Hunter had decided a loooong time ago that he wanted to have a Harry Potter birthday party when he turned eight. He has been a Potter fan for well over a year now, loving the first two movies (since those are the only ones mom and dad will let him see). He has read the first book and was Harry Potter for Halloween last year, probably this year as well. I also love Harry Potter so I knew that this party was going to be a lot of fun to plan and throw for him. Of course since Harry Potter is very popular right now there was a wealth of ideas on the internet for birthdays. We decided to transform the house into our very own Hogwarts and have the boys come and take "classes" as students. For invitations we sent out Hogwarts acceptance letters:
Students were asked to wear a blue or black robes and come equipped with one standard household broom. We decided that first the boys would get their wands at Ollivander's, then take Potions, Herbology and end with a Quidditch match. I found some spell and potion book templates that another mom had made and modified them to fit our plan. The potions we decided to do were Felix Felicis (liquid luck), a Mandrake Restorative Draught and Polyjuice potion.
The Standard Book of Spells had actual spells from the movies that the boys would be familiar with such as "Occulus Reparo"
Deke, who is always my partner in creativity made these AMAZING wands out of wodden dowels, mud pegs and copper couplers. He made every one different and unique, staining, sanding, carving and doing all sorts of neat wood working on each of them. They could not have turned out better. 
When they were all finished Deke had Hunter come and look at all of them. Hunter picked each one up and inspected it before pointing it in front of him in a "ready stance" and swishing it. Finally he went back and picked one up, smiled, and getting in his much practiced Harry Potter pose said "Yep this one feels right." "Mom I could feel that this was the right one" he said as we headed inside, "I feel just like the real Harry." Then he ran to tell Avery. Looooove him. When I later asked him why he specifically loved that one he said, "I really like the handle but Mom remember it just, it just feels like Harry." Right. good enough for me :)
When the party day came we got out the wizard robes from Halloween and began to make the house feel like Hogwarts. The table became The Great Hall, adorned with plates and goblets, ready for a feast. We made house banners with each house's crest on them, don't you love what you can do with a printer and some posterboard? 
The goodie bags had "golden snitches" and "Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans" inside. The beans were actually Jellybelly's Beanboozled beans. They are jellybeans that look similar except one is a good flavor and one is a gross flavor. Example: juicy pear could also be booger, coconut could be baby wipes, licorice or skunk spray, cinnamon or centipede. I somehow got lucky and never got a gross one. Deke was not so lucky. The boys were thrilled at these (sorry to all the moms who got stuck trying them :) ) I also printed mini Marauder's Maps for them to have which Hunter carried around the house for the next few days pointing his wand at and saying "I solemly swear I am up to no good." 
Then to make sure there was adequate parking for everybody's brooms to enter at Platform 9 3/4...
Ollivander's was set up in the living room, Potions and the Great Hall were in the kitchen. 
Potions class was the class Hunter was most excited about. I have to admit I was too. I borrowed all sorts of different glass containers from my neighbors and found some really fun vintage looking labels for them. I filled them with different "ingredients" such as "dried bones, Hippogriff gizards, blind cat eyes, Gilliweed, Phoenix tears etc. etc.
It was fun trying to think of things that would look gross or feel slimey to make it really fun for them. Things like cocktail onions for the blind cat eyes or food colored spaghetti made great blood worms. Lettuce soaked over night in a jar of water, instant Gilliweed...
We even found a fake brain at the dollar store...
Now it was time to party. I was so happy when the boys started arriving and I saw that every single one was wearing a black cape of some sort and had brought a broom. They watched HP 1 as we waited for everyone to arrive. Then we brought them to Ollivander's and told them that the first thing every good wizard needs is a wand. We reminded them that every wand is different and that "the wand chooses the wizard." I love this picture I took of them waiting to get their wands, the anticipation on there faces is sweet. 
Hunter was first to get his wand. I'll admit it, we rigged it so that Hunter would get the wand that he loved. Deke did an awesome job as Ollivander, when each boy would come up, he would think for a moment and then say things like, "ah yes I sense courage in you" or "I think that a wand with dragon heartstring is in order." He said something different for each boy. Then he would reach under the towel and randomly pick a wand and present it to them. "Give it a flick" he would say as he handed it to them. Then they would each do a pose as if ready to perform a spell. It was neat to see them get into it. Then each boy would take a copy of each of the "required texts" to get ready for classes. 
Hunter striking one of his many pre practiced poses :)
The boys loved their wands, it was probably one of their favorite things at the party. 
We headed then to Snape's Potion class. It was so fun because the books could actually use their potion books to read the ingredients and instructions of the different potions. We started out with the Mandrake Restorative Draught whose purpose was to "revive those that had been petrified." Each boy got a cup of Mandrake root (baking soda) that had a small pinch of blue food coloring hidden in the bottom. We told them that mandrake root was sensitive to movement so they couldn't pick up or move their cups. This kept the food coloring a secret. 
They then each added a couple of teaspoons of Dandelion root (yellow dyed baking soda). We had gotten nine plastic vials from the Fry's floral shop that looked just like potion vials. Deke poured them each some Phoenix tears (vinegar) into their vials. 
Then all at once they poured their vials of tears into their mixture and of course it started bubbling and reacting. 
I couldn't believe how quick and how much it bubbled up. The boys were amazed. Then they added their purified water and their potion turned green. Which was quite surprising to them since they didn't know about the food coloring. "How did it do that?" they kept asking us. "That was sweet!" another one said. 
Next potion was Felix Felicis or (liquid luck) that would give the drinker luck in all their endeavors the day they consumed it. They each recieved a goblet of unicorn serum (Sprite) and then a small cup full of cornish pixie compound (pop rocks). 
On the count of three they all dumped the compound into their goblets resulting in popping, fizzing and color changing. "Okay now take a drink" we told them. Amazingly they were all hesitant. "I am not drinking that stuff" one of the boys from our ward informed me. "It's okay to drink it I promise" I told them as I reminded them that I wouldn't give them anything that wasn't safe. 
Then it was bottoms up and they all drank it at the same time. Deke and I had of course tried out all the experiments before hand and this one was really cool. One because who wouldn't want to get to drink a potion and two because it really does pop and fizz a lot in your mouth and is a fun sensation. 
A few seconds after drinking his one of the boys from Hunter's class pretended to convulse and fell down on the table. It was hilarious and quite entertaining for all the boys who then decided they each would like to have their own potion reaction and started dropping like flies around the table. 
Hunter was grinning ear to ear, loving that everybody was getting into the imagination of it all. He loves to imagine. I loved that they were getting into character. Later out playing Quidditch one of the boys on the winning team informed me that they won because of the potion, now he was lucky. They each then started pointing out peculiar things that had been happening to them that seemed unusually lucky that day. It was hilarious. The last potion was Polyjuice potion that would allow them to turn into another person temporarily. This was where all the fun jars came in. They had to follow their potion books and get all the ingredients and measurements just right. We reviewed what a teaspoon, tablespoon etc. was and they were on their way. 
It was funny to watch the way each one approached this one. Some were going exactly in order of the list. Others jumping all around here and there. Hunter and Tobyn of course waited to make sure they had the right measuring devices when it called specifically for a teaspoon or half a cup. They were also the ones that were very detailed when an ingredient called for "just a pinch" or "a small handfull." There was a couple of things that a few of the boys did not want to touch. "That looks gross, I don't want to touch it" one told me. Then there were others that excitedly offered to scoop it out for him. 
It was great to watch them learn to pretty much follow a recipe. I loved listening to their commentary about the ingredients as they were working with them. 
It was hilarious to watch them when they would get grossed out by touching something. I was surprised but the Hippogriff gizards (diced tomates) were the thing that most of them found "the most grosest" to put their hand into. Hence bug's face..
Another one of their favorite things was extracting the Acrometula venom from inside a plastic Halloween spider. 
Deke drilled a hole in the body of the spider and we filled it with soy sauce which has a perfect color of venom. Then using an old medicine dropper the boys could extract some venom for their potion. This was a huge hit!! They were all very anxious to try this.
After their potion was done we told them it had to brew for one month so we put them on the counter to brew. As we were cleaning up one of the boys came up to me and asked, "Sis Burch are these really magic?" "I mean are these actual potions" "No, but who knows maybe all these ingredients mixed up another way maybe could actually make something." While we finished cleaning the boys practiced spells on each other from their boys. They had a blast pretending to stun and freeze each other. 
They would look in their book find a spell and practice it on someone. One of the boys came over and asked me, "can we make up our own spells too and try them?" Hunter's friend Daniel came over looking perplexed shaking his wand. "Mine isn't working." he told me and then again gave it a shake. Smiling I said, "Well that's because you are a first year and you are just barely learning." Smiling back he headed back to the group. I know, I know but I couldn't help it. I also love that at this point in the party they had assigned each other characters from the movie. Hunter was Harry, Ashton wanted to be Voldemort etc. etc. Awesome. 
Then it was time for Herbology. There the boys made their own dirt and mud concotion. Hunter had decided that he didn't want a cake so instead chocolate pudding, chocolate grahams and gummy worms and bugs were made available. Who doesn't like making dirt cups?
Then it was present time and of course Hunter got some great LEGO sets and other great boy toys. We put his candles in his dirt, love those cheeks as he was blowing them out.
After everyone was sugared up, the boys grabbed their brooms and we headed to the park for a nice game of Quidditch. 
They played Quidditch or rather broom hockey until they were all so red and sweaty that we had to go inside. Trying to have a birthday outside in Aug. here is pretty much impossible. They really got into the broom hockey. Then it was done. It had been a blast and all went so well. Hunter was elated and has talked about his party ever since and how much fun it was. I love birthdays, I love getting to do these things for the kids. I am enjoying these years where their imaginations are so vast and they still like to pretend. I can't believe of course how fast they are going. Well Mr. Burch er Potter we hope it was a good one. Happy Birthday bug!!!! 
When the party day came we got out the wizard robes from Halloween and began to make the house feel like Hogwarts. The table became The Great Hall, adorned with plates and goblets, ready for a feast. We made house banners with each house's crest on them, don't you love what you can do with a printer and some posterboard? The goodie bags had "golden snitches" and "Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans" inside. The beans were actually Jellybelly's Beanboozled beans. They are jellybeans that look similar except one is a good flavor and one is a gross flavor. Example: juicy pear could also be booger, coconut could be baby wipes, licorice or skunk spray, cinnamon or centipede. I somehow got lucky and never got a gross one. Deke was not so lucky. The boys were thrilled at these (sorry to all the moms who got stuck trying them :) ) I also printed mini Marauder's Maps for them to have which Hunter carried around the house for the next few days pointing his wand at and saying "I solemly swear I am up to no good." Then to make sure there was adequate parking for everybody's brooms to enter at Platform 9 3/4...Ollivander's was set up in the living room, Potions and the Great Hall were in the kitchen. Potions class was the class Hunter was most excited about. I have to admit I was too. I borrowed all sorts of different glass containers from my neighbors and found some really fun vintage looking labels for them. I filled them with different "ingredients" such as "dried bones, Hippogriff gizards, blind cat eyes, Gilliweed, Phoenix tears etc. etc. It was fun trying to think of things that would look gross or feel slimey to make it really fun for them. Things like cocktail onions for the blind cat eyes or food colored spaghetti made great blood worms. Lettuce soaked over night in a jar of water, instant Gilliweed...We even found a fake brain at the dollar store...Now it was time to party. I was so happy when the boys started arriving and I saw that every single one was wearing a black cape of some sort and had brought a broom. They watched HP 1 as we waited for everyone to arrive. Then we brought them to Ollivander's and told them that the first thing every good wizard needs is a wand. We reminded them that every wand is different and that "the wand chooses the wizard." I love this picture I took of them waiting to get their wands, the anticipation on there faces is sweet. Hunter was first to get his wand. I'll admit it, we rigged it so that Hunter would get the wand that he loved. Deke did an awesome job as Ollivander, when each boy would come up, he would think for a moment and then say things like, "ah yes I sense courage in you" or "I think that a wand with dragon heartstring is in order." He said something different for each boy. Then he would reach under the towel and randomly pick a wand and present it to them. "Give it a flick" he would say as he handed it to them. Then they would each do a pose as if ready to perform a spell. It was neat to see them get into it. Then each boy would take a copy of each of the "required texts" to get ready for classes. Hunter striking one of his many pre practiced poses :)The boys loved their wands, it was probably one of their favorite things at the party. We headed then to Snape's Potion class. It was so fun because the books could actually use their potion books to read the ingredients and instructions of the different potions. We started out with the Mandrake Restorative Draught whose purpose was to "revive those that had been petrified." Each boy got a cup of Mandrake root (baking soda) that had a small pinch of blue food coloring hidden in the bottom. We told them that mandrake root was sensitive to movement so they couldn't pick up or move their cups. This kept the food coloring a secret. They then each added a couple of teaspoons of Dandelion root (yellow dyed baking soda). We had gotten nine plastic vials from the Fry's floral shop that looked just like potion vials. Deke poured them each some Phoenix tears (vinegar) into their vials. Then all at once they poured their vials of tears into their mixture and of course it started bubbling and reacting. I couldn't believe how quick and how much it bubbled up. The boys were amazed. Then they added their purified water and their potion turned green. Which was quite surprising to them since they didn't know about the food coloring. "How did it do that?" they kept asking us. "That was sweet!" another one said. Next potion was Felix Felicis or (liquid luck) that would give the drinker luck in all their endeavors the day they consumed it. They each recieved a goblet of unicorn serum (Sprite) and then a small cup full of cornish pixie compound (pop rocks). On the count of three they all dumped the compound into their goblets resulting in popping, fizzing and color changing. "Okay now take a drink" we told them. Amazingly they were all hesitant. "I am not drinking that stuff" one of the boys from our ward informed me. "It's okay to drink it I promise" I told them as I reminded them that I wouldn't give them anything that wasn't safe. Then it was bottoms up and they all drank it at the same time. Deke and I had of course tried out all the experiments before hand and this one was really cool. One because who wouldn't want to get to drink a potion and two because it really does pop and fizz a lot in your mouth and is a fun sensation. A few seconds after drinking his one of the boys from Hunter's class pretended to convulse and fell down on the table. It was hilarious and quite entertaining for all the boys who then decided they each would like to have their own potion reaction and started dropping like flies around the table. Hunter was grinning ear to ear, loving that everybody was getting into the imagination of it all. He loves to imagine. I loved that they were getting into character. Later out playing Quidditch one of the boys on the winning team informed me that they won because of the potion, now he was lucky. They each then started pointing out peculiar things that had been happening to them that seemed unusually lucky that day. It was hilarious. The last potion was Polyjuice potion that would allow them to turn into another person temporarily. This was where all the fun jars came in. They had to follow their potion books and get all the ingredients and measurements just right. We reviewed what a teaspoon, tablespoon etc. was and they were on their way. It was funny to watch the way each one approached this one. Some were going exactly in order of the list. Others jumping all around here and there. Hunter and Tobyn of course waited to make sure they had the right measuring devices when it called specifically for a teaspoon or half a cup. They were also the ones that were very detailed when an ingredient called for "just a pinch" or "a small handfull." There was a couple of things that a few of the boys did not want to touch. "That looks gross, I don't want to touch it" one told me. Then there were others that excitedly offered to scoop it out for him. It was great to watch them learn to pretty much follow a recipe. I loved listening to their commentary about the ingredients as they were working with them. It was hilarious to watch them when they would get grossed out by touching something. I was surprised but the Hippogriff gizards (diced tomates) were the thing that most of them found "the most grosest" to put their hand into. Hence bug's face..Another one of their favorite things was extracting the Acrometula venom from inside a plastic Halloween spider. Deke drilled a hole in the body of the spider and we filled it with soy sauce which has a perfect color of venom. Then using an old medicine dropper the boys could extract some venom for their potion. This was a huge hit!! They were all very anxious to try this.After their potion was done we told them it had to brew for one month so we put them on the counter to brew. As we were cleaning up one of the boys came up to me and asked, "Sis Burch are these really magic?" "I mean are these actual potions" "No, but who knows maybe all these ingredients mixed up another way maybe could actually make something." While we finished cleaning the boys practiced spells on each other from their boys. They had a blast pretending to stun and freeze each other. They would look in their book find a spell and practice it on someone. One of the boys came over and asked me, "can we make up our own spells too and try them?" Hunter's friend Daniel came over looking perplexed shaking his wand. "Mine isn't working." he told me and then again gave it a shake. Smiling I said, "Well that's because you are a first year and you are just barely learning." Smiling back he headed back to the group. I know, I know but I couldn't help it. I also love that at this point in the party they had assigned each other characters from the movie. Hunter was Harry, Ashton wanted to be Voldemort etc. etc. Awesome. Then it was time for Herbology. There the boys made their own dirt and mud concotion. Hunter had decided that he didn't want a cake so instead chocolate pudding, chocolate grahams and gummy worms and bugs were made available. Who doesn't like making dirt cups?Then it was present time and of course Hunter got some great LEGO sets and other great boy toys. We put his candles in his dirt, love those cheeks as he was blowing them out. After everyone was sugared up, the boys grabbed their brooms and we headed to the park for a nice game of Quidditch. They played Quidditch or rather broom hockey until they were all so red and sweaty that we had to go inside. Trying to have a birthday outside in Aug. here is pretty much impossible. They really got into the broom hockey. Then it was done. It had been a blast and all went so well. Hunter was elated and has talked about his party ever since and how much fun it was. I love birthdays, I love getting to do these things for the kids. I am enjoying these years where their imaginations are so vast and they still like to pretend. I can't believe of course how fast they are going. Well Mr. Burch er Potter we hope it was a good one. Happy Birthday bug!!!! 
1 comment:
I love this! I am always so jealous of your guys parties! I love them! And I totally want a wand! Very cute you guys! We love you!
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