Savannah's Harry Potter birthday party

Ok, sorry for the monster-long post, if anyone actually reads this:) For Savannah's last birthday party I finally convinced her to do a Harry Potter theme. I have been wanting to do this theme since I started doing birthday parties. Having a birthday in the fall makes it convenient for party shopping, with Halloween just around the corner. I had a lot of fun planning this party, but it about killed me--it was SO much work!!! Especially on the heels of Irelynd's Fablehaven party just 2 weeks earlier. We are scaling back next year, I tell you what! (if anyone believes me:)

We sent out invites congratulating the kids for being accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and telling them to report to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. We hung this sign outside on our front porch...

and the "brick wall" curtain over the front doorway, so the kids could run through the brick wall, like they do in the books. It looked pretty realistic, but was So time consuming to do it!

Next they waited in the living room for everyone to arrive, and we gave them some Bertie Bott's beans, which, by the way, have been discontinued and replaced with BeanBoozled Beans. I was really disappointed, but it was ok. When everyone arrived, Scott and I greeted the kids as Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall, and led everyone upstairs to Diagon Alley to purchase their supplies, since they all came from Muggle families. Scott was a good sport to wear the wig and beard for so long.

We started with Gringotts Bank, where each student received a money pouch to purchase their supplies with. We painted little disks of wood for the coins, and put them in small bags I sewed and tied with each guest's name. I included a picture of Griphook the Goblin, and the phrase quoted in Book 1.I had some stores, just for the look, like Eeyelops Owl Emporium.

The Restricted Library was actually downstairs and just for effect.

The kids started at Madame Malkin's Dress Shoppe, where I outfitted them with a robe. I pretended to measure them around, up and down, etc, and them gave them a robe I made from black tableclothes from the Dollar Store. I wanted to do them out of felt or something more lasting, but it was going to be too expensive, so this was my solution. Actually, I think Scott came up with it. Savannah's I made out of real fabric, as it was to be her Halloween costume.

I could have kicked myself that night because I forgot to take pictures of everything until the party was over, so I didn't get the full effect of the set up.

Another store just for effect was Quality Quidditch Supplies. I hung some brooms from the ceiling with fishing line to make it appear like they were flying.

We sent them to Flourish and Blotts to get their textbooks. This was a timely and expensive part of the party, which I think was totally wasted on the kids. I made each of them a textbook with trivia relating to each of the subjects they would be studying at school that night. Unfortunately, they got put together out of order so it was a complete waste. Oh well, I'll know for next time...

Borgin and Bourkes covered the entrance to the bathroom and closet

I think this was the kids' favorite part--when they got to pick their wands at Ollivander's. Scott made the wand holder. It was a cut-off pop container with a small flashlight attached at the bottom. We made wands for everyone. We collected small branches for months beforehand and stained them all. I had intended on having them in small boxes with descriptions, like in the book, but decided it would not be feasible, and the kids wouldn't care about the little details. When the child chose a wand, they would tap the jar and say "lumos." If the jar lit up (or we turned on the flashlight), it was a match. If not, they had to choose again. To turn off the light they said "knox." I borrowed this clever idea from other party planners on the web.

After being outfitted with all the neccessities, we "apparated" back into Hogwarts, where I gave them the speech McGonagall does in Book 1. Then we sorted them into houses using the sorting hat Scott made. I was so impressed with his genius with this project, more than any other he's ever completed in our marriage. He made this sorting hat with only a computer picture as his guide. No pattern whatsoever! I was proud of my man, let me tell you!

It looked better than the one at the store for $30! Here is the artiste modeling his creation!

This is the only picture I got of the Sorting Ceremony. We sorted the kids equally in the 4 houses. Savannah, of course, was in Gryffindor.

Next we had the feast in the Banquet Hall. We made large House banners from felt, and Scott printed and laminated great big house seals that we pinned onto the banners. We added "floating candles" and the room looked so great! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the entire effect, with the tables set up.

As the kids were sorted, they sat down at their house table, where I had colored scarves over their chairs for them to put on to tell them apart. They looked so great!

Here's another view. I had 2 tables for the kids, sitting 2 houses together, plus a teacher's table. They ate on gold plates over my gold chargers, with gold cups and flatware. I had candles, but they soon melted the tableclothes, so we had to blow them out. I found recipes online for pumpkin juice and butterbeer. I even juiced a pumpkin for it, but none of the kids liked the pumpkin juice and some wouldn't even try it. Butterbeer was too sweet, but the kids liked it best. We also served fish sticks, chicken poppers, carrots, rolls, and mashed potatoes.

We had the kids sing the Hogwarts song, and gave them instructions before we sent them to their various classes. We had 4 classes, and split the kids up into 2 groups, with Gryffindor and Ravenclaw together; Slytherin and Hufflepuff together.

The first class was Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid. The kids had to each find a magical creature, which was worth a certain dollar amount. When they found it we awarded them the number of galleons it was worth.

Scott was again, a good sport for being Hagrid for me in yet another uncomfortable mask. This party required 3 costume changes: Dumbledore, Hagrid, and a House Elf, which was his own invention in order to remove the Dumbledore costume.

My friend Teresa consented to come as Professor Trelawney and teach Divination for me. Thanks a million Teresa! Doesn't she look great?!

Next was Herbology with Professor Sprout. Thanks Sallie for coming to help! The kids had to pick a bubotuber pod and poke it to release the bubotuber puss, which they then had to each fill a vial with it. I filled black balloons with green-dyed vanilla pudding, which was not an easy thing to do! I expected that the pudding would just ooze out of the small hole created with the safety pin. Unfortunately, some popped and sent bubotuber puss everywhere. Luckily, the class was outside and afforded easy clean up.

Savannah got covered in it.

Here are the pods and vials. You can see the aftermath on the table.

Next was Potions with Professor McGonagall filling in for Professor Snape, who was on special assignment from Dumbledore. I created about 20 different vials of stuff for the kids to make potions with. The first class followed the recipe for Polyjuice potion, but it took too long, and the second class just poured and stirred, which I think they thought was more fun.

Some of the potions.

Divination with Professor Trelawney was taught in our laundry room. We created a crystal ball from an upside-down candleholder and glass light cover. It was pretty realistic. I had intended on putting dry ice inside it to create smoke, but ran out of time. Here is the aftermath of letting the kids pour and mix haphazardly. Gross!

Birthday cake was cauldron cupcakes--the filling is apple flavored cotton candy.

I used "magic" candles for Savannah. She'd never heard of them before, and you can see on her face her reaction--she was freaked out by them! It took blowing them out 3 times before she realized they weren't normal candles. She scooted her chair far back from the table like they were going to bite her.

As everyone was finishing their cake, we took small groups of 3 or 4 kids into the kitchen and let them go shopping with their earned galleons at Honeydukes Sweet Shoppe. This was my favorite part of the party to create. I realized that food excites me most with parties. What does that say about my potential to ever be thin???

I made jelly slugs, cockroach clusters, peppermint toads, chocolate frogs, and licorice wands.

Group photo just before going home. We had some dueling going on, as you can see!

I was fairly disappointed in how this party carried out, but I think it was a lot to do with the amount of work I put into it, and my expectations. THere was too much dead time in between activities for the kids; if I did it again I would NOT separate the kids for classes, and just cut down the number of guests. I worked so hard on decorations, I neglected the details of flow in carrying it out. I think the kids had fun; I didn't get much feedback from anyone, but that's been typical for me. Savannah loved it, and that's what matters I guess. Next year, we're going to Chuck E Cheeses...or so I like to tell myself.

"stuck"

Waverly learned a new word recently, and it's come in handy lately. This day, especially. While Scott was hanging the floating candles for Savannah's Harry Potter birthday party, my little independent girl decided to try to climb the ladder. Feeted jammies don't help much with that. I had to come and rescue her when she was shreaking "stuck! stuck!" (after I took some photos, of course. How mean a mom am I?) Comic relief is always good for me on party days!

We love Hannah Montana!

The girls got invited to go to the Hannah Montana concert in September, lucky them! They got all glammed up and sparkly--what girl doesn't love to be glam and sparkly??? Aunt Alyson showed us how to do an awesom hairstyle she copied from the Disney Princess Salon, which I would love to do again, but will never take the time:)

"peace, dude."

Irelynd shows off her new coiffure. I did hers after watching Alyson do Savannah's, below. Not as great, but still adorable!

I love it!

I just had to include this Home Alone shot of Irelynd. She did this all on her own. See the hot pink nails? It's all about attention to detail, people! (Thanks to Aunt Alyson).

The girls on their way out the door. Notice Grace's "hot outfit"? Savannah loved the concert and told me she "rocked out", but Irelynd and Grace didn't like it as much; it was too loud. I'd have to agree, girls. I hate rock concerts for the same reason. Thanks, Aunt Alyson, for a fun time!

A game of Connect Four

This game got left out one night and the twins discovered it the next morning. It held their attention for a while. They loved just putting the pieces in. It made me laugh to see them "playing" the game like two big kids.

Irelynd's 7th birthday party

This year's theme for Irelynd's birthday was Fablehaven. She has loved reading the books, so we attempted to recreate Fablehaven for our guests. We sent out an invitation, requesting all our guests come to Fablehaven to help us recover one of the magical artifacts hidden on the preserve. We greeted them as Stan and Ruth Sorensen, the caretakers of Fablehaven. I didn't get any pictures of us though. We knighted everyone into the Knights of the Dawn with an oath, and gave everyone magic cow milk so they could see the creatures on the preserve.

We lined the walk with the same signs mentioned in the first book.

I made some fairy lights to go around the door, following instructions from this site.
I cut some big hinges from posterboard to make it look like the big door on the house. We made a gazillion butterflies to add to the porch, and hung up wind chimes.

(The pictures are slightly out of order. For some reason, blogger won't let me move them today.)

This is the naiad pond. The girls had to cross it on the stepping stones and try not to get pulled in by the naiads. This party required a certain degree of pretend.

In the book, the Brownies made a calico cake out of random ingredients left out by Grandma and Lena. So, for Irelynd's cake, I made calico cupcakes using chocolate, strawberry, and confetti cake mixes. They were yummy!

I frosted and topped them with images mentioned in the series.

Our newly-knighted Knights of the Dawn: Erin, Autumn, Meegan, Lizzy, Lindsey, Grace, and

Grace and Irelynd are in the back.

We started out in the garage, with potion making, taught by Tanu. This was our needed potion to decipher the secret, encoded message left for us by Vanessa.

Everyone had to put together bags of magical salt to defeat any bad creatures we encountered on our way through the preserve.

Potion labels and recipes are courtesy of My Party Bug. We made 2 potions: fire proof potion, and courage potion. Those NICU containers have really come in handy for many things! The kids were intrigued with the process, and we had their rapt attention. Most of the potions were just colored Kool Aid.

After mixing potions, we were able to use some Umite Honey to brush over our secret message, written by Vanessa with Umite wax (or white crayon), to get directions of what we had to do to save the preserve. We were instructed to brave the dangerous parts of Fablehaven in order to find her next clues, which would lead us to the artifact. We had to be on the look out for the Sphinx and his minions, who were also after the artifact in order to open Zzyzx, the demon prison.

Scott, as Tanu the Potions Master. Isn't that a great wig? He is such a good BS'er. He threw out the terms like he knew what he was doing, even though he'd never read the books. The kids made their potions, and then we led them to the back gate with the sign below.

Our first obstacle was the Forest of Dread. We hung shredded plastic green tablecloths up in rows, simulating a forest. It wasn't as good as living on a treed lot, but it was the best we could do. After passing through the forest, we came upon the Revenant (zombie), whom we had to throw the magic salt at until he "died". Ethan was our zombie. After we destroyed him, someone had to pull the nail off around his neck to finish him off, and he pointed us to the next clue.

The next obstacle took us to the Fairy Queen's shrine. We had to cross Naiad Pond in order to reach it. As the Fairy Queen only allows those whom she chooses to tread on her Shrine, we waited at the bottom of the stairs and sent up one girl at a time, hoping to be allowed entrance. A horn would blow every time someone was rejected, and we told them to get down quickly before she turned them to dandelion fluff. Finally, Irelynd, our last Knight, was chosen, and bells rung to show that the Fairy Queen approved. She had to collect magic pebbles from the foot of the Fairy Shrine statue which would help us defeat Elphira, the Evil Hamadryad that was holding Fablehaven hostage with her Shadow Plague.

Irelynd tossing down pebbles after recovering the next clue left there.

Savannah was Elphira, defending her tree. To simulate the Shadow Plague, we played Freeze tag; the girls had to put their magic pebble at the base of the tree, which would kill it when they had all been put there. If Elphira touched them, they were frozen, and could only be unfrozen by Irelynd, who was endowed with magic from the Fairy Queen. Savannah and Irelynd couldn't touch each other. This sounded good in theory, but the girls didn't get the concept that when frozen they couldn't move. I alloted 10+ minutes for the game; it was over in 3.

Elphira in the first phase of the death throes. We pinned shredded black fabric on her to imitate the floating tendrils she has in the book.

Our next clue, retrieved from Elphira's tree, took us to Wyrmroost, where we had to defeat Navarog, the mighty dragon. Scott made the dragon's head from paper mache. I was so pleased with how it turned out. The idea was to make the playhouse look like the body of a dragon, but we ran out of time and energy. We had 2 kids sitting behind the head using an air horn for the dragon's shreaking, and spraying silly string out his mouth to simulate fire. The original idea was to have the girls armed with water guns to put the fire out, but they had been discontinued from the dollar store the week before I tried to buy them. So, upon panicking when I realized I had forgotten an important part, Scott improvised and told the girls they had to tickle the dragon on the tail region (the slide was his tail), and he'd die.

Instead of trying to avoid the "fire", they all tried to catch some. Imaginations were thin at this point:)

After slaying Navarog, he released the Dragon's Egg, the dragon's most prized possession and containing a powerful item inside. Again, this was paper mache that we painted and then I glitter sprayed it. It really did look like a real, amphibious egg after we were done with it. This was the part of the party that I was most excited about. The girls were to break open the egg to find the powerful item inside. This was hard for me to watch them destroy our hard work and genius:)

Inside was the horn of a unicorn and another clue. I had forgotten to include the clue when we were closing over the original hole, so I had to be sneaky and throw the clue down when Irelynd broke open the egg, pretending it was there the whole time. No one was the wiser. The clue instructed them to go to the dungeons of Fablehaven, where the time-traveling chest would only be there for 2 hours today and again 6 months later. The unicorn horn would unlock the chest where the artifact was hidden.

They all rushed to the basement to find the chest. Irelynd unlocks it with a touch of the horn.

Inside was the Chronometer (a repurposed Liahona from a FHE 2 years ago). When Irelynd spun the dial, Patton Burgess appeared. I didn't get a picture of Scott dressed as Patton. He wore a dollar cowboy hat and tan shirt. He told the kids he was the caretaker of Fablehaven from 1912, and he'd come from the past, and would take the Chronometer home with him to keep it safe from the Sphynx. He gave them favor bags as a way to say thank you, and then departed. I led the kids back upstairs for a feast, prepared for them by the Fablehaven brownies.

This was one of the treat bags. The contents are in the picture above. It included a pixie pod which, when bitten on, would grow to life-size and envelop the biter to protect them from danger (I made fortune cookies using Martha Stewart's recipe, dyed green and shaped to resemble a large pea pod.); a gold coin donated by Nero from his stash; some magic rocks; and chocolate made from Viola's magic cow milk so they could discern creatures after they left the preserve. The idea for this came from My Party Bug.

These flowers came from my mom's yard. Aren't they beautiful? They were part of the table setting for the feast in our backyard. The weather was perfect for the occasion.

I had a really hard time deciding how to set the table, but settled on a fairy theme with greens and pinks as the main colors.

Happy Birthday Irelynd!

This was my crew of helpers: Lily, Savannah, Chloe, and Ethan.

Keaton found an unattended cupcake on the table and wouldn't let anyone touch the topper in his mouth. He had a great time!

This party was a ton of work, and didn't go off exactly as I had planned, but I had a fun time trying to recreate the book. There are very few ideas to pull from off the internet, so I had to come up with my own. It stretched my creativity, but I was mostly pleased with how it came off. We had a lot of dead time in between some of the activities, so if I were to do this again, I would plan better to make it flow more smoothly. But I think the kids had a fun time.