Decorations

We needed several snitches for the party.. two at least for when we play Muggle Quidditch, but I also wanted some for decoration in the house. I bought some styrofoam balls, gold paint, and white feathers. I'm not entirely sure I like the way the gold paint turned out, but it's good enough.



We're also using a lot of books for props. Mainly I'm covering our regular books with paper (I'll post more about that later), but I also wanted a Monster Book of Monsters. I used a cereal box and some fake fur I got at the fabric store. The 'pages' of the book is just felt, as are the teeth. Hot glued some googly eyes on, and viola!

Diagon Alley

When guests first arrived, they were brought down to Diagon Alley. I had removed most of the toys from our playroom (dumped them in my bedroom) and set up the shops. The first stop was Gringotts, where they got to pick up their Galleons. The coins are pirate coins from Oriental Trading, and the little bags were from Michael's (in the wedding section).





Then they went to Madam Malkin's, where they bought robes (the little cards say Small and Large in HP font) and hats. The robes are men's black t-shirts cut straight up the front. The hats were from the dollar section at Target around Halloween.





Next was Ollivander's, the most anticipated shop. We didn't do a wand choosing ceremony, rather we just let them try out all the wands and decide which they liked best. The boxes are spaghetti boxes covered in contact paper, with the length, wood, and core written on them. The wands were dowels with handles made of Sculpey (sorry, don't have a pic of the wands).





Then they picked up their cauldrons. These were from Oriental Trading, I think part of the St. Patrick's Day section.





The kids really enjoyed shopping in Diagon Alley. They had to pay me one coin for each thing they bought, then the rest of their money was to be spent in Honeydukes.

For the signs.. I got plaques from AC Moore for a few dollars each and used acrylic paints. For the most part, I used images from Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter as inspiration.

Muggle Quidditch

The one activity Colwyn insisted we do at his party was Quidditch. So we found the rules for Muggle Quidditch and decided to give it a try. We had one red kickball that was the Quaffle, two smaller balls that were the Bludgers, and a Golden Snitch. At first we just put the Snitch behind the goalposts, which were two hula hoops hung from trees. But that proved way too easy.. much more fun was having an actual person be the Snitch and run around, trying to dodge the seekers. All of the positions were the same (chaser, beater, keeper, seeker). If you got hit by a Bludger, you had to drop the Quaffle if you were holding it and freeze for 10 seconds.

We played several times. We didn't keep score because there was way too much going on. It was barely controlled chaos, but a LOT of fun.

The Food

Here's the cake. Harry is made out of gum paste, which I will never work with again. The only upside was that I got the decoration done in advance, so I wasn't up until 3am the night before the party doing the cake, like I usually am.



After our activities were done, the kids got to go to Honeydukes. We had Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (several boxes of Beanbozzled Jelly Bellies mixed with regular ones). Chocolate frogs that a friend of my husband's made (thanks!). I also made cockroach clusters (little heaps of pretzels covered in chocolate) and peppermint toads (white chocolate toads filled with peppermint buttercream). Some lemon drops rounded out the offerings.



The Leaky Cauldron offered bat wings (chicken wings from a local BBQ place), Molly Weasley's Meat Pies (my husband made these), parchment scrolls (wraps from the grocery store), and fruit wands (fruit kabobs).

The Sorting

I created a sorting hat out of poster board. I made a cone and then a donut shape and taped them together. Then I used brown flannel I had left over from some Jedi robes I made, along with some spray adhesive and fabric stiffener.



Then I arranged the house scarves on one of our play stands.



I hid the receiver of our baby monitor amidst the scarves. My husband had the transmitter in our bedroom along with a script for the sorting. In hindsight, we should have used phones set on speaker because I had call out the kids' names really loudly so he could hear them in our room and know which lines to speak.

Divination

One activity that we thought was going to be a flop was actually a big hit. We made folded fortune tellers, sometimes called 'cootie catchers.' I folded them all in advance on sturdy, brightly colored cardstock. Then I printed out labels with the four Houses, and lots of fortunes. The four house labels get stuck on the outside. Then on the inside, you write numbers 1-8. The on the flaps, the kids affixed whichever fortunes they liked best. These are some of the fortunes we used:

Due to a tragic transfiguration error, you will spend several years of your life as a sausage.

You will be stampeded by a herd of raging hippogriffs.

A Basilisk will escape and hide in your plumbing. Beware long baths.

Congratulations! You will be drafted as the next Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Way to go! During Astronomy class, you will discover a new planet which will be named for you.

You will fall in love with a Centaur and move to a tree house in the Forbidden Forest.

The Weasley brothers will hire you to test their new joke shop products. You will never be the same!

You will live a very long life, but as a werewolf. Beware of full moons!

Congratulations! You will win the next Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw!

You’ll find out the hard way that Acromantula venom is not a good cure for a runny nose.

You’ll catch the Snitch and win the Quidditch Cup for your house!

You’ll get prime seats at the next Quidditch World Cup, but you’ll have to perform as the mascot!

You’ll come in first place in the All-New-England Wizard Chess Championship!

You’ll marry a Weasley and have eleven children.

While vacationing in Sweden, you’ll spot a real Crumple-Horned Snorkack, but nobody will believe you.

You’ll win a life-time supply of Fizzing Whizzbees! Don’t forget to share!

Beware! A boggart has just taken up residence under your bed.

Bad luck, a troll just smashed your potions homework to smithereens.

Educational Decree 30 prohibits students from eating birthday cake.

Terrible news! A polyjuice potion mishap will leave you with a long, furry tail.

Lucky you! Mrs. Weasley has remembered to knit a sweater just for you! Watch for her owl!

You'll find your true friends in Slytherin.

Someone will try to slip you a love potion! Constant vigilance!

You will receive top grades and be made a prefect! Great job!

You will accidentally get hit by an Engorgement Charm - your nose will never look the same!

You'll get in trouble for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat.

Potions Class

Potions class was a huge hit. Nobody wanted to stop and move onto the next class.

I bought these bottles from AC Moore and created some labels for them:



We filled these with vinegar dyed different colors. Here was the setup before the class started. The mason jars have stuff from Target's Halloween section: plastic skulls and hands, rubber rats and bats. I wasn't intending for the kids to add those to their potions, but they did.



Some of the ingredients are dry barley for beetle eyes, golden raisins for shrivel figs, gummy worms for flobberworms, lemonade mix for crystallized dragon tears, Pop Rocks for powdered root of asphodel, lemon peel for boomslang skin, dried cherries for hinkypunk hearts. Then there was the necessary baking soda, labeled 'powdered unicorn horn.' The kids loved watching their potions fizz when we added the powdered unicorn horn at the end.

I bought plastic cauldrons for the kids to use.. they're small, but I think it was better that way.