eyelops. (Honeydukes Candy Shop wasn't open yet.) Once they were equipped for Hogwarts, I took their Hogwarts Express train tickets at Platform 9 3/4, and sent them through the brick wall to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to be sorted into their Houses by the Sorting Hat.
At Hogwarts, I placed the Sorting Hat on each kid's head then they reached into a black cauldron and pulled out a sticker with their House crest. Then I, being the voice of the Sorting Hat, announced it to the rest of the group. They put the sticker on their robe... (In case you're wondering, Kendall wanted to be Luna Lovegood so I drew silly glasses on her as well with my red lipstick...)
After sorting we began Potions outside on the driveway. This is always the kids' favorite. Using their Potions books they got at Flourish and Blotts, each pair mixed up the potions (there were six potions) in the book using ingredients like "unicorn horn" "spider eggs" "dragon spit" etc. I made the potions easy, but challenging, if that makes sense. That's also why I put them into pairs. The favorite potions are the ones they can drink...
Ryan helped Kendall and Hudson with their potions and it looks like it got a little out-of-hand...
The drinkable potion is Sprite and Pop Rocks - always a favorite, even for Kendall...
From Potions class we went straight to the Quidditch Pitch for three Quidditch games. I had no idea the girls would like this so much (we weren't even going to play Quidditch since there weren't any boys, but I'm so glad we did. It was a huge hit). I hid the three snitches in advance of everyone's arrival so we were able to start playing immediately after instructions. Two Houses played the other two and then we switched thing up for the other two games. Next time I'm going to have them wear colored bands on their arms or something because the House stickers were too hard to see on their robes and it was hard for them to remember who was on their House team...
The Pensieve was next... I had a bowl of water with questions inside. The kids had to stick their heads in the water, pull out a question with their mouths (like bobbing for apples), act out the question until someone gave the right answer (like charades). Some girls were a little hesitant to stick their heads in the Pensieve, some stuck them in all the way...
The Hunt for Horcruxes was the next game on my list. I hid seven Horcruxes in the house and yard and then gave each House team a clue to get them started. At each Horcrux they found another clue to the next. So much fun!! The kids were running everywhere and I loved that they were helping out the other House teams if they were having trouble finding the Horcrux.
These girls had worked up an appetite, so once they found the last Horcrux they were sent to Honeydukes Candy Shop to get their treats. Then we headed to the Great Hall for dinner. Brooklyn chose hot dogs, veggies and dip, fruit, and chips for dinner and the kids ate outside on the back porch...
For dessert, we went to Herbology class where the kids got Mandrake Cakes and ice cream. The kids were skeptical about the cupcakes because they looked JUST LIKE potted plants. The had to pull out their Mandrakes before eating the cupcake and ice cream...
We had one last game on our agenda for the party. It was just like the game Pictionary. I gave each girl a clue and they had to draw it on the whiteboard until someone guessed what it was...
The party was such a blast and I'm looking forward to the next one!! Ahhh, how we love Harry Potter in this house - STILL - well, at least Ella, Brooklyn and I do. The rest of the family will join us if it's the last thing I do! And we WILL have another Harry Potter party in the future!
AND... I couldn't have done the party without the help of my awesome House Elves!! Thank you Layne and Shelley and Clark and Christy and Rhonda for all your help at the party.
No comments:
Post a Comment