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We love Harry Potter. I know this is not a surprise to most of you! So when Ellie and Kate asked for a Harry Potter party I was beyond excited. We had already been to an amazing Harry Potter party last October and since most of those kids were going to be coming to this party I knew I was going to have to do things differently. Drat! That party had been so well done I knew I was going to have to do a lot of research to come up with different details to focus on. A good party is good because of the details, that’s my philosophy.
Let’s start with the invitation. I really wanted to send a Howler but even though I spent hours researching it, I am just not good with programming. So, instead, I made up the invitation and recorded an audio version of it so it was almost a howler. I emailed all the parents ahead of time so they would know what was coming and they all managed to play the audio clips for their girls. Again, not good with programming so you will have to just enjoy the visual part of the invitation as I can’t figure out how to put a sound clip on my blog. (FYI – Ellie and Kate always play Luna and Hermione when they play Harry Potter.)
Next I turned my focus to the party itself. I knew we had to do some classes because that is what you do at Hogwarts. Jill and her best friend Madison (both 13) are also huge Harry Potter fans so I knew I could count on them to be teachers.
We decided on Care of Magical Creatures for Jill. She was substitute teacher, Ms. Grubblyplank because we just couldn’t figure out how to make her into a huge Hagrid. She taught the students how to sew up the baby owls and then teach them how to fly. (I made these owls with scraps of fabric I already had. I combined inspiration from here and here.)
We decided it would also be fun to have a potions class. My girls recently made these at a science class at church and we thought that might make a great potion. I told Madison what the true ingredients were and she came up with this recipe:
I love her creativity! I found the potions jars at Hobby Lobby for $1 each and the mason jars and spoons I already had on hand. Each student got to take home their potion and recipe card. (And extra Alka Seltzer, ahem, jumping beans if they wanted.)
This is the part I really love. I enjoy setting a fancy table so working on the Great Hall was great fun. One of first things I worked on was the floating candles. They are the first thing I think of when I imagine the Great Hall so they were a must. What I did was I tied hanging candle holders (I already had them from summer deck parties) to my existing lights with fishing wire. The wire disappeared and it looked like the candles were floating above the table. Perfect!
I also placed candles all around the table to continue the look. Please note that I did use flameless candles because I didn’t want any students burning themselves when they were reaching for treats and I didn’t want the real flames to melt any of the treats.
I found the plates and napkins at Hobby Lobby and I thought they added the perfect touch of whimsy since this really was a party for two little girls. Gotta keep it fun and light! I technically already had the goblets but I did buy them in mind of having an HP party.
I knew I wanted to do snitch cake pops for the birthday cake but I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull that off. I ended up cheating a bit and skipping the wings. Instead I added the sign ‘I Open at the Close’ and left them as is. No, I did not insert any resurrection stones. No choking hazards for us! To make the snitches golden I spray painted them with this and then I displayed them in a cauldron we already had.
Next up? Chocolate frogs. I borrowed the frog mold from Judith and used dark chocolate mint candy melts to mimic the taste of the Peppermint Toads we had in Orlando. Yum!
Cockroach clusters anybody? Sounds disgusting, but we used to make these yummy clusters before we went gluten free. I made these by mixing half a box of Fiber One cereal with one bag of melted chocolate chips. Mix them together thoroughly and then drop 1/4 cup of the mixture onto wax paper and wait for it to cool.
When we were at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter we tried Pumpkin Juice and Butterbeer. We all agreed that we didn’t like the Pumpkin Juice much. It just seemed like that flavor should have been chewed (in a muffin for example) instead of slurped. So we substituted V8 Splash instead. The girls loved the Butterbeer flavor but I didn’t know how to replicate that so I found my own recipe online. Our Butterbeer was one scoop of vanilla ice cream, a generous squirt of butterscotch syrup and ginger ale to top it all off. This produced a drink with a nice froth on the top and a pleasing flavor.
We also offered Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans (Jelly Belly’s) and Licorice Wands. Wasn’t it nice of us to feed the girls snacks all afternoon noon and send them home high on sugar just in time for dinner? I’m still waiting for the parents to thank us for that!
I made signs and tags for everything. For all of the food, for the scavenger hunt clues and for the classrooms. I found free Harry Potter fonts here. My favorite was Lumos because of the cute little star that dotted all the i’s.
Because I’m an over achiever, and because I’ve always got a lot of sewing scraps around I also decided to make a Hogwarts banner at the last minute. It was really simple. I downloaded the Hogwarts logo that I found through Google Images. Test your logo by printing it on regular paper first because there are a lot of low resolution versions that won’t print very well. I printed the logo onto a fabric printer sheet (again, left over from another project), cut it out, and sewed it onto a felt scrap that I cut in the shape of a banner. Then I sewed a pocket at the top so I could slide in a dowel (I found that in the garage. I hope Mr. Fun didn’t have any plans for it!) and tied it up with pretty ribbon. That helped set the tone of the party right at the front door!
I think the only detail that I wanted to do, but I couldn’t come up with a plan for, was this. I’m pretty sure my dog was grateful that I ran out time. Maybe next year!
My girls like to be surprised by their parties so Ellie and Kate did not know any of the party details. I’d been hiding everything in my studio (it smelled like chocolate heaven in there) and we sent them away 40 minutes before the party started. While they were gone we all quickly set the whole thing and hid all the clues. When they arrived home 15 minutes before the party started so they could greet their guests. Their reaction was priceless!
Stay tuned for the next blog post where you can actually see pictures of the party as it happened. It’s about time, right?
Just tying it all together…here are my other party posts:
Harry Potter Party – Scavenger Hunt