It's a Harry Potter B'day Party

Note: this is a lengthy post!

On the occasion of our friend Grace's 10th birthday, the PBK Party Planners (Patti, Bruce and Katie... and friends) put on a fabulous Harry Potter themed party on Sunday, October 2. Several months ago, Grace and her mom stopped by for a "party consultation." Grace had some very specific ideas about what kinds of things she wanted to do at the party, like a sorting hat "ceremony," perhaps a scavenger hunt, Quidditch... We put on our thinking caps to come up with a grand plan. It didn't hurt that Katie and I went to Orlando's new Wizarding World of Harry Potter in August. We picked up some ideas there too.

I'll apologize in advance if you are reading this and have not read any of the HP books or seen any of the movies and don't have a clue about any of this. I guess just go with it and I'll try to fill in a few blanks.

The entrance to Hogsmeade in the Orlando Park. Hogsmeade is a town near the Hogwarts Castle. 

 The VERY cool Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride.
Hopefully you don't get motion sickness!

Cauldron Cakes in Honeydukes at Universal Studios.

 The first thing that needed to be done for this party was, of course, send invitations.

Being the over-the-top party planners that we are, we had a bit of work to do in our workshop before the guests arrived. Our costume shop at the high school revealed a bunch of props that would work for Platform 9-3/4. Plus all those years of dress up resulted in a deep costume box in the garage.

We needed a sorting hat! Bruce kept asking what my plan was. He finally took matters into his own hands and sat down with the fabric scrap box, a glue gun and other items and made his own hat. (When the new wizards first arrive at Hogwarts, they are sorted into one of four houses where they live for their entire time they are at the school. Throughout the school year, competitions are held, houses are awarded points, points can be added or deducted for a variety of reasons individually as well, and at the end of the school year the house with the most points wins... free brownies for everyone... or something like that... not really.)

Props were made...

 Bruce building the mailbox... more pics on that later...

 My version of golden snitches. Note: spray paint and styrofoam balls don't like each other!

We had to think of way to mark and collect house points. I took a mason jar, and put a squirt of food color in the bottom of each one corresponding to that house's color: Gryffindor - Red; Ravenclaw - Blue; Hufflepuff - Yellow; Slytherin - Green. As the kids received points during the party, we'd fill the jars with water in varying amounts. First place - One cup of water; 2nd place - 3/4 cup of water, etc.

Bruce worked on putting together a "potions relay," so he collected some scary items from the yard -- womping willow moss, dried wolfsbane berry (pinecones), bat wing leaves (don't those LOOK like dried bat wings!?)

Staging the house, I hung this sign inside the front door. It spun on a string, which actually worked well if you are using the teleportation spell and don't know WHERE you'll end up!

This sign was above our door. I had taken a photo of the one in Universal Studios and then Photoshopped out all the tourists. Thanks to my sister for teaching me PS skills all those years ago! :-)

My craft room is heavy with supplies, which helped add to the HP atmosphere. Note the time-turner in the middle of the photo. We brought that back from Orlando. (A time-turner is a magical object used for short-term time travel.)

Based on the cakes we saw in Orlando, I thought my cauldron cakes turned out adorable. Upside down chocolate cupcakes, the bottoms are dipped in ganache. A few chocolate chips were pushed into the soft ganache to give little legs for the cakes to sit on. I hollowed out a little of the top of the cake to give room for the marshmallow cream.

 Piping the chocolate handles for the cakes.

One of the party favors: I made bookmarks for the kids based on their house.

Footsteps from the Marauder's Map.

Katie and friend Tanner helping to prepare a couple of the "events."

Grace's mom and dad arrived (and of course the birthday girl) and we finished up our food prep. We made fruit "wands" (fruit on skewers)...

... prepped mini pizzas, and Grace's dad made Butter Beer (many recipes abound -- ours was a combination of cream soda, caramel sauce and other "secret" ingredients).

We were finally ready for the party to begin! We knew that all the kids wouldn't be arriving at the same time, and since the sorting hat ceremony needed to be done first, we entertained the guests with the board game Harry Potter Scene It until the whole group had arrived. Katie and Friends (thank you Tanner and Erin) were great Junior Wizards and we couldn't have pulled off the party without them.

A total of seven kids came to the party, but one arrived a bit later due to other obligations. We did go ahead with taking photos...

I'm not exactly sure why she was mock-screaming, but I thought it was so funny that I made them all do it...

(So... see the mailbox?  In the first HP movie, when Harry first gets invited to come to Hogwarts, his uncle and aunt (with whom he is living) can't stand the thought that he is a wizard. Harry receives his invitation by Owl (an owl flies over the house and drops the letter in through the mail slot in the door). The uncle rips it up, but pretty soon the owls are relentless and hundreds of letters are arriving... coming down the chimney into the house and coming through every nook and cranny. I wanted to make some kind of cool prop that the kids would see when they arrived. I made about 50 envelopes, stuck some in the bushes, they were streaming out of the mailbox and all over the ground. The coolest part... we burned a CD with the HP theme song on it, and it was on a little player inside the mailbox, so as the kids arrived at the party, they could hear the music coming out of the mailbox.)

Birthday girl Grace. The owl is Katie's from years ago, but the neat old suitcases and bird cage came from school.

Some kids came dressed up.

Clearly we had to figure out a clever way to handle the sorting hat scene. Before the party, I had Grace's mom tell me a little about each guest. I typed a sheet with their name and a few characteristics about the kids -- fast, smart, athletic, funny. I hung the sheet on the wall in the garage. While the kids were finishing up Scene It, Bruce called my cell phone from his. I put my cell phone on speaker phone mode INSIDE the hat, and then set it on the stool. We called the kids to the landing, had them all sit down, and I told them they were going to be sorted into houses. (Bruce was in the garage on his cell phone...) He and I had worked out that I would call each kid's name, and once they were seated on the stool with the hat on their head I would say "there you go," so he knew they were all ready. For example, I would say "Grace, come on up and sit on the stool...... There you go."  He then would look at the sheet on the wall and say "Graaacceee (really drawn out and deep voice), Yeeesssss. A very smart girl. Likes to play soccer...   What house would be best for Grace?   GRYFFINDOR!"  He really drew it out for the kids... sometimes saying one house, then changing his mind. I think the kids had a lot of fun with that. See Grace in the next picture with her hands up high, excited that this girl was just sorted into the same house. Didn't hurt that total ham ME was really making a big deal about each sort. haha

We sorted six kids - two each into Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. We reserved Slytherin for Evan since he was coming late. Then we began some activities.

Grace had very specifically requested Quidditch. (Quidditch is a wizarding sport played on broomsticks. It is the most popular game among wizards and witches, and, according to Rubeus Hagrid, the equivalent to Muggles' passion for football.)

Bruce came up with a modified Quidditch game where the kids would use brooms to push balls through a course he made up in our side yard. Upside down wheelbarrows, piles of leaves, Bocce ball obstacles, hoops... I, of course, had to demonstrate.

 

 

Ravenclaw played Gryffindor, Gryffindor played Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw played Hufflepuff, then points were totaled and awarded accordingly.

 

 Ravenclaw is in the lead!

Time out for musical chairs -- of course accompanied by HP music!

The last guest has now arrived, and Evan is in Slytherin House.

Next up: Potions Relay. This was truly awesome. 

We had the idea (ok -- total credit goes to clever Bruce. He came up with the whole idea) of a Potions Relay, whereby the kids in each house would take turns running back and forth in the yard between two stations. Tables were set up at one end of the yard with Potion Jars. The kids had to run to the other end of the yard to a Potion Table, collect an item on their recipe card, run back to the Potion Jar, put that item in the jar, then the next kid would run back to the table for the next item.

I had chatted with one of the chemistry teachers at school (Thanks Jonathan!) for ideas on some items that would "react" with each other. I was looking for something that would bubble over when mixed with something else. The final item the kids would put into their jar would react with something already IN the jar, so it would be VERY obvious who the winning team was.

First off, the Wizard explains the game. Each team is given their recipe card. 

(The ground baslisk fang was yeast and the mandrake juice was hydrogen peroxide.)

 The teams start out at the Potion Jar station.

 Ready, set...

 ... GO!

 And they're off... and Ravenclaw is in the lead, but Slytherin is close behind...

 Tanner explains one of the items in the recipe.

 This was priceless, the expression on their faces. And this WASN'T staged!

 I love Katie and Tanner laughing in the background!

That was SO awesome!

How are those house points coming along...?

Grace seems to be having a lot of fun.

Time out for some chow!

 Fruit wands.

 Butter beer.

Time for more FUN! Next up is the Magical Objects Hunt...

 Once again the Wizard gathers the kids to explain the rules.

Off they go to find their list. The teams were staggered so they weren't looking for the same items at the same location at the same time.

Maybe hiding in a pile of leaves...?

What is hanging in the tree?

 What could be near the Lamp Post?

Nothing would be under a wheelbarrow – would it?

 

There seems to be a missing item!

 House points waiting to be updated for the final tally.

 Slytherin makes sure the Wizard correctly awards points.

 It is pretty close between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff!

 Ravenclaw seems to be disputing some points!

 Ravenclaw is the WINNER!

The party is over... time to go...

 

(On the left) Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans including Watermelon, Pear, Ketchup, Blueberry, Cheese, Pizza, Banana, Marshmallow, Sausage, Onion, Wild Cherry, Mashed Potatoes, Cinnamon, Gravy, Fish, Cranberry & Apple, Peach, Pink Grapefruit, Pepper and Lemon.

 

 Grace at the end of her awesome Harry Potter party,
sporting her new Gryffindor shirt from Orlando.

That's it folks! From start to finish, the party lasted two hours. It was busy, non-stop fun. We hope the kids will remember the fun time they had for a long time...
the wizards must now retire to the castle for some recuperation!