Something Wicked This Way Comes

As you may know, our family likes Harry Potter. Just a little. Ok maybe a lot. And by family, I mean my stepson and me. My husband just kinda goes along for the ride and laughs when we speak in spells to each other. It's a little ridiculous.

Anyway, Tyler wanted a (what else?) Harry Potter birthday party this year so here's what I came up with. The kids were great and many dressed up. We had a "Hogwarts student" who even died his hair orange and brought a stuffed rat so he could be Ron Weasley. Love those kids!

  It all starts with the invitation. We sent 

these out a few weeks before the party 

to all the kids and included a "ticket" to 

Platform 9 3/4. I got the basic idea from a 

Pinterest post and tweaked it for my needs. 

I like hand making things because I have 

fun doing it and while it may take me longer 

than just clicking the "Buy Now" button, 

I can save a little money and make it my own. 

Gives me a sense of accomplishment. 

When the kids arrived, they were at Platform 9 3/4. Doug re-purposed the spaceship gangplank we made for our friend's Firefly party and turned it into train tracks. I bought a cheap, white twin sheet, glued two halved sponges to a piece of two by four and stamped the "brick" wall onto it. There was a slit down the middle the kids could run through to get to Hogsmeade/Hogwarts.

 The Hogwarts Express was waiting for them on the other side (drats! we forgot to get out our fog machine for the steam engine).

I, again, made use of my old picture 

frame and created a notice board 

such as the kids would find in each 

house common room. Notices 

about Sirius Black, maps of Diagon 

Alley and Hogsmeade, school supplies 

for sale...

Next to that were the house points hourglasses. Tyler's mom is a knitter and she made him a Sorting Hat (see him all dressed up to the right). Each child was sorted when they walked in (I made pins with each house crest on it and the kids drew them blindly out of a bowl) and competed as a House for the House Cup. For each activity the kids did, they got points for first, second, third and fourth place.

My proudest accomplishment was the Whomping Willow. I used packing paper and grocery bags as well as some old faux vines I 

inherited from my mother when she moved. The yellow cards on the floor are from the matching game the kids played. 

I had a Potions classroom set up by our fireplace, complete with jars of Frog Brains (thank you Target after Halloween sale last year for the jello mould), Octopus Powder, and Gillyweed (all lined up on the mantle). 

Goody bags were made to look like brooms (thanks again, Pinterest!). I had Devil's Snare and Wolfsbane along with some extra Platform 9 3/4 tickets, should anyone think they needed to come back. 

One of our dogs (Captain Malcolm Reynolds) kept watch in the "Forbidden Forest." Didn't stop several of the "students" from asking if they could visit the Nifflers, Sphinx, the Grim, and Fang the Boarhound. What can I say, our animals are just so darn cute!

That's me on the left, Tyler's aunt Kim and
Tyler's mom all helping out in the kitchen during the party

We actually did cooking during the party, which was a major accomplishment. I prepared as much as humanly possible before the party, but some stuff had to be fresh. The meat and potato pies had to be baked that day, the French Onion Soup was reheated in the crock pot, and the banana fritters were fried while the kids were playing their last game.  

 The rest was fairly simple (ha!). Homemade chocolate frogs in three different flavors, Veritaserum, Pumpkin Juice, and Butterbeer to drink...

...Triple Power Lemon Pops (those were a mess to keep frozen!)...

...banana fritters, pies and soup...

...And of course Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans!













After the kids were sorted, they went to Transfiguration class where they decorated their own wizard hats and made their own School Crest. I printed plain white crests onto cardstock and then printed and cut out a variety of magical things for them to glue and draw on their shields (broomsticks, wizard chess pieces, herbology, dragons...).

They then went to their other 3 "classes" to face various challenges as a team: matching game, Harry Potter alphabet (think Scattergories), and Scene It. In the end, none of the kids really cared about who won the house cup, they were just having a great time. I love planning parties, but I must say I'm looking forward to Tyler's next party year (he only gets one every other birthday) where he will probably just want pizza and a rented movie. Whew! I'm exhausted!

Thanks to all the Pinners out there who gave me inspiration for some aspects of the party. I had a great time putting it all together.