A Birthday for a Wizard

Christian turned 8 years old! He has been telling us for months that he wanted a Harry Potter birthday party. I'm sure that's no surprise to anyone who knows him. I have done a Harry Potter party previously for adults, so I used some of the same ideas and then added some more kid friendly games and decorations. In my humble opinion, it turned out AMAZING! I was so happy with it, and Christian had the time of his life. Seeing him so excited made all the work worth it.

Christian really wanted to invite the boys from his school class. Since he is in a special program, the same class has been together for 2 years, so they know each other well. We sent invitations to the 13 boys in his class. Due to summer vacations, only 8 could make it. That ended up being the perfect amount. A few days later, we had a second HP party with our awesome friends, the Olsons. They are huge Harry Potter fans, and we knew that they would love it. The adults got to participate in the second one, so we got to enjoy the fun too! Here is the invitation we sent by owl post (mail).

I spent the week before the party making decorations and buying candy and food for the party. Many of the ideas came from Pinterest and other people who threw amazing parties. I just put my own twist on things.

When the kids arrived, they entered through Platform 9 3/4, a brick wall that they got to run through just like in the books.

I had an extra tan curtain that I wasn't using and thought it would be perfect because it was exactly the right size for the door. Then I bought a cheap sponge in the shape of a brick and some craft paint from Michaels. I used a paint brush to cover the sponge so that it got a nice even coat, and then pressed it onto the curtain. I love how it turned out, and it was a lot easier than I expected. Then I just found a 9 3/4 sign on the internet, printed it out, and hung it next to the door. Original idea found here.

When all the guests arrived, we sorted them into houses using the sorting hat, of course. I made the hat for our party two years ago out of a leather jacket I found at DI and a witch's hat pattern. It has served us well for multiple parties now. To make it extra fun, Jonathon recorded several fun things that the "hat" would say to the kids when they were being randomly sorted into one of the four houses. He used Garage Band and modified his voice so that it was deeper and unrecognizable. Here we have three Gryffindors and a Hufflepuff...

After everyone was sorted, we did a Photo Booth with a Wanted Poster from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I cut it out of white foam board and then painted the borders and added the details. We taped it to a small chair so that it was the right height for the kids and then took their pictures with the wanted poster. Original idea found here. 

Then, we took it a step further and created moving Wanted Posters like in the movie. I came up with the idea, and then Jonathon made it happen! We took a short video of the kids, and then Jonathon imported them to Photoshop and made them into .gifs so that the videos looped over and over. He also slowed it down a little and desaturated the colors. It was my favorite thing from the whole party.... SO FUN!

Here is the setup and some pictures:

And here are some of the amazing .gif results:

Then it was time for Party Games!

Dragon Egg Hunt

I filled a bunch of spotted Easter Eggs with jelly beans (Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans) and then hid them in the yard. The kids earned 10 points for their house with each egg that they found.

 Potions Class

The kids had their very own Professor to do some potion's magic for them. Jonathon took them outside and taught them how sugar and sulfuric acid makes carbon. When mixed together, it forms a big black "snake" that grows out of the container. They got a Science education while attending a birthday party!

Quidditch

Next up was a game of Quidditch. In the invitation, we asked that each boy bring his own broom so that we could play. Jonathon built some awesome Quidditch goals that we set up in our backyard. He made them out of hula hoops (that I found for $2 each. SCORE!) and some scrap wood that we had in our garage. He cut them so that each hoop was a different height and so they could be set up in the yard with some wooden stakes. I would have loved to spray paint them, but we ran out of time. The kids had a BLAST playing! They got good and tired from all the running. Original idea found here.

We played the game with one keeper (goalie), two chasers (trying to score with the quaffle-- big red ball), one beater (trying to defend by throwing a bludger-- small blue ball-- at the chasers), and one seeker (trying to find the snitch). If someone got hit by one of the bludgers, they had to drop the ball and wait for someone else to pick it up. Each time a team got the quaffle through one of the hoops, they scored 10 points for their team. The seeker had to search the yard for the hidden snitch (small gold fererro rocher candy decorated with wings). The snitch was worth 50 points. We played 3 minute "quarters" and then let everyone switch positions. We did this several times until Christian finally found the snitch (and promptly ate it!) The score ended up 90 to 80.

 And here are some more Quidditch pictures from our family party:

Brockton was the seeker for his team. Instead of looking all around the yard for the snitch, he went inside to the dessert table and grabbed one of the extra snitches and came out looking very pleased with himself. I thought it was genius!

Wizard's Duel

For the last game, we did a Wizard's Duel. Two people from different houses faced off against each other. Each person got a list of spells and a wand. Then they were given a scenario (i.e. fight off a dementor).  The first person to give the correct spell (expecto patronum) won the duel and earned 10 points for their team. Christian and Andrew had a major advantage because they have played before. 

After the games were over and GRYFFINDOR won the house cup, we had dessert. Christian doesn't like cake, so I made Harry Potter sugar cookies instead. I set up the table to look like a Honeyduke's candy shop.  Each boy got a cookie and a Honeyduke's treat bag that they could fill with various candies that were mentioned in the Harry Potter books. Beside each treat, I included a little card that talked about each candy.

The Set-Up

Harry Potter Cookies (broom, owl, lightning bolt)

Chocolate frogs, Peppermint toads, Dementor chocolate bars

Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans 

They are actually a generic brand from Jelly Belly called Bean Boozled that I got at Smiths Food. They have regular flavors along with baby wipes, skunk spray, lawn clippings, rotten egg, etc.

Not pictured: We also had licorice wands, lemon drops, and golden snitches (ferrero rocher chocolates with paper wings)

Last, but not least, we had butterbeer. We really like the recipe we found online a few years ago. It is cream soda mixed with a tablespoon or two of butterscotch syrup, and butterscotch whipped cream on top.

Butterbeer mustaches

Happy Birthday to my sweet, smart, helpful boy. 

We love you, Christian!