Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Welcome to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry - a Harry Potter party for a boy turning eight


Back in March my boy turned eight. He had just read his way through all seven Harry Potter books over the Christmas holidays and most of his mates were reading too so this party theme was set. Like all our parties this one needed to be created mostly from what we had around the house and after stumbling across a few awesome HarryPotter party ideas on Pinterest we had a plan.

Invitations were sent out to his mates inviting them back to a new term at Hogwarts. He has one friend with red hair, one friend who is a girl, one who loves frogs, two who are pranksters and one who is happy to be the bad guy so welcome Ron, Hermione, Neville, Fred and George Weasley and Draco Malfoy. Little sister was keen to be Dobbie the house elf but refused to garb up in a pillowcase so came in her Christmas elf suit with embellishments.


First up we had a sorting hat ceremony. I quickly sewed some felt onto a witches hat from our dress up box. We poked a mobile phone into the mouth hole and lo and behold as each hat passed from head to head it told everyone which house they would be in. Lots of Gryffindors obviously!


Then it was off to Ollivanders to choose a wand. We made the wands out of tightly rolled paper, spray painted and embellished with hot glue ( I found a tutorial somewhere on Youtube). Phoenix feathers optional.


Then it was straight into our first class, Care of Magical creatures. I rounded up all appropriate creatures from the toy boxes and hid them around the garden. When all creatures were located we had a quiz that determined the security code for Gringotts bank. Once the code had been cracked each wizard received their stash of Galleons to spend later at Honeydukes.

The wizard who located Neville's toad also received the first Golden Snitch of the party. As packs of Ferrero Rochers come in five's, we only had this many so they were highly coveted and an incentive to win games.


Next up was what turned out to be the absolute highlight of the entire party. Potions class. Basically lots of bottles full of vinegar with different food colourings and lots of gruesome names. Add that to bicarb of soda powder aka powdered unicorn horn and lots of sludgy, sloppy, foul slurries in various colours and a selection of beans and seeds and a mortar and pestle or two. My personal favourite was pearl tapioca cooked up with a dash of pink colouring which made spectacular pufferfish eyes.


We had a few lessons in particular potions from Professor Snape (Legoman in a wig) and then we left them to it to concoct the most disgusting foul potion. Another golden snitch for the winner of the most foul and as everything was edible they all had to try their concoctions as well- this led to hysteria interspersed with gagging.


So for the next hour there was much grinding,


 mixing and sloshing. I had stuck a massive black tarp down on the lounge room floor but of course it was nowhere near big enough.


Lets not forget the tasting,


and the collaborative creating. They used up every last Ashwinder egg, rat tail, unicorn horn and pufferfish egg available.


 It was essentially every eight year old's idea of awesome ( that's Legoman's old Harry Potter set in the background, this is the first birthday in years where the birthday boy did not receive Lego).

The cleanup was also interesting.


Then it was time for some Quidditch. I had nabbed the cardboard rolls from leftover fabric rolls at Spotlight, the staff were happy to let me take a few home and they made great broomsticks without concern of broken limbs if anyone got too enthusiastic.


With seven kids it is the perfect number for Muggle Quidditch. Two beaters, two chasers, two blockers and one seeker. Poor Legoman had to run fast as he was the snitch.


And then we staggered home to spend those hard earned galleons at Honeydukes. I had written a full list with prices for each item and the kids took it all very seriously as they calculated which treats they could afford.


And only Legoman could cope with the tedious job of cutting out and assembling those Bertie Bots ever flavour beans packets that I found as a free printable.



And then finally a slab of the fastest cake I have ever slapped together at the last possible minute.




And that is how we do a Harry Potter party. Thank goodness I now have nine months to recover before the next one rolls around. I am wondering though if this may be then end of the road for parties for my boy, in which case it is good to go out with a bang. And this was all he wanted, this eight year old of mine.


Cookie and Jet, welcome to the menagerie.

30 comments:

  1. Coolest parents ever! Mel this is extraordinary! Seriously!
    Ps I notice the little lady had an outfit change :)

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    1. Thanks Lea, I really love creating for parties, it is soooo fun! And yes, christmas elf outfits are a tad hot in sweltering March! mel x

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  2. I am hanging my head in shame! What a wonderful day you have organised for your boy. My 13 year old insists on still having parties.... although he prefers going to the movies and have a big boy sleepover nowadays. The guinea pigs are super cute. xx

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    1. Unfortunately both my kids inherited the party mad gene. Mum says I used to start planning my next cake the day after the party finished and the apples don't fall far from the tree! Plus it is fun dressing up and talking like Professor McGonagall for a day! mel x

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  3. What a fantastic party and what a fantastic Mum you are to have arranged and organised it all and to have done so much work!! The potions class is amazing, not sure about the ends in the sink, but hey, your sink will be nice and clean with all that vinegar and bicarb right! Love the guinea pigs, hope that they are lots of fun! Happy Birthday to your not so little wizard! xx

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    1. Thanks Amy, the cleanup of this party was truly disgusting but it was amazing what a success potions was and most of it was already in my pantry! The guinea pigs are getting a lot of love e.g. being flown around in duple aeroplanes poor things. mel x

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  4. Fantastic party idea. so much time and effort has gone in to it, wow. And I can see it was appreciated. Well done Mel. Love that the milk glass came in handy too xo

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    1. Thanks Elaina, the milk glass gets trotted out for every party around here, so good for sweets and treats. mel x

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  5. Wow! Another legendary party Mel!
    (I hope those beautiful floorboards remained unscathed)
    x

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    1. Floorboards are fine Kylie, think vinegar just improves the sheen! mel x

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  6. Well done Mel, makes me wish I was 8 again.

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    1. Thanks Jan, I wish I had time to re read all those Harry Potter books again, my memory was a little sketchy after fourteen years! mel x

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  7. What a fantastic party! Brilliant.....love what your doing to your home! :) x

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    1. Thanks Ada, took me a few days to recover from this one! mel x

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  8. pretty nice blog, following :)

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  9. A massive round of applause to you! Wow! Looks fabulous!! Very inventive. I loved it all
    Laura www.lasscreative.com.au

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    1. Thanks Laura, no styling for this one as eight year old boys cannot give a stuff about such things. Is quite liberating to just focus on making it fun though mel x

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  10. What a cool party!!! Your children must think you are the best mum ever.

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    1. The kids thought husband as Snape and me as McGonagall was pretty funny - the backchat was shocking when we were in character. Potions and Quidditch were pretty easy to organise and were very well received. mel x

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  11. Mel this is SO awesome! Best party ever. Well done you!!! And a big happy birthday to Legoman x

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    1. Thanks Mel, we all love parties in this house. The kids helped me a lot, I even had Roboboy making Flobberworms out of hot glue squeezed into cold water- looks just like some sort of nasty tapeworm! mel x

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  12. SO much fun !!! I miss parties like that for the boys. These days they just want to go to a movie with mates and eat a pizza. You might squeeze a couple more in! The potion making is genius. I seriously think it could work for a girl party next year.

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  13. Hi Mel - so much catching up to do! My goodness - I don't think I've ever witnessed someone go to SO much trouble (and pay so much attention to detail) for a child's birthday party! The kids must have LOVED this so much. Hats off to you for a job well done - and I must also comment on the restraint displayed in letting the kids mortar and pestle their little hearts out on your new timber floors. I personally would have had a heart attack. xx

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  14. Brilliant party! (But I don't envy you the clean-up!)

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  15. Hi there, I stumbled upon your blog whilst blog hopping :)
    Seriously, this has to have been the best party ever! Total respect to you!!
    Love Jillxo

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  16. Hi there, I stumbled upon your blog whilst blog hopping :)
    Seriously, this has to have been the best party ever! Total respect to you!!
    Love Jillxo

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  17. Oh my word, you thought of EVERYTHING! Your attention to detail is superb, so many lovely, imaginative touches. Also, is your boy an especially good reader? I'm impressed that he read all seven books - did he find the later ones scary? My daughter is 7 and a half and a pretty good reader for her age. but I haven't introduced her to HP yet - she might be ready for the first one though. x

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    1. Thanks so much Gillian! My son is a good reader, in the top of the class I think now but really only took off with this when he turned seven. I think the first four books are ok but 5-7 are much darker. In hindsight I would have made him stop at book four until he was older (9-10) but once he had the bug for reading I also didn't want to hold him back! Several of his friends were also reading them and talking about them at school which inspired them all as a little gang which was very cute. mel x

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  18. Oh.MY.GOD! I have been offline and not reading blogs for a fair while. Just read this post. That looks like the most amazing kids party I've ever seen. Totally perfect. So sad my boys weren't invited :(

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