We dug out our Harry Potter supplies for Max's party day. We were celebrating his EIGHTH birthday with lots of friends. Everyone who knows me knows what a fan I am of HP, and I love that my guys are too. We had the best time planning the party around the theme. All of Max's pals were impressed and had a blast!
We turned the dining room into Honeydukes Sweet Shoppe. Each boy got to "shop" for candy at the end of the party. We had all the treats mentioned in the books: Acid Pops, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, Lemon Drops, Droobles Best Blowing Gum, etc.
I made and packaged the Chocolate frogs, Cockroach Clusters and Peppermint Toads. When the party was over I asked Max if he had fun. He said "You are the best Mommy in the world. No other Mommy would make a Honeydukes." That pretty much made it worth all the work put into it!
We turned the backyard into a mini Diagon Alley with activities for the kids to do. Each kid made a wand at Ollivanders; a animal puppet at the Magical Menagerie, a bookmark at Florish and Blotts and a golden snitch at Quality Quiddich Supplies. Of course the wands were the favorites and they had tons of fun with them. At one point it got a tad rowdy (12 second grade boys, need I say more?), and Jason said "Oh nice. Give them sticks and turn them loose to play." There was a bit of play that was closer to fencing, so I had to police it a bit. The only injury of the day occured when Sam poken Max in the eye with a wand. Max had a bit of a "mouse" the next day.
Max is hanging out at the book store. Jake's favorite thing I made was the "Monster Book of Monsters" .
Each partygoer started at the Three Broomsticks for drinks. They were all standing around drinking their "butterbeer" (which was cream soda and root beer) and one boy said "are we drunk yet?" Whoops! I made sure to explain to all the parents that it was SODA.
Every boy visited the Sorting Hat to determine which Hogwarts house they would be in for the day. There was only one unhappy customer on this. One of Max's best friends is a big HP fan and he pulled out Slytherin. Before the tears started, we let him switch. They then wore little ties to denote to which house they belonged.
Max wanted a Knight Bus cake to go with the party. We kept it pretty simple, but had a blast with the purple frosting. Everyone had a super purple tongue for a while.
Max had a great time playing with his friends for the day. He really enjoyed pretending and getting into the theme. Jake was my helper for the day and he was a riot. He really had no patience for the rowdier boys attending. We played games based on the Hogwarts classes. Mixed drinks up for Potions, guessed how many jelly beans in a jar for Devination and had to get a hula hoop around the dementor for a game we called Expecto Patronum. Each boy got to plant a little seed for Herbology class. Some boys were bouncing around and dropped their seeds. When they asked for another, Jake said "too bad! you were messing around." I had to step in and give out seeds. The funny part is at the end of the day the younger boys were all hero worshipping Jake.
We were just so proud of Max and how gracious and charming he was with all of his guests. He is such a friendly boy and really enjoys his friends. One mom told me that Max and four of the boys who came (who are his closest friends) had made a pact to be friends all the way through to high school. So three years down, ten more to go!
Jake painted his car green. He put a circle with a lightning bolt. We named it "The Lightning Thief" (you can see that it was raining that night!) Max's was a pizza slice called "Max's Pizzeria Car"
Jake painted his car green. He put a circle with a lightning bolt. We named it "The Lightning Thief" (you can see that it was raining that night!) Max's was a pizza slice called "Max's Pizzeria Car"
