Before getting to us the girls had to get through the "devil's snare"!
We set up the front with signs for Kings Cross Station and Platform 9 3/4.
Thank you Mamaw Mary for the lovely BIG sharpie! It worked great.
A blog called Just Sweet and Simple led me to this sign and a couple of others that I used. They also did a Harry Potter party but went over the top. Once you start looking on the internet LOTS of people do these to extremes we didn't even begin to reach!
Then we made the "doorway" for platform 9 3/4. In the book you have to sort of slide through a brick wall. Something that is easy if you are a wizard and impossible for the Muggles!
Brian came up with this idea and set it up with Maddie! The kids loved going through it.
Once everyone had arrived we had a sorting ceremony. This was for fun. We didn't break up into houses at all.....there were only 5 girls so that didn't make sense but they loved having a "house". I found house crests online, printed out copies and put them all in a bag. The girls sat on the stool with the "sorting hat" and pulled a house out of the bag.
Here is "Head Girl" Maddie!
After that they were given a "house tie". This was made from felt with a pin back on it!
Then Olivander (aka Daddy Brian) gave each of them a wand. The wands were an idea I came up with this week while out in the yard with the day care kids. I dug around and came up with enough sticks for each girl. Then Brian took over and came up with a type of wood and a "core" for each one. We attached a note with the information to each wand. Maddie chose which wand she thought would go with each guest but Brian passed them all out. Here is what he came up with--they are pretty creative I think!
Ash with dragon scale core
Oak with hawk feather core
Vine with crocus flower core
Elder with sunflower core (Maddie's!)
Reed with ostrich feather core
After everyone was sorted we discovered a note from Dumbledore!
He sent the girls on a quest to find some things to help celebrate Maddie's birthday. The first stop? Hagrid's Hut!
Brian pulled this off! I think it came out pretty good! We used the playhouse frame and attached cardboard. Then Brian used spray adhesive and attached sticks etc to make it look more "Hagridish"
The inside was set up by Maddie. The next note was in a wooden box in the basket.
That sent them to The Forbidden Forest!
The basket contained kits to make owls. More on that in a bit!
This spot sent them to the Whomping Willow.
Or maybe the apple tree.....
This note said to find Honeydukes for a treat!
Chocolate frogs, Bernie Botts Every Flavor Beans and Chocolate Pretzel Wands!
I snuck the cauldron with goodies onto the front porch while they were visiting Hagrid. We are fortunate that Maddie's birthday is at the time when the stores are getting ready for Halloween! It made finding some things a lot easier!
At Honeydukes there was a message from Minerva McGonagall to get back to their dormitories AT ONCE they were out of bounds. When we got back inside we made owls out of yarn. You make a pompom then turn the pompom into an owl with googly eyes and a felt beak. All the girls had fun with it and several had fun going the extra mile to decorate their owl with fun stuff.
I tried several times to get a picture without hands! It just didn't work, they loved the owls and wouldn't stop touching them.
Several of the parties I read about held "classes" in Hogwarts themes like potion making and transfiguration. This was just a bit too much for me! We plan and conduct class here all the time and that just didn't seem like fun to us! I guess this could've been a lesson in transfiguration though since we started with a piece of yarn and ended up with an owl. After this the girls played Harry Potter for quite a while in the backyard. I planned for too much time I guess but they played together really well. It was so nice to see! And they were having fun, which is the main point here!
Then we had pizza with pumpkin juice, got into jammies and had cauldron cakes with butterbeer!
the table!
Cauldron cakes!
butterbeer in a frosted mug--I got the mugs from the dollar store and each girl got to bring it home.
I got the idea for the cauldron cakes from Sugar Bean Bakers. I didn't use her recipe but did use the idea of the chocolate licorice. We did use her recipe for butterbeer though and it came out great!
After that we wound down to watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone before everyone went home. They all got a goodie bag! I made the owls but the felt bag itself came from Target.
We had a great time and hope the girls did too!
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