A Little Bit of Magic . . .

One of the things that I love about having 5 kiddos, is that each one is unique. They each have different interests and different things to contribute to our family. Over the years I have loved to see Rachel's love of books grow right along with her imagination. If she could, I believe Rachel would live in a world of fantasy & magic. So it was no wonder that for her 11th birthday I just had to throw a Harry Potter Birthday Party. 

 

It was going to be simple . . . but really. . . how do you attempt to reenact an evening at Hogwarts and keep it simple? I just couldn't . . . thanks to Pinterest for inspiration, how to's & printables, I believe I had as much fun planning the party as Rachel and her friends had at the party!

 

INVITES:

Hogwarts acceptance letters delivered by owl of course 

Rachel was just a little excited to deliver the owls

Pass through platform 9 3/4
and
 welcome aboard the HOGWARTS EXPRESS!

Every good witch or wizard needs a wand, and as I was unable to have the Hogwarts Express travel to Diagon Alley, the girls each made their own magic wand.

 

Next it was time to be sorted into houses . . .

With the students all sorted into their houses we were ready for the "Welcome Feast", complete with floating candles in the Great Hall!

On the Menu: drumsticks, corn on the cob, biscuits (per request of the birthday girl), chocolate covered strawberries, pumpkin pie tarts and of course Butterbear!

 

As I planned the party the thing I looked forward to the most was a surprise visit from Hagrid to deliver the birthday cake! Rachel indeed was surprised to say the least.

The candles I purchased from Fred & George's joke shop made everyone smile as they sparked and relit time and time again.

 

After tummies were full, it was time for the students to begin classes; first was Care of Magical Creatures where they helped hatch baby owls (origami owls) followed by a game of Quidditch. Unfortunately I was having too much fun playing the parts of Professor of Magical Creatures & Madam Hooch to get any pictures of those classes. Note to self: next time  ask a friend come and be the photographer.

 

The last class of the evening was potions . . . The students brewed Restorative Mandrake Draught (so those poor students could be unpetrified after seeing the basilisk), learned how spiders are afraid of basilisks & created some Exploding Elixir. . . I knew this would be a favorite!

 At the end of class each student chose a pre-brewed potion to take home & use as needed.

To end our evening the students went shopping at Honeyduke's Sweet Shop . . . One of the girls who was quite the Harry Potter expert (she's 10 & has read all 7 books, 3 times) said, "But we don't have permission slips to go to Hogsmeed." I assured her that by virtue of her parents dropping her off, she was allowed to attend the field trip to Hogsmeed. . . 

. . . they each enjoyed sampling an assortment of magical candy . . .

. . .including Berty Botts Every Flavour Beans, chocolate so they would be prepared for a Dementor Attack . . .

. . .and of course a chocolate frog . . .

. . .before it hopped away! 

 

As I was placing the cute little froggies into their boxes, my sweet little house elf, Jacob, kept setting the frogs free . . .right into his mouth! In fact not long before the party was to start I looked over at my pretty little Honeydukes display & noticed we were missing several boxes of chocolate frogs. What?!?! We quickly hunted Jacob down and found a pile of empty frog boxes on the couch. Thank goodness I had made extra frogs.

 

I could not have carried out this grand party without the help of my House Elves (Erica & Hillary) &  Flich (Paul; he had hurt his knee and was hobbling around so Rachel choose which character he was representing). 

 

It was wonderful to step into the world of magic for an evening and share this magic with Rachel's friends as we celebrated her birthday!